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Old 2006-04-11, 19:27   Link #81
KJlost
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Join Date: Jan 2006
I like war drama, and I don't mind yuri, so I think I can like this show. Like many other people, the art of the animation was superb and that's what drew me in. It would be interesting to watch how this universe unfolds.
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Old 2006-04-11, 19:27   Link #82
tanuki
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Quote:
Originally Posted by KamelRed
Not since since I've watched Platinum Hugen Ordian have I shook my head while wondering "WTF?!" aloud while watching anime. That all changed after I saw the first episode of Simoun.

This series is definitely not my bag.
It's the kind of series that could benefit from the addition of a prologue/introduction at the beginning to help the audience understand the story. Kind of like what was done for the fansub of Yami to Bōshi to Hon no Tabibito...so those in the audience who are going in cold can get some basic info to help them understand what's going on.

I thought the first episode was visually appealing, but I'll need a few more episodes to decide whether the substance of the story interests me enough to continue watching it.
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Old 2006-04-11, 22:09   Link #83
Guido
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I do not know if Simoun keeps me thrilled with its production values.

To be honest the first episode did not make much progress to properly introduce the story. We know there's an ongoing war in Daikaraaku, because one faction desperately attempts to bring into the light the mysterious technology of the Simoun machines.
However, it does not solidly establishes their motivations at first hand whether the faction is jealous that the Simula operate and handle a better, advanced technology or feel that the Simoun is dangerous at wrong hands and will easily turn the tide of the war in favor of the Simula, leading to an unreasonable fear of the warring country of being ruled and oppressed.

Moreover, the animation does not convinces me. Why? I'm not fond of the palette used to animate the 2D settings and landscapes; positive sure is watercolor. The 3D CGI animation for the Simoun does not feels to blend within the watercolor scenarios.
When I look at the animation cinematics it seems as if I'm watching a montage with the Simoun pasted over the 2D background settings.

Nor do I approve or praise their use of the soundtrack throughout the episode. It did not feature much musical variety. I quickly got bored listening to extended pieces of symphonic music from the serene scenes to the climax. It could had been played with different tracks featuring opera scores and different styles of classical music, for example, like Escaflowne or Aquarion did.
In short, the musical tracks played did not capture or emphasized the angst and warlike atmosphere.

Then, I just came about a week from finishing Mai-Otome, and Simoun delivers a similar premise. War to take control of a powerful technology that the other party employs to, figuratively speaking, safekeep world's peace in accordance to God's will.
Simoun machines playing the Remergion dance either correctly or incorrectly easily obliterate entire fleets with little effort, and Auer portrays her best to mimick Arika except she isn't much with the 'dream' fad and hops into the heat of the battle right away; please no "oba-chan" references from Auer.

At last, the pace flows disjointly jumping from characters to others without making consistent connections: 1) Neville & Amuria, 2) the Elders discussing the war, 3) the girl who contends the Simoun as devil technology, 4) Auer's arrival to the academy. Only the quasi-religious theme is the link that unites their actions.

Two positive things I'm posting in this review are that I found the design of the Simoun something unique, never I saw in other fantasy mecha anime of the genre.
The rotating wheel of the lower half looks like a monocycle.
Simoun technology also displays insight of how would Industrial Revolution technology evolved without the rise of computers and information networks. Simoun evokes the same sky-war, machines theme like Last Exile.
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Old 2006-04-11, 22:13   Link #84
Catgirls
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Quote:
Originally Posted by froinlaven
The lesbian kisses make me say yes, but the crazy jargon makes me say no! Oh, what am I to do!?
Watch it with the sound muted.
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Old 2006-04-12, 00:32   Link #85
molitar
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Just watched episode 1. I'm not sure what I think of it yet. The kisses for what appears to be for no reason whatsoever is a bit much. I like some Yuri as much as anyone else but when it seems to be for no reason it's absurd. And so far nothing explained about their world at all so hope something gets filled in there because I was like scratching my head and muttering what the heck is this to myself.
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Old 2006-04-12, 00:43   Link #86
Kaoru Chujo
Yuuki Aoi
 
 
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This page is a machine translation of part of some explanatory posts on 2channel. I don't know who posted it. Someone on 2channel pointed it out as an example of how much foreigners like this show. I think the translation is understandable enough to be useful.

The most recent versions of the original posts are 453-456 in this thread.

Personally, I don't need to know until things are gradually explained. I think the story is clear enough. I like being plunged into the middle of things. For me, the characters' feelings are the most important thing, and I think those come through loud and clear. The reasons for and history of the conflict are less important to me. So your mileage may vary.

And I love the music, and the way it both supports the action and creates a consistent mood. I didn't require more variety. But I love this classical-esque music anyway, so maybe I'm prejudiced.

As for the kisses being for no reason, that's not how it seems to me. It appears that they create power in the pilots that then makes it possible for them to activate the green sphere with their kisses. Of course, the real reason is to give the anime more yuri feeling, lol, but the magic (i.e., future science) makes enough sense to me.

