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-   -   (L) Flag - war-documentary style series (http://forums.animesuki.com/showthread.php?t=31425)

wao 2006-04-24 05:57

Flag - war-documentary style series
 
Please shoot me with a gun of your choice if there has been a thread for this started up.

Anyway, I just wanted to squeal at HOW AWESOME THE TRAILER FOR THIS IS: go here and look for the promo thingy for FLAG. Bandai Channel gives some of the best-buffering promos I've ever experienced, but more importantly than that the quality of this trailer is fantastic! I believe this OVA is about a war photographer and the director intends to portray it as realistically as possible; and by jove I think he has suceeded really well. Great character designs, realistic expressions, smooth movement, nice 3D, realistic camera movement, convincing sequence of shots, and yet it's not bland - there's intense action and very very cool music by the wonderful Yorihiro Ike. The sound director is the same one from Ergo Proxy and Blood (not Blood+), I remember Blood sounding quite realistic given the constraints and time.

I'm normally not much of a war person but I've always always wanted more hard-hitting realistic anime! If this is on the level of Planetes or better I'm going to kiss the heavens. If I could.

Going to b-ch brings to my attention the fact that Wings of Rean ep 2 was finally released just 3 days ago!

7Th 2006-04-24 09:29

The trailer is indeed awesome and the project seems pretty promising too. I am really interesting by the character designs which remind me of Patlabor movies', stylish while retaining an air of realism.

MrProphet 2006-04-24 09:44

Well... I am not too sure about this.

I liked the beginning part, with the war and the girl and the way she looks for a perfect picture, but that last part with mechas.... That felt a bit like a mix of MS IGLOO and Metal Gear Solid cut-scenes.

I wouldn't mind MGS-feel, but an IGLOO-like show is not something I'd be looking forward to.

Wings of Rean ep. 2? WOOHOO! Finally, more Anna Tsuchiya. 8)

wao 2006-04-24 09:49

My guess is that they put more of the 3d in the trailer because the 3d was produced before the detailed animation, hence to throw things in they did whatever was done first. But what 2d animation I saw really was good - I liked the bit when she was spinning that thing around her finger and caught it.


Heck, I think I'd be pleased if it was just Speed Grapher done right!...


Anyway, I will not put all my money on it anyway because I'm not entirely familiar with the staff and I don't know what they'll really do, though since this seems to be a pet project of the overall director (its his original work as well), Ryousuke Takahashi, I think it ought to turn out fine. It's an OVA, he should be given quite a bit of control and he'd probably try to keep it consistent even if the other staff aren't that consistent.
Whatever it is I'm definitely watching it if I can, just tosee if it will really be good. I too hope it won't be very MS Igloo-ish.

physics223 2006-07-03 05:14

Flag
 
I searched for a thread everywhere in this site, but to no avail. As it seems that no one has posted on this yet, I'd like to ask if anyone among you have seen beyond the trailer of this series? It's also pretty queer that a lot of raw procurers and subbers alike steer clear of this series: it has been two weeks already, after all, and all I could find somewhere was a .wmv trailer. ;)

I personally don't think much of it, but as no one bothered to reply on my blog post on this anime, and because I'd like to know more, I decided to post a thread here in AnimeSuki, where its visibility is greater, and thus I'd probably get the answers that I'm looking for. (See statement above.) It's generally about a mecha anime containing a lot of war photography. Seeing that Zero no Tsukaima and Tsuyokiss ~ CoolxSweet weren't really good per se, and having only Honey and Clover II as my sole interest this season, I'd like to watch at least an episode of this series (and it's already going in its third week with nary an interest within anyone to sub it).

In case you'd like to discuss anything taboo within these forums, I'd like to redirect you to my blog post and my opinion on this series here. Those contain my first impressions after seeing its trailer on YouTube; feel free to comment anything about FLAG that you'd like to comment about. :D

jpwong 2006-07-03 07:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by physics223
I searched for a thread everywhere in this site, but to no avail. As it seems that no one has posted on this yet, I'd like to ask if anyone among you have seen beyond the trailer of this series? It's also pretty queer that a lot of raw procurers and subbers alike steer clear of this series: it has been two weeks already, after all, and all I could find somewhere was a .wmv trailer. ;)

I had heard somewhere that this show airs on something called Bandai Channel which from what I gathered is somewhat more exclusive than some of the other anime broadcasting channels which probably accounts for the absolute lack of any other material than the official site promo.

Lost 2006-07-04 11:16

The animation for this one looks immaculate.. esp the blending of 2D with shadow with 3D at the end; when the photographer bangs at the mecha. Definitely one to look out for.

orion 2006-07-06 09:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by jpwong
I had heard somewhere that this show airs on something called Bandai Channel which from what I gathered is somewhat more exclusive than some of the other anime broadcasting channels which probably accounts for the absolute lack of any other material than the official site promo.


So is this something that's going to be ultra-popular in Japan that it can be broadcasted as an exclusive showing or something that couldn't be broadcasted on a more easily accessible channel?

wao 2006-07-06 10:48

No, I think it's more like it's airing on Bandai Channel as a way for people to watch the OVA without the usual procedures of buying the DVD and then watching it for teh first time. A lot of OVAs get aired on TV first nowadays so that people can 'sample' it and then decide to buy the DVD; in this case replace TV with Bandai Channel (an online streaming content provider sort of thing; they have lots of anime episodes there. Recent ones I remember are Noein and Wings of Rean)

It's probably the most illegal thing to rip off because it's not meant to be saved or downloaded at all, entirely. Nothing like the provision for, say, free-to-air TV where one can argue that they recorded from the channel... here there shouldn't be any recording in the first place.


