#124 - Stories to be Told
Hello everybody! I was last here on October 2, eh? Oh boy...
400 Tiny Books and the Stories Within is coming along quite nicely. We are at 209 out of 400 Tiny Books completed. I released another Population: Xelanater entry titled Team Treen't Origins. Today was Thanksgiving and not only did I have lunch at my sister's place, I also finished reading The Complete Stories of Flannery O'Connor. Oh boy, you can tell that her writings are definitely from a long time ago. They are no longer deemed culturally appropriate by modern-day standards. Anyway, I have also seen the following anime:
- FLCL: Grunge
- Black Bullet
- FLCL: Shoegaze
- Vampire Knight
- Vampire Knight: Guilty
- Tesla Note
- And another re-watch of Waiting in the Summer
FLCL: Grunge was... disappointing. Most of it is comprised of backstory so that we understand who our characters are. Honestly, that would've worked better as a six-episode series so that we have plenty of time to be attached to the characters. Unfortunately, that did not happen. The focus was too spread out. This is also the only FLCL season to be entirely 3D CGI. If it was traditional 2D, it would've at least looked better. But, the 3D is not that bad. It's definitely the bottom of the barrel that is Ex-Arm. As for the story itself- it's mostly contained to one night from different perspectives. And the main event itself wasn't that interesting. Grunge just does a few things and tries to recreate some shots from the original OVAs, but it's almost entirely self-contained and not very substantial.
Then there's FLCL: Shoegaze. If I had my way, there would be no Grunge and Shoegaze would've been the whole six episodes. It takes place 10 years after Alternative, which I appreciate because it explains exactly what happened at the end of Alternative. But, Shoegaze was still underutilized. I did enjoy it more than Grunge because it was mainly focused on the two main characters, but the season as a whole was underutilized. In three episodes, the story told probably could've been reduced down to just two. But if they expanded upon the story in regards to sharing more about the 10-year jump and a couple more things right after the released Shoegaze story, it would feel more complete. I don't know if I explained that well, but it makes sense in my head.
As of now, I still want the entire FLCL series on Blu-ray. The original was released. Progressive and Alternative were also released, bundled together. And despite not really caring for Grunge, I still would like to physically own it along with Shoegaze. Those six total episodes should be enough to warrant at least a single-disc Blu-ray release with all six episodes. Anyway, Adult Swim said that Shoegaze will be the last FLCL season they work on. I would accept FLCL coming to an end here, except with the post-credits scene on Shoegaze which I won't spoil.
I hope that one day the original rights owners or whoever can have at least one more six-episode season that brings an absolutely satisfying end to the series. Shoegaze left some room for more story that should be told and I also think a way to the events from all five seasons together would be a good resting point. Truthfully, Alternative would have been a good place to be done with the series, but because of the randomness of Grunge along with the desire for more from Shoegaze, I do wish for a proper "celebration of life" for FLCL as the anime is finally put to rest, almost a quarter of a century later (assuming we get one around 2025).
Now for Black Bullet- I liked the series. It reminded me a bit of Guilty Crown, but not as brutal. It should be the other way around because Black Bullet was released first, even though I watched it afterward. I don't have much else to say about the series other than despite enjoying it, I probably would not watch it again. It has an absolutely epic ending song though. I am so glad it made it into Gaming Mix. In fact, because it's in GM is the only reason why I wanted to watch Black Bullet.
Vampire Knight is an interesting case for me. I watched the first two episodes of the series around 2012-2013. Why? Because I was looking up the [Godzilla] Kiryu mod for GTA San Andreas on the PC. It was still in development at the time. What does that have to do with Vampire Knight? One of the character's family name was Kiryu. Because of that, I happened to stumble upon information about the character Zero Kiryu when trying to find info about Kiryu from Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla.
Anyway, the series was alright but was kind of dramatic in the not fun way. The first season was pretty bland in my opinion because I wanted more action but the series called for more character drama. The second season, Guilty, was better though. Stuff started happening that seemed interesting to me, especially the final battle. But... it didn't last long. At 24 episodes in total, it wouldn't be too bad to rewatch. I don't know if I ever will though, but my cousin had an interesting story about how she watched it at 3AM with a fever... What a stranger connection she had with the series than I did.
Chronologically, I did my second viewing of Waiting in the Summer after Vampire Knight. Oh man, I didn't remember it being so good. The characters, the story, the art- it was all wonderfully made. I'm not a big romance/drama person, but I was totally rehooked. I already kind of knew what was going to happen from memory but boy was I invested in it again. In fact, even the OVA made me happy to watch again despite my previous memory thinking it was kind of boring. Maybe I just appreciated the series more this time compared to last time when I was fatigued from watching Please Teacher/Twins right before it. Anyway, this soft trilogy is definitely a series I want to pick up on Blu-ray, but buying the 36 episodes in total will definitely be a little on the pricier side compared to if I was just buying a single 13-episode series. But of course, I have to get them all together.
Tesla Note was stupid. It was quite the dumb fun that Ex-Arm didn't quite reach. Tesla Note is the fun type of stupid that I would definitely enjoy time and again. It is ridiculous from the strange story beats to the poor 3D CGI. But wait! The best part is the jerking movement from 3D to traditional 2D. It looked so bad! But what made it hilarious was the times they had 3D and 2D characters interacting with each other. I had good laughs with the series. My favorite part for sure was when cabin just EXPLODES in the most comedic ultra-low-budget way possible. I sent that clip to Milli and she found it to be hilarious.
Alright, I could ramble on about P:X Team Treen't Origins, but i's best y'all just watch the behind-the-scenes video for it. It's 20:18 and I'm ready for bed because I've been trying to go to bed earlier because I can't seem to wake up any later than around 06:30.
Tomorrow should be a fun day with cousins, and I am looking forward to it. Thank you all for reading. Bye!
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