Kaiba (Another Masaaki Yuasa x Madhouse production)

[negativeone]

wow I can't wait for this to be subbed or even better license(which is never going to happen). I love the entire concept of the story about memories, amnesia and reality. Shows like these one always to take about a week or so(maybe less) to get subbed, can anyone post the OP or ED???

[aroduc]

OP

Love the OP. Not sure if the really innocent and cutesy visual style works well though.

Caps etc
http://blog.seiha.org/?p=773

[solomon]

fascinating

[Kirarakim]

Thanks for uploading the OP on youtube (I love your tags).

Although I had planned to wait for the subs I decided to watch the first episode anyways. Well I am completely lost but I did love the style. I hope someone will sub this.

[v1cious]

Originally Posted by negativeone

wow I can't wait for this to be subbed or even better license(which is never going to happen)

Ureshii is doing it. also, there is a strong chance this will get licensed, since it's being produced by Madhouse.

EDIT first episode is on nico: http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm2959311

[Kirarakim]

I don't know I feel there are a lot of series produced by Madhouse that don't get licensed. I mean they produce so much.

edit: glad to hear about the subbing

[ArabianSwan]

It will be another F-B_Ureshii joint with Sylf as translator

[MrProphet]

The OP is amazing. It's sort of nonremarkable in the beginning, but when those hands start reached for one another it becomes nothing short of mezmerizing.

For the first time in a long while I am really sorry that I forgot my password to my Moontube account.

PS: Kemonozume is made by Madhouse. Will it get released in the States in the foreseeable future? LOL, no. And neither will 4C's Mind Game.

[7Th]

The old-school surrealistic science-fiction design is mesmerizing. The blob explosions are amazing stuff.

[negativeone]

Great OP & now that i think about it the character desing remind me of astro boy.

I don't really like Ureshii subs but w/e

anyways, well i dun understand how Mind Game isnt licensed but Dead leaves is. I even think that Kemonozume is out of print in japan. I blame harems and fanservice :P

[Westlo]

Kaiba has the best OP song this season imo.

[wao]

...Evidently, I need to wake up earlier on Friday mornings.

*sulks in corner*

[duckroll]

I liked the animation, but I'm not sure what to think of the first episode. A little weird, and I'm not sure if I really dig the setting. Great concept design and execution though.

[terrus]

Well i've just watched the raw and wow, just wow, that was amazing, i had no idea what was going on but still amazing.

[TinyRedLeaf]

This is one show where I'm not sure if having subtitles would make substantial difference.

First impressions: Kaiba's art style is decidedly surreal, almost Dali-esque, especially in the OP. The first episode seems to draw a fair bit of inspiration from the theatre of the absurd, especially during the scene when random slum members popped in-and-out with their seemingly unconnected conversations. I think the idea here is to create a stream of consciousness effect.

So, from that angle, and given the synopsis BluWacky provided, I guess the show would eventually explore various existentialist themes. As such, the use of surrealism, theatre of the absurd and stream of consciousness fits Kaiba very well, because these art forms were originally inspired by existentialist philosophy early last century.

It's particularly telling that Kaiba doesn't remember who he (she?) is, and that his first words were, "Where is this? Who am I?" These are the key starting points of existentialist thought.

All said, I'm not sure if I would follow Kaiba every week. It's definitely fascinating and I like the innovation (which is badly needed in the anime industry), but the first episode didn't draw me as much as I would have hoped. I get the feeling that this is one of those series that requires a fair bit of reflection and quiet time outside of the show to appreciate. In other words, I would probably want to marathon it over a weekend and then reflect on it, the same way I had approached Kino no Tabi, for example.

[Sonhex]

How did something like this ever get made? It's a wondrous oddity. I watched this utterly gobsmacked throughout. It's like watching some obscure 1970's European experimental animation. I could easily imagine Takashi Nakamura being involved in this, it has the same dislocated sense of otherworldliness as Tree of Palme. Loved every second of it basically.

