Garo Makai Senki 22.
Mar. 12th, 2012 07:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alas_a_llamaI held off on writing this until the subbed version was out, in case Sigma said "I have been struck with a disease that makes me concoct terrible plans."
He didn't.
Dreeeeeaaaaaam teeeeeaaaaam.
No, seriously. I like Kouga well enough, but I also like seeing him out of the picture so that Leo, Jabi, Rekka, Rei and Kaoru can be awesome. And they all were, even though I had some problems with this episode.
So. Leo, Jabi and Rekka. I've said this before about the Makai Priests, but I like that they're all played by dancers, and that in fight scenes tend to be very dance-y and acrobatic, while the knights are often more straightforward. It works well here, even though I did find myself occasionally going "LEO JUST HIT. THE ROBOTS. WITH. YOUR. SWORD. NO TWIRLING. NO HIGH KICKS."
I wanted to see all three of them in a fight scene, but instead the Dreeeeeaaaaaam Teeeeeeaaaaam divided up almost immediately into Team Dude and Team Woman, leaving Leo making bedroom eyes at Rei and showing off, while Jabi, Rekka and Kaoru went and fought an evil butterfly woman.
We'll, um, we'll get to that. Soon.
Leo, did you - did you just block a sword with your arm?. Okay. Speaking of, how are you fighting? Episode 20 had you battered around by your brother, stabbed three times through the torso, stabbed through each of your limbs except your left arm, and then we saw no treatment except, bafflingly, a bandage being put around said left arm. Never mind, since your arms are apparently impervious to swords now anyway, I suppose that was just an inconvenience.
Wataru's Big Damn Heroes moment to save Team Dude is kind of ruined by the fact that his leather trousers appear to have split at the crotch. Ah. Good one, costuming department? Actually, let's talk about costuming quickly. You have your knights (except Leo) wearing tight leather trousers and long coats. I can think of no two pieces of clothing less suited for fighting. Not only can they now barely move their legs, but if they try they're going to end up tangled in their coats.
Leo is the only knight that's dressed at all practically. And he's not that practical! I'm just waiting for that big dangly talisman to whack him in the face!
Okay, onto Team Woman vs Madam Butterfly.
This fight scene was ... really odd. Really odd. Um, okay, firstly are we ever going to find out what was up with Gigio? I get that she's some kind of Horror-ish butterfly woman who works for Sigma, but you've told us literally nothing else. Did he build her?
But beyond that, this fight is just strange to watch. The dance-fighting and spells are very pretty and elegant and graceful, but the fight itself is just disorienting. The cinematography is - often really bizarre, and since they're fighting in a featureless mass of words (you really like that one, Amemiya, this is something like the sixth time you've used it), it's nearly impossible to figure out where the characters are meant to be in relation to each other.
Also, Gigio is creepy. Your villains are all so creepy this series, Amemiya - I mean, okay, KIBA in the first series was creepy in how human he was while still being completely off the deep end; and Legules was creepy in how implacable and unstoppable he seemed to be. But Sigma and Gigio are creepy in a whole different league, partly because there's something incredibly sexual about them. It's very much there with Sigma, both in his backstory and in the weird, hate-incesty way he interacts with Leo, but it's more overt with Gigio. The fight scene has some - really skeevy, uncomfortable moments from Gigio's end.
The standout scene from this episode is Kaoru snapping Kouga out of his Horror-induced funk. Just - everything about that scene is perfection. The acting is perfect, the pacing is great, there's barely any dialogue and that works really well, and the music. Just. That marching band version of 'Saviour in the Dark' is just amazing. To be honest, you, er, maybe should've ended the episode on that scene, because it kind of made everything after it look poor by comparison.
Giant mecha mammoth-spider assembling? Eh. It just feels less awesome after that scene.
On which note - giant mecha mammoth-spider assembling. Leo, um. Why did you design this? I get that it was probably Sigma's idea, and he's clearly the much more forceful, powerful sibling in this relationship, but you didn't even seem to see anything awry with a giant mecha mammoth-spider until you learned it was fueled by people.
What, did you just assume that nobody would ever use your gigantic weapon of mass destruction for malevolent ends? You're a moron, Leo.
