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Originally posted by KidD01


@thantor3 : Can't wait to hear your review on Metropolis

I saw "Metropolis" last night and wanted to briefly share my observations. To begin, the movie is beautifully rendered, as befits the talents of Rintaro, who has previously directed "X" and "Galaxy Express" and Kastuhiro Otomo, the screenwriter for "Akira". Apparently, a decision was made to keep the animation in the style of the originator of "Metropolis", Osamu Tezuka (Astro Boy). This could be described as something akin to early Disney in its styling. Not being a fan of retro-animation, I didn't care for this type of cutesy character design and it detracted from my enjoyment of the picture.

I have read many glowing reviews of this anime, but to be honest I found it somewhat disappointing. While the visuals were breathtaking, the rather inhibited pacing made it difficult to really allow yourself to be immersed in the story. The story itself did not explore themes that were particularly unique and I found the character development rather shallow, a flaw particularly apparent in the lack of emotional force in the dramatic conclusion. For example, I found some interesting parallels between the character of Tima and the character of Mima Kirigoe in "Perfect Blue", but because the character of Tima was less developed, I was more impacted by what happened to Mima than to Tima.

The soundtrack was well done, using several musical standards from the big band era of the late 20s to 40s, as well as an exceptional score of jazz. The song selected for the climax was used to particularly devastating effect. An interesting musical note is that Rintaro played bass clarinet with the orchestra for the soundtrack. The DVD has dual 5.1 surround options in Dolby Digital & DTS formats.

@Dottie-What didn't you like about NGE? I have a friend who said it was boring, but he only watched one episode and that was without having seen the ones leading up to it. I'm curious as to why you feel this way.

Here is some of my issues with it.

First, I really loath this secret organization have to stop evil invaders setup. I watch anime mostly because the plot or the characters arent always copy pasted from the default movie plot template.

Second, The characters really bug me. Why does everyone have huge psycological problems that makes them unable to react in even the most basic of situations. Characters without problems does ofcourse become boring but this level of complete inability to even tie thier shoe laces just makes everything unbeliveable. And I cant enjoy a movie/serie or whatever if I cant relate to one single character.

Third, The Dialogue doesnt make it more interesting. It consits mostly of thinngs like I... or Why... alternativly manical repeatings of a single sentence.

My favourite Anime Soundtrack, or more importantly song is the haunting one at the end of Bubblegum Crisis. That and the montage over the credits is quite impressive.

The NERV organisation is really only a justification for the important bit-the exploration of the main characters' psyche. This is the real point behind NGE, and it's what I liked about it as opposed to more shallow anime.
I like that they're all screw-ups. It makes them more human somehow, whereas someone like Jubei of Ninja Scroll fame, while a very cool character, doesn't really get a reaction either way. Even though Shinji annoyed me sometimes, I loved Rei and Misato, and Gendo was just awesome, the way he was so inhumanly cold all the time.

It was kind of ironic the way Toji, who was the only "normal" Eva pilot, got wiped out 1 episode after he was chosen for the job.

There's an anime which got a melancholic theme - but I kinda like like it anyway (Thanks Minerva, for providing me the translation last time ) the anime titled Boys Be..... most of theme song sung by Maeda Aki.