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Anime What was the last anime you watched before posting in this thread?

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. Both seasons. It was recommended to me by Mary McGlynn, the voice actress of Motoko, as a good example of awesome badass lady. I agree with that sentiment.

It was a pretty good show that I felt was so deep with its message that I often had trouble keeping track of what was going on. Especially in the second season. However, I found it still to be highly interesting and thought provoking. The characters are also awesome and I love all of their voice actors. (Especially Batou. Richard Epcar <3)
 
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I finished up Shirobako! I was rather impressed with it. Through all the stress and antics, it managed to keep it real. I was able to connect much more with the workplace setting than with some other anime I've watched recently. I also really appreciated how much went into making even the plethora of minor characters uniquely designed. Even the ones who weren't based on real people felt like they very well could have been. Despite being so different, they all felt like they belonged, and these aspects really contributed to the atmosphere of every scene.

One thing I wished they balanced better was the individual stories and development of the main 5 girls. Obviously Aoi was the lead, but the remaining focus was sometimes misplaced, especially with Misa (not just her screen time, but her overall personality/motivations/etc. were flat in comparison). I am glad that Aoi was the focus though. She was simply likeable in all senses of the word, and following her closely through her struggles and triumphs was emotional, energizing, and fulfilling.

The true resolution of it all for me was the end of the penultimate episode. You can see Aoi come to the same realization that the viewer was able to just a couple of scenes earlier, and it is truly cathartic. It also gives an additional layer of symbolism to the final project they were working on (on top of the protagonist parallels).

Alongside all of that, Shirobako gave me a pretty cool glimpse into the creative and production processes behind anime, which has definitely changed my mindset for some things. I was watching Mob Psycho 100 the other day, and there was a scene where Mob accidentally rips a building into pieces, but then psychically fits all the pieces back together into a perfect reconstruction. When I realized his intentions, I was looking forward to a cool scene of floating debris being animated back together, but I was sorely disappointed to discover it was done in still-frames. Instead of raging, I caught myself thinking about all the possible things that could have happened during production to cause the studio to cut corners like that.

On the whole, Shirobako ended up being very insightful in both its themes and educational content, and for that, I'm definitely glad I took the time to watch it.
 
I've begun watching the Kara no Kyoukai series of movies, and finished the very first one last night.

First and foremost, the production value was spectacular. The art, animation, and sound were all something to behold. The backgrounds were truly awesome. The Type-Moon character designs were brought to life beautifully. My jaw actually dropped during one of the action sequences. The theme music and background music were exciting and full of Yuki Kajiura greatness. This all made it a really entertaining experience...even if I had no idea what was going on.

The story was told as if I was already very familiar with the characters and the setting, which was a bit jarring. I don't think it was a good move for a first installment. I'm sure I'll learn more as I progress, but considering these are movies that were released individually over a long period, I think episode one should have had some degree of self-contained exposition. I had to research the universe as a whole on the internet after watching it to even get a reasonable idea of the who, why, and how.

Definitely looking forward to more of this, though. Given the nature of the flaws, it can only go up from here.
 
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