Also, angry!Leo. Like, really, really, murderously angry Leo. Which I approve of! Let's turn this Cain and Abel situation arou - okay, the moment of puppyish bemusement as Rei and Wataru drop in through the ceiling, followed by quickly resuming anger has made me laugh out loud. I'm sorry!
Okay. Here's a question. Ozuno Nakamura, you are clearly an excellent actor. When you're playing Leo, there's sublety, emotional depth, it's believable and engaging. When you're portraying Leo here, I can totally believe that you're a shy, mild-mannered scientist whose brother, apparently forgetting that you can wield a sword and reprogram the universe with a magic brush, has sent you flying over the edge and into murderous, fratricidal rage.
So why are you so bad at playing Sigma? I mean, it is you playing him, they didn't hire your terrible actor twin brother to play Leo's terrible person twin brother. You are awful. It's one of the worst performances I have ever seen in anything. I'm actually embarrassed watching you.
You don't even say your lines. You ham them in a really fake deep voice - which doesn't even make sense. You have two facial expressions - opening your eyes really wide, and opening your eyes really wide while smiling, and they both look ridiculous. You're a really good actor when playing Leo, but when playing Sigma, I think you may actually be the worst actor I've ever seen.
It's not so bad when you have the mask on. The facial expression element is cut out, and the hamminess actually works. But I dread the mask coming off, because it means we're in for another lesson on How Not To Act.
Meanwhile, Team Woman has been - relegated to escorting Kaoru back home. O ... kay ... um. No. Right. I get that Kaoru is not a fighter, and needs someone to take her to safety. But at the same time, you have Rekka and Jabi there. One is more than enough escort, and frankly, I think having a badass battle mage as part of Team Take-Down-Leo's-Insane-Robot-And-Then-Beat-The-Shit-Out-Of-Him-For-Designing-It would be a pretty damn good war asset.
Aaand the perspective flicks back to Team Dude, failing miserably in their fight against Sigma. Wow. Actually, remember the above point about how a badass battle mage would be a handy asset? You know Jabi? See, I remember her not all that long ago going toe-to-toe with Sigma and fighting him to a draw. Something which the entirety of Team Dude seems unable to do.
Also, man, guys. If only one or, say, all three of you, had some kind of magical armour that would turn the tide in your favour.
...
So, anyway.
Sigma gets eaten by Ganon. Bafflingly, everyone is surprised. I asked a few people this question "You have been shamelessly abusing the corpse of an ancient, demonic god that is still clearly conscious on some level. It eats you. Are you surprised?"
The answer was overwhelmingly "No, I'm not an idiot."
Sigma Fudou is, since his response is "Why?! I am the one who controls - ..." Which is an odd thing to say, because you clearly were never in control of this now frighteningly tentacular business partnership.
And we get to see Ganon's human form. There are two things about this - one, fandom informs me that Ganon's human form is played by a transgender actress, which is awesome. Consider how hostile the acting industry is to trans people, and then multiply that by how intensely hostile Japan is to trans people. Admittedly, I doubt the Garo Project guys would have been able to make that casting choice if Garo Makai Senki wasn't a semi-independent and self-funded production, didn't air on cable, and didn't air at one in the morning, but it's still a great casting choice.
On a less good note, why on earth did you dress this poor woman up like a Lady Gaga music video? The red hat thing? The massive fake fingernails? The gigantic, many-layered red dress, with what appear to be massive Madonna-esque cones on her chest? This is a terrible costume, and a bizarre one - KIBA and Messiah-in-human-form in the first series were all dressed in a fairly understated way: A black suit and long coat, and an elaborate white dress. I like understated costuming! Why did you let Lady Gaga take control of your costume department?
Oh, I like the Grace and Gajari/Messiah and Ganon parallels here, though. Grace and Messiah as the 'leaders', presenting themselves as human women, associated with the colour white and angelic imagery; Gajari and Ganon as the followers, typically presented as monsters (okay, Ganon has a human form now, but for the first 22 episodes it's just been a big, fleshy dragon thing), associated with the colour red, imagery of eyes and tentacles.
Next episode, we apparently have Mecha Mammoth-Spider turned red and used for the purposes of evil by Ganon, who seems to be having a whale of a time. Also, celestial robot horses make their
return after a brief absence. Jabi and Rekka appear to be doing nothing, while Team Dude imcompetents about.