EDIT: It's certainly legit for Tiberium Wolf to be weirded out by the (fe)male voices, but the fact is that every person in the Simoun world starts life as a female, then some of them turn into males at 17 or so. So it's reasonable that adult males should be somewhat less masculine than we are used to. I thought the sequence in ep2 where they dealt with someone possibly changing, and their emotions around it, was really effective.
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Last edited by Kaoru Chujo; 2006-04-12 at 01:11.
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Old 2006-04-12, 00:55   Link #87
Tiberium Wolf
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I find it disturbing that those elder males have female voices.
I find it disturbing when that girl said she wanted to be a male.

It's just these 2 things that gives me chills in this serie.
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Old 2006-04-12, 00:58   Link #88
Guido
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Tiberium Wolf
I find it disturbing that those elder males have female voices.
I find it disturbing when that girl said she wanted to be a male.

It's just these 2 thing that gives me chills in this serie.
For my part, it does not affects me at all. Either get used to it or stop watching Simoun.

Episode two explains about.
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Old 2006-04-12, 01:31   Link #89
Tiberium Wolf
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Guido
For my part, it does not affects me at all. Either get used to it or stop watching Simoun.

Episode two explains about.
I won't stop watching coz of the Yuri factor!
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Old 2006-04-12, 06:40   Link #90
Yui from Okinawa
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Question Simoun page for English

I make Simoun page by The English User.

http://www.geocities.jp/emiri_0623/simoun02-e1.htm

The grossary page Url is
http://www.geocities.jp/emiri_0623/s...grossary-e.htm
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Old 2006-04-12, 11:53   Link #91
amonrei
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Hmm ... those eyes ... *_*
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Old 2006-04-13, 15:39   Link #92
Tremalkinger
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Join Date: Dec 2005
Quote:
Originally Posted by tanuki
It's the kind of series that could benefit from the addition of a prologue/introduction at the beginning to help the audience understand the story. Kind of like what was done for the fansub of Yami to Bōshi to Hon no Tabibito...so those in the audience who are going in cold can get some basic info to help them understand what's going on..
Um... what do you think Noto Mamiko was doing during the opening sequence involving all the enemy fighters? At the very begining of the first episode, she explains the premise of the show (at least insofar as the war between the 'good guys' and 'bad guys' goes... not the world, so much).

Quote:
Originally Posted by froinlaven
The lesbian kisses make me say yes, but the crazy jargon makes me say no! Oh, what am I to do!?
Do you mean all the latin? I had a lot of trouble understanding the raw, mainly because I kept thinking the proper nouns of latin roots were words I should be understanding. Still, Simoun is hardly the first series to pull lots of crazy words out of nothing, and with subtitles (Go Doremi!) its not hard at all.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Guido
Then, I just came about a week from finishing Mai-Otome, and Simoun delivers a similar premise. War to take control of a powerful technology that the other party employs to, figuratively speaking, safekeep world's peace in accordance to God's will. Simoun machines playing the Remergion dance either correctly or incorrectly easily obliterate entire fleets with little effort, and Auer portrays her best to mimick Arika except she isn't much with the 'dream' fad and hops into the heat of the battle right away; please no "oba-chan" references from Auer.
Thematically similar to Mai Otome it may be... but I didn't even really think about that until you mentioned it. The general feel of the two shows are completely different, as well as the art styles. Auer and Arika are polar opposites as well: Arika was naieve, overly friendly, overly genki and staunchly against war, while Auer is brusque (borderline rude, but I don't think she means it), eager to fight, is direct and has a deep seated strength of personality that's extremely fun to watch. It doesn't hurt that Auer's voice acting has started off superbly (as compared to Arika, who goes from irritating to tolerable). In fact, Auer may be the first female lead of an anime who I like more than the side characters for the first time... ever.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Tiberium Wolf
I find it disturbing that those elder males have female voices.
I find it disturbing when that girl said she wanted to be a male.

It's just these 2 things that gives me chills in this serie.
I'd be more than willing to bet that, due to the fact that they dedicated more than half of episode 2 to the 'gender decision' issue, that it will become prominant in the plot. You probably will want to stop watching, but the ultimate decision is yours.