They may not have aired it on a TV channel either because a. they can't afford to, b. Bandai has a special package and wants to tie them to it (in return for paying - well don't forget this is done by SUNRISE which is part of Bandai), or c. There are so many people who will watch it that they'll watch it somehow, so making it Bandai Channel will help them a lot.

I think c. is what they did in the case of Wings of Rean (Yoshiyuki Tomino's OVA)

mone-chan 2006-07-06 14:27

Bandi channel is a pay per view channel for broadband access to thinks that can recieve it like PCs and game consoles. link
http://forums.toonzone.net/archive/i...p/t-24305.html
The first DVD of flag being released in september. The first two episodes have already aired. episode 1 was june 16th and episode 2 was june 30th episodes 3-6 will air one per week starting july 14 then 7 on airtimes have yet to be announced.
I have yet to find anything out there on it except the trailer and don't think we will see anything until the DVD release.

orion 2006-07-06 23:56

So then this is a Bandai Visual title and not a Bandai Entertainment title? That means.... cool R1 release!

Bevisl 2006-07-07 00:57

FLAG Episode 01 screenshots

The Episode 01 release in somewhere already...?

wao 2006-07-07 13:02

Wow, I love the realistic feel of the character designs and the shading. It's awesome just to look at!

The raw must be circulating among Chinese circles - they're usually better at finding these hard-to-crack and terribly illegal sort of things. If I can't find it by other means in 1 week I'll have to figure my way around... or, technically, I should buy the DVDs OTL

orion 2006-07-20 09:28

There is an accessible raw out now for ep. 1.

MrProphet 2006-07-20 16:42

http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/3...3803dx5.th.jpg

Well, episode 1 certainly took my attention.

Here's the plot:

Spoiler:

That's the first episode there.

Now, the narrative device used for FLAG is nothing short of brilliant. Imagine this. The whole episode is told through the point of view of a camera or the shots that were taken by a camera. We watch Saeko either through the narrator's camera, or through Saeko's webcam, or through the pictures Saeko has taken. There is a ot of still photography there.

The man who has directed this episode obviously knows and loves his Digital Single Lens Reflex cameras. Think about the first episode of Suzumiya Haruhi and multiply it by ten. Whoever shot FLAG knows every single technical aspect of camera work right there. From the blur of movement to the artifacts to the background noise to the menus to editing work to how lighting affects a camera. Wow, it really is impressive and shows quite a professional approach.

It really is a photographer's dream. Despite the lenghy demonstration video for the mecha, with all the shiny 3DCG used, the best part of FLAG is the use of still shots to convey ideals.

Narrator's initial introduction to war photography, when images of life and happyness (as conveyed through family photos) is intermingled with images of death, grief and destruction, is impressive. When Saeko is looking at the military video of the mecha using it's powerful guns to destroy a vehicle, she immediately flashes back to the photos of grieving people that she has taken.

It really is presented with a very powerful message of photography capturing life and death on a daily basis. Very moving and meaningful.

The story itself is somewhat lacking and most of the episode is highly conceptualized introduction stuff that only starts showing the hints of a plot somewhere closer to the end, as we get introduced to the HAVWC crew. Perhaps we will be following them, as Saeko will be shooting footage for her project.

I don't know if they'll contunue using the camera POV as a complete narrative device even further, but I certainly hope they will, because I thought it was highly effective, imaginative and unexpected method of storytelling.

So, all in all, color me impressed. FLAG is a serious, innovative work that approaches a new subject for anime in a surprisingly fresh and realistic way. I am looking forward to further episodes.

Aniki Meiski 2006-07-23 18:42

I believe that the main character is Saeko Shirasu, which rhymes with Shirazu, not knowing, innocent.

DaFool 2006-07-24 07:47

I'm very impressed with the raw I watched. This is really professionally-done anime and I can see that the producers are going with hard-hitting realism more like Planetes than with, ahem, Speedgrapher.

What I noticed also was the western-style animation technique. Not just the character designs (with full lips by the way), but even their movement. It was still effective.

Although the transforming mecha is borderline fantastic, they still made it very tanklike and believable as a not-to-distant-future scenario.

wao 2006-07-28 05:00

Just watched this... I've got to go do some stupid survey analysis thing now but to be concise, it was excellent. Very suitable and effective atmospheric music; added greatly to the mood which I liked very much. I love the realism. The animation is, as DaFool mentioned, in a more full Western flavour, but it works very well (without being blatantly obvious) and is quite nice to watch anyway. The impact and power of photography is well brought across here... and it deals with everything in a very intelligent, non-melodramatic way. That's another big plus: no anime melodrama here... The sound design and voice acting were excellent; Saeko's voice is one of the most refreshing yet professional ones I've heard in a long time. She sounds very very convincing, without having to overact one single bit. Interesting to note the sound and music ishandled by the exact same team as Ergo Proxy but is much better here (better production schedule, of course). I love the ending theme too.

All in all, an excellent show, and I'll definitely watch more. Could be better than Planetes by the end of it.

mog08 2006-07-28 12:12

[deletes this messege]

orion 2006-08-02 19:59

Raws are out up to ep. 3 now. Do you think that a group will do this title? :sad:


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