He didn't.
Dreeeeeaaaaaam teeeeeaaaaam.
No, seriously. I like Kouga well enough, but I also like seeing him out of the picture so that Leo, Jabi, Rekka, Rei and Kaoru can be awesome. And they all were, even though I had some problems with this episode.
So. Leo, Jabi and Rekka. I've said this before about the Makai Priests, but I like that they're all played by dancers, and that in fight scenes tend to be very dance-y and acrobatic, while the knights are often more straightforward. It works well here, even though I did find myself occasionally going "LEO JUST HIT. THE ROBOTS. WITH. YOUR. SWORD. NO TWIRLING. NO HIGH KICKS."
I wanted to see all three of them in a fight scene, but instead the Dreeeeeaaaaaam Teeeeeeaaaaam divided up almost immediately into Team Dude and Team Woman, leaving Leo making bedroom eyes at Rei and showing off, while Jabi, Rekka and Kaoru went and fought an evil butterfly woman.
We'll, um, we'll get to that. Soon.
Leo, did you - did you just block a sword with your arm?. Okay. Speaking of, how are you fighting? Episode 20 had you battered around by your brother, stabbed three times through the torso, stabbed through each of your limbs except your left arm, and then we saw no treatment except, bafflingly, a bandage being put around said left arm. Never mind, since your arms are apparently impervious to swords now anyway, I suppose that was just an inconvenience.
Wataru's Big Damn Heroes moment to save Team Dude is kind of ruined by the fact that his leather trousers appear to have split at the crotch. Ah. Good one, costuming department? Actually, let's talk about costuming quickly. You have your knights (except Leo) wearing tight leather trousers and long coats. I can think of no two pieces of clothing less suited for fighting. Not only can they now barely move their legs, but if they try they're going to end up tangled in their coats.
Leo is the only knight that's dressed at all practically. And he's not that practical! I'm just waiting for that big dangly talisman to whack him in the face!
Okay, onto Team Woman vs Madam Butterfly.
This fight scene was ... really odd. Really odd. Um, okay, firstly are we ever going to find out what was up with Gigio? I get that she's some kind of Horror-ish butterfly woman who works for Sigma, but you've told us literally nothing else. Did he build her?
But beyond that, this fight is just strange to watch. The dance-fighting and spells are very pretty and elegant and graceful, but the fight itself is just disorienting. The cinematography is - often really bizarre, and since they're fighting in a featureless mass of words (you really like that one, Amemiya, this is something like the sixth time you've used it), it's nearly impossible to figure out where the characters are meant to be in relation to each other.
Also, Gigio is creepy. Your villains are all so creepy this series, Amemiya - I mean, okay, KIBA in the first series was creepy in how human he was while still being completely off the deep end; and Legules was creepy in how implacable and unstoppable he seemed to be. But Sigma and Gigio are creepy in a whole different league, partly because there's something incredibly sexual about them. It's very much there with Sigma, both in his backstory and in the weird, hate-incesty way he interacts with Leo, but it's more overt with Gigio. The fight scene has some - really skeevy, uncomfortable moments from Gigio's end.
The standout scene from this episode is Kaoru snapping Kouga out of his Horror-induced funk. Just - everything about that scene is perfection. The acting is perfect, the pacing is great, there's barely any dialogue and that works really well, and the music. Just. That marching band version of 'Saviour in the Dark' is just amazing. To be honest, you, er, maybe should've ended the episode on that scene, because it kind of made everything after it look poor by comparison.
Giant mecha mammoth-spider assembling? Eh. It just feels less awesome after that scene.
On which note - giant mecha mammoth-spider assembling. Leo, um. Why did you design this? I get that it was probably Sigma's idea, and he's clearly the much more forceful, powerful sibling in this relationship, but you didn't even seem to see anything awry with a giant mecha mammoth-spider until you learned it was fueled by people.
What, did you just assume that nobody would ever use your gigantic weapon of mass destruction for malevolent ends? You're a moron, Leo.
