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Giniro no Kami no Agito

by Mappy » Wed Oct 04, 2006 12:22 pm

This was last night's movie, and its distribution rights have been picked up by Madman (the company, not the minderjährigen mädchen maniac).

My opinion of it was that it perfectly distilled all that is good and bad about its producers, Gonzo, in 90 minutes. The animation is absolutely fantastic, eye candy of the highest order as has always tended to be Gonzo's strength. But on the other hand, the story was occasionally incoherent, the characters (and world) were poorly explained and their reactions to things were slightly off. It was like the studio was jumping around, shouting "look, Ma, we can do Ghibli" without doing the basic writing groundwork.

If Gonzo can fix these problems, however, then Ghibli will have a genuine rival on home soil.
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by Atory » Wed Oct 04, 2006 1:31 pm

Do you know if this was based on a previous story? To my understanding Ghibli base a lot of their films on famous books or a collection of folk tales.

If the next movie Gonzo makes is based off a good pre-existing storyline then it would succeed in being a rival.
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by Mappy » Wed Oct 04, 2006 2:04 pm

I know The Boy Who Saw the Wind was made by people at Ghibli as a service to the original novel's author (who was a Welshman living in Japan, I believe.... can't remember his name). That movie was awful. 100 minutes of "don't do fascism, it is bad".

Howl's Moving Castle is also, supposedly, based on the novel. I say supposedly because.... well.... Go read the novel and then watch the movie. You'll understand what I mean.

I'm not sure if Giniro no Kami no Agito is based on a novel, but if it was then the loss of decent backstory (which, at most, should have taken no more than an extra five minutes in runtime) can only be regarded as a major mistake on Gonzo's part. I know they tried with the flashbacks, but those flashbacks gave only the minutest fraction away and really didn't explain very much until the "villain" gave everything away near the end, and that's just sloppy.
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coffee spill incident?

by mbarron » Wed Oct 04, 2006 3:06 pm

Below follows a cultured review of Origin: Spirits of the Past. Or the unoffical title translation: "Why you shouldn't store eighteen litres of whiteout in the same room you store the master copy of the script."


TreeMAN: Go agito, become one with the forest.

<<Agito becomes one with the forest>>

GonzoStaff: What the Fu^K happened to the last seven pages of the script?

Agito: L00KZORZ, I'm a SUZP3R Saiyan.

<<Agito throws giant beer can at 80 foot mechanical spider>>

GonzoStaff: Stuff happens here.

<<Goons use Round-Up on Agito>>

GonzoStaff: Stuff happens here for 5-19 mins or so.

Goons: Shoot the Mountain!

<<Mountain loses 500hp!>>

<<Mountain level UP!>>

GonzoStaff: lets put some lava here, who doesn't like lava?

<<UnexplainedCharacter22: Punches Lava/Magma missile thing>>

GonzoStaff2: Have we forgotten something? I think it ryhmes with shot, like what the critics will do to us. P - L - something something?

GonzoStaff: Who cares, piss off while I make the credits look pretty.
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by Xenesis » Wed Oct 04, 2006 3:13 pm

I have to say that sums up what I got out of it succinctly.
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by Last Exile » Wed Oct 04, 2006 6:32 pm

Gonzo are still young as a studio and seem to be in need of some proper scriptwriters and character developers. Miyazaki was already doing great as a character director in Castle of Count Cagliostro and Sherlock Hound. However he already had about 20 years of experience then. So he was already seasoned by the time he partnered up with Ghibli. Shinichiro Watanabe did 10-15 years of character directing and mini jobs before he started doing Cowboy Bebop.

Ghibli has been heavily reliant on Miyazaki Sr. The jury is undecided about Miyazaki Jr (Goro) for now, however Sr went and saw Gedo Senki, decided he could not let his son beat him and decided not to retire after all. Should produce some interesting results.

Gonzo need to L2personnel better. Then things might be proper.
Disgusting...
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by stormy001 » Wed Oct 04, 2006 6:50 pm

Well, GONZO could have hired at least a film student to write a semblance of a script.

It is rather unfortunate that such well animated movie is based on incoherent plotting. It is like they hoping viewers to fill in the blanks, watching the movie. As far as I know, it is a sign of sloppy plotting.
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by Mappy » Thu Oct 05, 2006 2:23 am

Firstly, Ghibli was a brand-spanking new studio with a lot of newbies when they produced Future Boy Conan in 1978, even if the boss had almost 15 years of experience in the business.

Secondly, I'll always feel ripped off if I don't find a creepy little baby inside every kiwi fruit I buy from now on.

Thirdly, Barron managed to sum up this movie far better than everyone else here. 8)
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by Last Exile » Thu Oct 05, 2006 11:09 am

PS. Is Barron's post count using hacks?
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by Dhumahn » Thu Oct 05, 2006 1:13 pm

Hint: Yes...
"Jiiiiiiiiiiii......."
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by mbarron » Thu Oct 05, 2006 1:47 pm

Sir, how dare you slur my reputation.
Those posts are 100% authentic.
There were simply posted in a hidden forum located in the future, were Osmocote is the new world currency.
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by Mappy » Thu Oct 05, 2006 2:33 pm

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:lol:
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by Last Exile » Thu Oct 05, 2006 2:53 pm

So Barron is 'compensating' for something. ;)
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by Mappy » Thu Oct 05, 2006 2:56 pm

More likely he's trying to prove the pointlessness of trying to have the highest postcount here. As was the image. 8)
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by mbarron » Thu Oct 05, 2006 3:43 pm

My fire is bigger than yours!

8)
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by Mappy » Thu Oct 05, 2006 3:47 pm

mbarron wrote:My fire is bigger than yours!

8)


Is this a flamewar? 8)
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by Last Exile » Thu Oct 05, 2006 3:57 pm

Cute 666 at the front.
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by Ryan White » Thu Oct 05, 2006 4:05 pm

We can even make post counts go DOWN
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