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Capital Confusion – A Guide to Kyousougiga

(Note: This post contains spoilers from the 2011 and 2012 ONAs, as well as the current run of episodes 0, 1, and 2)

Kyousougiga (Capital Craze)started its life as a single ONA in 2011, followed by a series of five shorts in 2012. It was confusing and unclear, but had some terrific visual storytelling and art, and left people wanting more. Finally, Kyousougiga comes back as a full TV show, and incorporates parts of those previous ONAs to tell the story more coherently. However, there still seems to be a lot of confusion regarding the story and characters, especially since things are told very nonlinearly, and because there are many characters who share the same name (there is a reason for this). In my attempts to figure everything out I came up with a pretty good explanation of where things stand thus far, using those previous ONAs and the currently aired episodes – Episode 0, which is a slight rework of the original 2011 ONA, and episodes 1 and 2 of the new TV show. read more

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Attack on Titan Part V (Episodes 23-25): Wrap Up

 

Titan, but since these posts were less about describing and commenting on the actual plot and more about my personal impressions, I figured I would attempt some sort of wrap up and general thoughts  on the show.

First off, the final arc was actually pretty damned good (aside from containing one of the least surprising reveals in recent memory), and in most aspects it harkened back to the show’s first several episodes, which were probably the strongest. The level of drama and action really reached a crescendo at the end, which is a positive thing. You never want a show like this to peak too soon and then meander its way to the finish line. It started strong and ended strong, and I think that left a good final impression on people (myself included) and began the painstaking countdown to season 2, which, as manga readers have informed me, could take quite a while. Isayama’s manga doesn’t rush the story – which is also clearly evident by the pacing of the anime – so there simply isn’t enough source material at this point. The only problem is that the show’s massive popularity could lead to an anime that departs from the manga plot and proceeds down its own path. While this tactic could work, it often doesn’t, and the show has been so faithful to the original story that taking a different path could really change it in a fundamental way. read more

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Attack on Titan Part IV (Episodes 14-22): Remember the Titans

 

It’s been a while since my last Attack on Titan post. I keep wanting to sit down and write something about it, but I found that I just didn’t have an awful lot to say.

In that sense it is a bit of a weird show. Most other shows I watch provide a certain amount of material to discuss each week, but Titan is a bit different. It’s almost universally agreed that the pacing of this show is glacial, and sometimes 2 or 3 weeks will pass before a certain even is resolved, which leaves very little to discuss in each individual episode. I hear the manga has this similar kind of pacing, which in my mind is like that of a soap opera (as I’ve mentioned before). However, recent episodes put me in mind of old time serials as well, where one storyline would be spread across many episodes so that each one would feel like a fragment of one storyline as opposed to a self-contained episode. "Join us again, same Titan hour, same Titan channel, kids!" read more

neontasterby neontaster•
MG Sinanju Stein – Finished
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MG Sinanju Stein – Finished

After a long and frustrating process my MG Sinanju Stein is finally complete.

My Stein gave me a lot of grief, which was duly returned over the course of this build. I had initially intended for this kit to receive a paint job that, accidentally, matched the Hi-Nu colour scheme. I wanted to keep things simple but couldn’t decide on what colour to run with until I saw nrvblanco’s PG 00 Raiser WIP over on the Gundam Australia Forums. He mixed silver with blue to create a great looking colour which I tried to replicate. From there I add a bit of gray and the next thing I knew after plotting all the colours on Fury S12’s Stein designer I realized I had a MG Hi-Nu scheme going. read more

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Kotobukiya 1/100 Knights of Sidonia – Ichinanashiki Morito Tsugumori Hakugetsu Kai – Review

Damn, that’s a long ass title.

The "Ichinanashiki Morito Tsugumori Hakugetsu Kai" is the lead Guardian (mecha) from Tsutomu Nihei’s popular Knights of Sidonia manga (soon to be CGIhorific anime) piloted by lead character Nagate Tanikaze. It’s the first model from the series, is made by Kotobukiya, and retails for about $50 USD + S&H. At 1/100 scale she is anywhere from 8 to 11 inches tall depending on the positioning of the backpack.

I’ve read a bit of Knights of Sidonia, mainly to help support Vertical Publishing, so bear with me if I don’t have all of my terminology in order. read more

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MG RX-78-2 Gundam Ver. 3.0 – Review – Updated 5/16

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Welcome to my review of Bandai’s latest Master Grade Gundam model, the RX-78-2 Gundam Version 3.0. The redesigned kit takes after Bandai’s new and improved vision of the original Gundam, matching the giant statue in Tokyo and the previous Real Grade release. While it features a more traditional frame than the RG, the MG is, for better or worse, simply a scaled up version of its little brother.

I should point out that I don’t have a RG RX-78-2 so I can’t compare the two directly. While I could compare the RG and MG based on other RG kits I figure it be best to make most of my comparisons within the same product line. Though I will reiterate that the MG and RG look exactly alike (other than the size and some panel gap issues, more on that later), even down to the included markings. Between the Mega Size, Real Grade, and Master Grade it wouldn’t surprise me if Bandai re-released the Perfect Grade in this scheme as well… anyhow, I digress… read more

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Attack on Titan Part III (Episodes 5-13): Attack on Tighten

Ironically, my previous Attack on Titan posts were long but dealt with short mini-arcs, while this post will probably be shorter but deals with the longest arc in the history of anime.

It’s just that I don’t have a ton of stuff to say about Defense of Trost. It had a couple of major plot twists and some terrific emotional moments, but it was really drawn out both in terms of plot and production values. By the time we hit episode 13 (which was the ninth episode of the Trost arc), the telltale signs of an unfinished product were readily apparent. 13 clearly went to air with several sequences unanimated and masked by cutting away to static scenery shots while still hearing the sounds of the battle (the audio post production is probably tracked to unfinished visuals so you could still hear the sounds of what they animated, but the animation itself was absent). On that front it feels a little weird to judge it now, because clearly the home release will be at least somewhat better. Strangely enough, this same sort of thing happened last year with Psycho Pass, even forcing the creators to issue a public apology for the quality of episode 18, but in the case of Titan, I didn’t really see that type of outrage. read more

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Pre-Shading Experimentation

I haven’t been taking a break from modeling as much as slowly destroying one of the best kits Bandai has ever released, the Master Grade Zaku II 2.0. This one, specifically, is a Johnny Ridden version that’s been in various stages of completion since at least 2010. Just recently I decided it would be the perfect sacrifice for practicing new techniques and generating new tutorials. It was recently the testbed for The Army Painter primers, pla plating, option parts, and now, pre-shading. read more

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