I, for one, found the concept to be quite unique and interesting (in a 'such a thing could only originate from Japan' sort of way ) I'm looking forward to seeing where they take it.
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Old 2006-04-13, 18:16   Link #93
Matrim
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As for Arika and Aaeru (or whatever the spelling of this name actually is), I think you have a point, come to think of it the similarity is mostly in the way their actions seem to be a few moves ahead of their thinking process, so they act before thinking of all the possible consequences

Quote:
Um... what do you think Noto Mamiko was doing during the opening sequence involving all the enemy fighters? At the very begining of the first episode, she explains the premise of the show (at least insofar as the war between the 'good guys' and 'bad guys' goes... not the world, so much).
The viewers would have assumed that all the cute girls were the good guys, anyway. Seriously, it is nice to see a show that does not spoon-feed all sorts of information to the viewers (yet). Of course, if ten episodes later we are still very much confused about the situation in the world of Simoun that wouldn't be that nice. We will just have to wait and see.
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Old 2006-04-14, 00:03   Link #94
Tremalkinger
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Matrim
The viewers would have assumed that all the cute girls were the good guys, anyway. Seriously, it is nice to see a show that does not spoon-feed all sorts of information to the viewers (yet). Of course, if ten episodes later we are still very much confused about the situation in the world of Simoun that wouldn't be that nice. We will just have to wait and see.
Well, I was more of using the terms 'good' and 'bad' because I can't remember the names of the factions I think its more than likely that the sides won't be clear cut, because (I think) the character Noto Mamiko is voicing is one of the current enemies. It'd be nice to see a deep plot... we'll see.
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Old 2006-04-14, 13:26   Link #95
Kaoru Chujo
Yuuki Aoi
 
 
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I have found myself watching episodes 1 and 2 again and again this week. My conclusion: this is a very good show. The character design is extremely effective, and the good voice acting helps it make the characters real. The emotions make sense and are well portrayed. The contrast between the CG and the washy backgrounds is very artistic. The music is outstanding, almost a character on its own, with a very artistic effect on the whole piece. And the story and setting are real science fiction, carrying us into a really different world.

The show has an excellent blog, with caps from and discussion of the next episode. Next week: Mizuki Nana joins the crew. We will have Mizuki Nana, Takahashi Mikako (the girl with braids), Mamiko Noto (the little girl with blue hair, her second role in the show) and Toyoguchi Megumi (young with straight brown hair) in Cor Tempest.

And I really have to give credit to Takahashi Rieko, who does such an outstanding job of working with the outstanding character design to make Neviriru (direct transliteration of the Japanese on the website) such a strong character. I'm still wrestling with the voice of Niino Michi for Aaeru (transliteration from the site). The voice is as rambunctious as the character, lol.

And there is now a glossary of terms on the official site.

EDIT: I've now translated the glossary and put it on my blog.

EDIT2: Big thanks to Yui from Okinawa for his great pages.
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YUUKI Aoi 悠木碧. b92.03.27 (age 29). 2008 Kurenai (Murasaki). 2009 Yumeiro Pâtissière (Ichigo), Kiruminzuu (Riko), Yutori-chan (Yutori-chan). 2010 Vampire Bund (Mina Tepeş), Shiki (Sunako), Samurai Girls (Juubee), Pokémon: Black and White (Iris). 2011 Madoka Magica (Madoka), Gosick (Victorique), A-Channel (Tooru). 2012 Symphogear (Hibiki). 2014 Pilot's Love Song (Claire/Nina), Nanatsu no Taizai (Diane). 2015 Owari no Seraph (Krul Tepes), Rokka no Yuusha (Fremy). 2016 Boku no Hero Academia (Tsuyu, Froppy). 2017 Kino no Tabi (Kino). 2021 Kumo desu ga (watashi), Kaizoku Oujo (Karin), Heike Monogatari (Biwa), etc., etc. Total of 513 roles in anime and games.

Last edited by Kaoru Chujo; 2006-04-14 at 19:14.
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Old 2006-04-14, 17:39   Link #96
Yui from Okinawa
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grossary renewal

http://www.geocities.jp/emiri_0623/s...grossary-e.htm


I renewal Top page shttp://www.geocities.jp/emiri_0623/simoun02-e1.htm
and add sub-page grossary page!


The Un-understand that point of the machine translation has been improved in some measure.
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Old 2006-04-14, 18:09   Link #97
Scarlet
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I love the opening song Has that single been released yet? I assume not
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Old 2006-04-14, 18:13   Link #98
lavielove
...
 
 
Join Date: Dec 2005
Quote:
Originally Posted by Yui from Okinawa
http://www.geocities.jp/emiri_0623/s...grossary-e.htm


I renewal Top page shttp://www.geocities.jp/emiri_0623/simoun02-e1.htm
and add sub-page grossary page!


The Un-understand that point of the machine translation has been improved in some measure.
A good job.That's more like a wiki.
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Old 2006-04-14, 18:14   Link #99
zalas
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Kaoru Chujo
And there is now a glossary of terms on the official site.
Finally! The glossary was very much needed ^_^;
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Old 2006-04-14, 18:26   Link #100
Simon
気持ち悪い
 
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Scarlet
I love the opening song Has that single been released yet? I assume not
Both the OP and ED are out on the 19th:

Utsukushikereba Sore de Ii (OP)

Inori no Uta (ED)

And yes, they're fantastic - I'm loving all the music in this show so far, especially
Spoiler for ep 2:

Bring on the OST, I say!

@Yui and Kaoru Chujo: those glossaries are a great help. Thanks both of you
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