I Parry Everything, Dahlia in Bloom, & Vtuber Legend Anime
-
@arghc said in I Parry Everything, Dahlia in Bloom, & Vtuber Legend Anime:
Volf just mentioning the harpy battle was very disappointing, not to mention the still image montage of the dinner party and the reappearance of the window sill leaves (plus the top of the Green Tower shot) makes me think they're having budget issues or are just lazy?!? 8-)
Somehow the leaves have stayed green and not moved for months! I understand that the anime industry is tough and fundamentally based on limited animation techniques to speed up production (Thanks, Tezuka!). Still images are part of the medium. I also think you can overuse those stills and make them feel obtrusive.
Of course, the anime industry is always trying to cut corners and short labor. Budget issues by design. At least they got each episode out on time.
Lazy? Maybe "lack of vision" is better as it describes this entire adaptation.
I agree that not including the harpy battle is a "show, don't tell" fail. It's not 100% the best choice. Sometimes exposition gets the job done best. But c'mon, there was a harpy fight and we don't see it? We've never seen Volf fight? wth.
-
@Outinthegardener said in I Parry Everything, Dahlia in Bloom, & Vtuber Legend Anime:
I agree that not including the harpy battle is a "show, don't tell" fail. It's not 100% the best choice. Sometimes exposition gets the job done best. But c'mon, there was a harpy fight and we don't see it? We've never seen Volf fight? wth.
Puts on Irony filter Because this is obviously a romance series! Why have action in that! Removed for being unimportant!
barfs in her mouth just typing that about Dahlia
-
@NakamiJun said in I Parry Everything, Dahlia in Bloom, & Vtuber Legend Anime:
Then they introduce a complete new (because I don't remember a scene with a rainbow serpent scale) romance scene of Dahlia and Volf at a noble party dancing.
Thanks for clarifying that i didnt miss or completely forget some important part of the LN. I would have liked to see Wolf flying with the aid of the Sköll bracelet in an expedition though. :(
The anime doesnt seem to narrate a round story rather jumps from event to event. For someone who hasnt read the LN, I am not sure how much the anime alone will make sense.
The best parts (atleast, IMO) of magic toolmaking and monster hunting are cut out. So it is not really possible to appreciate how helpful Dahlia's tool are to the Monster Subjugation unit and why really Wolf and his team are gushing over her skills. -
Vtuber just aired its final episode, and I have mixed reviews. The speech about "becoming myself by committing to being a streamer" seems like the concluding thesis of the series' theme: What is personal identity, and what forms can it take, in the age of digital spectacle? The characters mostly interact digitally, only occasionally do they meet in person. The show never presents them as real bodies in space, only as digital avatars. In digital form, we can be free of the expectations of real life.
That said, their relationships and digital identities are bound by a common force; they're coworkers. They sing and dance for entertainment (and to sell advertising). The workplace has become their social bond- not a church, not shared hobbies, not the corner pub, not a family. We don't get a thematic exploration into their identities as workers, such as seeing a boss telling them what to do or judging their performance. It's sinister that "who I want to be" is defined by their job. Even if you are free to be a cute anime girl you remain wrapped up in the expectations of real life.
The show wavers between a thoughtful exploration of a theme, and a setting for anime comedy. The structure of the series is manzai. The characters are either performing or getting ready to perform or in company meetings. Character interactions fit into the manzai roles of the straight woman and the funny woman. As a result Vtuber Legend doesn't feel like an exciting new thing, but like the same old comedy program. Combining the new setting (vtubers) with the old formula (manzai) subsumes any commentary on Vtubing as an identity.
-
Dahlia was a horrible adaption. Just horrible. Did any one count how many time the leaves on the window shot was reused across the show?
There were so many ways they could have chosen to make this anime, and they had to go with one of the worst.
-
@Outinthegardener I still haven't watched the last like 4 or 5 episodes... xD
That said... As a Indie Vtuber a lot of it is about self expression. We get to visually express ourselves in almost any way we wish, there is a certain freedom in that... Like I did a stream the other day where I used Dynamic Lighting to look like I was there at a concert with the lights of the stage show flashing over me just like the rest of the crowd. And we can better control how much of ourselves we show to others. I'm much harder to dox than anyone that shows their face online and people only really know the information about me that I give them.
Sadly I don't think the way the anime really handles that to well, and they are corporate vtubers in Japan and not Indies. They don't have to worry about forming organic relationships with each other. They also work on the whole 'idol' concept that Japan can't let go of.
-
Because it's on topic for the Vtuber Legends conversation...
Iron Mouse, one of the biggest vtubers in the world, pissed off a bunch of streamers recently by reaching the most subbed person on Twitch. So they made comments like 'Why are people subbing to a picture' or 'Why are people subbing to a fictional character?'. This is what I mean about people often treating us as if we aren't 'real people' and that happened on Sept 23rd this year.
-
@NakamiJun That's people being people. If we're looking for a reason to see others as less than ourselves (jealousy or psychopathy or paranoia, etc) we'll find one. Whether that's streamers saying vtubers aren't real compared to them, or reality TV stars saying they're more real than streamers, or script actors>reality actors, stage>TV, on and on, until we get "Go two blocks over and those folks are strange!"
FWIW there's the Guy Debord idea that any media personality is a spectacle for real life. As soon as you make someone's image into a painting, or have them read the weather in front of the camera, or read about a fragment of their life in a tabloid, they're reduced to a representation of their self that is other/a smaller fragment than their material self.
You're right that "indie" is more free than "corporate," of course. You control more of the means of production, can decide to keep doing it if it's not profitable, etc. It's why indie art/entertainment generally takes more risks, and IMO is more interesting.