Also, angry!Leo. Like, really, really, murderously angry Leo. Which I approve of! Let's turn this Cain and Abel situation arou - okay, the moment of puppyish bemusement as Rei and Wataru drop in through the ceiling, followed by quickly resuming anger has made me laugh out loud. I'm sorry!
Okay. Here's a question. Ozuno Nakamura, you are clearly an excellent actor. When you're playing Leo, there's sublety, emotional depth, it's believable and engaging. When you're portraying Leo here, I can totally believe that you're a shy, mild-mannered scientist whose brother, apparently forgetting that you can wield a sword and reprogram the universe with a magic brush, has sent you flying over the edge and into murderous, fratricidal rage.
So why are you so bad at playing Sigma? I mean, it is you playing him, they didn't hire your terrible actor twin brother to play Leo's terrible person twin brother. You are awful. It's one of the worst performances I have ever seen in anything. I'm actually embarrassed watching you.
You don't even say your lines. You ham them in a really fake deep voice - which doesn't even make sense. You have two facial expressions - opening your eyes really wide, and opening your eyes really wide while smiling, and they both look ridiculous. You're a really good actor when playing Leo, but when playing Sigma, I think you may actually be the worst actor I've ever seen.
It's not so bad when you have the mask on. The facial expression element is cut out, and the hamminess actually works. But I dread the mask coming off, because it means we're in for another lesson on How Not To Act.
Meanwhile, Team Woman has been - relegated to escorting Kaoru back home. O ... kay ... um. No. Right. I get that Kaoru is not a fighter, and needs someone to take her to safety. But at the same time, you have Rekka and Jabi there. One is more than enough escort, and frankly, I think having a badass battle mage as part of Team Take-Down-Leo's-Insane-Robot-And-Then-Beat-The-Shit-Out-Of-Him-For-Designing-It would be a pretty damn good war asset.
Aaand the perspective flicks back to Team Dude, failing miserably in their fight against Sigma. Wow. Actually, remember the above point about how a badass battle mage would be a handy asset? You know Jabi? See, I remember her not all that long ago going toe-to-toe with Sigma and fighting him to a draw. Something which the entirety of Team Dude seems unable to do.
Also, man, guys. If only one or, say, all three of you, had some kind of magical armour that would turn the tide in your favour.
...
So, anyway.
Sigma gets eaten by Ganon. Bafflingly, everyone is surprised. I asked a few people this question "You have been shamelessly abusing the corpse of an ancient, demonic god that is still clearly conscious on some level. It eats you. Are you surprised?"
The answer was overwhelmingly "No, I'm not an idiot."
Sigma Fudou is, since his response is "Why?! I am the one who controls - ..." Which is an odd thing to say, because you clearly were never in control of this now frighteningly tentacular business partnership.
And we get to see Ganon's human form. There are two things about this - one, fandom informs me that Ganon's human form is played by a transgender actress, which is awesome. Consider how hostile the acting industry is to trans people, and then multiply that by how intensely hostile Japan is to trans people. Admittedly, I doubt the Garo Project guys would have been able to make that casting choice if Garo Makai Senki wasn't a semi-independent and self-funded production, didn't air on cable, and didn't air at one in the morning, but it's still a great casting choice.
On a less good note, why on earth did you dress this poor woman up like a Lady Gaga music video? The red hat thing? The massive fake fingernails? The gigantic, many-layered red dress, with what appear to be massive Madonna-esque cones on her chest? This is a terrible costume, and a bizarre one - KIBA and Messiah-in-human-form in the first series were all dressed in a fairly understated way: A black suit and long coat, and an elaborate white dress. I like understated costuming! Why did you let Lady Gaga take control of your costume department?
Oh, I like the Grace and Gajari/Messiah and Ganon parallels here, though. Grace and Messiah as the 'leaders', presenting themselves as human women, associated with the colour white and angelic imagery; Gajari and Ganon as the followers, typically presented as monsters (okay, Ganon has a human form now, but for the first 22 episodes it's just been a big, fleshy dragon thing), associated with the colour red, imagery of eyes and tentacles.
Next episode, we apparently have Mecha Mammoth-Spider turned red and used for the purposes of evil by Ganon, who seems to be having a whale of a time. Also, celestial robot horses make their
return after a brief absence. Jabi and Rekka appear to be doing nothing, while Team Dude imcompetents about.