It managed to be disturbing (the memory theft scenes) and hilarious (the slapstic Controller chase). One of the most astonishing scenes, perhaps the most touching too, was when that little horned girl put the little bird through the hole in Kaiba's chest. For some reason that really struck me as incredibly cute and sad all at once. Amazing moment that was.

The space-ostrich was simply the greatest character I've seen in years and I can't wait to see Neiro.

[Snoop']

Watched it yesterday. Fascinating stuff (although I cannot say I was totally hooked). The series seems to deal about memory, consciousness and identity : Warp has lost his memory for some reason, while people in the upper areas use bodies as a vessel for their memories. See also my previous post about the meaning of "Kaiba".
Apart from that, very weird (and cute) chara-design. The dealer (was it ?) much looks like a character from a Tezuka Osamu manga.

[wao]

So I only finally got around to watching the first 2 episodes of this (desparate measures). And boy, do I feel confused and stupid.

But in a good way. I dunno, I don't feel like commenting on it a lot just yet but it's quite new how the characters are literally not static.

I really do love the visuals and the thick outlines (I haven't seen that sort of drawing in any recent anime, especially since digital animation came) but I have to admit there's something that's not completely clicking with me. It's not that the settings are too weird or complex or bare; normally I love otherwordly sort of stuff (I grew to like Cat Soup), but there's just nothing for my brain to latch on to at the moment. I suppose that's how it's intended to be (or I'm just too used to normal anime now).

Favourite things so far: that emu/ostrich/whatever the hell that is thing, I think it's absolutely AWESOME. I don't know why, I suddenly went all -like when it appeared. What is with that funky design?
That, and as Sonhex mentioned the scene in ep 1 with the girl putting the bird in Kaiba's chest. I really like how you feel that she's interacting with him, not just... well... acting according to the script. I don't know how to put it; perhaps it's the bit where she went to the front and bumped her hand against the chain and it made that chain-like noise.

[ChibiGoku]

There's one thing I want to comment about: I really could've done without those two particular scenes in episode 2. It was embarrassing, especially since there's kids right outside of my window, playing around... I turned down the audio.

Anyways, Kaiba's certainly something that's interesting, especially given the oddball and bizzarness of the series structure. To be honest, hadn't I read the series description ahead of time, I would've been completely lost. I'm still very confused, but atleast I have an idea of what's going on now.

Episode 2 had it's fill of moments for me, especially during the whole hallway scene with the gigantic breasts prostitute. The whole scene made me laugh, hard. Was kind of interested to hear though that the girl in Kaiba's pendent is actually wanted, though I couldn't quite understand for what though.

At anyrate, I'm having some issues understanding this series, and I serously hope that these episodes get fansubbed soon. I understood most of episode 1, but I had some major issues with episode 2. Hopefully then, I can put my full input on this.

[BluWacky]

Episode 2 is quite silly but great fun - I love how Kaba and the squid thing move, someone's obviously put so much time and effort into thinking about how a giant stuffed hippo would flop around all over the place.

Oh, and breasts. Yuasa's been taking the Kyo-ani pills it seems, those things sure do jiggle about...

My favourite thing, however, is the incredible deadpan episode summaries from the Wowow site. Here's how they sum up one of the more memorable scenes in this episode:

Spoiler:

Paam, who bought Kaiba's body, dies in the ultimate ecstasy.

And that's putting it mildly!

Spoiler for Speculation:

I have a feeling that Neiro may have been in the ostrich and is now in the squid (consider its reaction to Kaba checking out Kochu as she's changing...), although why she's on the run I don't know and why Popo's hiding her original body is a mystery (this is, of course, speculation).

I presume that we'll see the "Warp" body again - there are too many mysteries surrounding it for it to just be stuck on a space shuttle with some old geezer wandering around inside its brain. However, if you note the opening sequence what appears to be "Warp"'s silhouette has a glowy antenna thing on its head, which seems to be a separate character according to the show's main website.

Leaving aside the philosophical issues of the whole brainwave/memory/whatever transfer thing, I wonder whether Kaiba's pyrokinesis is a physical or mental power?