Comments on: Genius Party 7 – Baby Blue

By: phuzybuny

phuzybuny — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 02:47:04 +0000

My god. I loved it. And about the jarring at the end, I thought my video card was frying on me. lol. It’s no wonder this was placed as the last installment to Genius Party not that the others were without their own fortes.

By: cheriev3

cheriev3 — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 16:21:57 +0000

Timon and Pumba mecha?! God forbid!

Beautiful story with a beautifully written analysis. We can expect great things from you, jiff! Looking forward to the next post!

By: mai

mai — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 09:14:42 +0000

Thanks for blogging about this, finally we have subs of the animation. This is my favorite episode from the set, Watanabe is truly a genius, he makes characters so real and so easy to relate to. The works of his that I’ve watched (Macross Plus, Bebop, Detective Story, Baby Blue) had characters that are very deep, my favorite character in anime has been Spike Spiegel ever since I watched Bebop

By: justam

justam — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 07:24:19 +0000

Thanks for blogging this! I checked it out last night, and it was the most emotional 15 minutes of anime I’ve ever watched. While it is about delinquent Japanese school kids, the last 2 minutes were strangely touching… I suppose Yoko Kanno’s score helped with that.

By: jiff

jiff — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 05:51:56 +0000

@ Impz

I thought it was under-blogged too, and it deserves so much more! Can’t wait to hear your impressions. I always look for a chance to talk your ear off on yim

@Hoshi

always happy to point people towards something I find interesting, and doubly so when they sound interested in return! be sure to tell me what you think after you watch it, i am curious how others feel about this awesome film

@adrastea

the others were really cool too, albeit a few were a little surrealist for me (happy machine). if i wanted surreal, i would go watch Un Chien Andalou again. if people like this, i might write review for a few of the others

@Maipeisu

You’re too kind! I’m glad I pointed you in this direction I agree about GL, needing a more frantic animation, but I think that I , like most others, was awed by the fluidity of the animation even if it seemed a bit out of place. I much prefer japanese usage of motion, but perhaps a blend of the cultures will lead to more interesting risks taken by both sides. (here’s hoping to a timon and pumba mecha lol)

By: Maipeisu

Maipeisu — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 05:05:05 +0000

Jiff, you can add me to the ‘I-will-watch-this-now’ list, because I am going to watch it now (lol). Seriously, I can’t believe that a gem like this slipped under my radar. I never, ever knowingly pass up a chance to court the finer side of anime, which, thankfully, is often accessible in films (much more easily digested than a whopping seasons’ worth of episodes and therefore much more feasibly set aside for recommended viewing.) Watanabe’s mastery of motion is intriguing to me because he balances anime’s stylistic choppiness (for lack of a better word) with fluid motion sequences more characteristic of Western animation. The end result is expressive character motions that are fortunately NOT reminiscent of a Disney or Pixar movie; they remain distinctly Japanese. To veer briefly off topic, many fans complained about the drop in Gurren Lagann’s animation quality after episode 3, which I agreed with to an extent, but I must say I was also kind of annoyed that the first few eps looked so Disneyesque. In that regard, the change animation style (Kobayashi’s doing?) was a welcome departure because a frenetic Gainax anime deserves suitably spastic, freewheeling, SD animation. Somehow Watanabe-sensei has never evoked that kind of distaste for me, a quality I am fully prepared to appreciate in Baby Blue.

…Anyway, I’m quite excited to see all of the Genius Party short films and will likely have much more to say after my first view. Truly, thank you.

By: adrastea

adrastea — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 04:45:34 +0000

I watched this with the other 7 genius party episode at the fantasia film festival.
And watching it on a big screen was wonderful and the ending was very touching and beautiful.

By: Hoshi

Hoshi — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 16:18:03 +0000

I’m agreeing with Impz, can’t actually say much right now. However, you have provided the push that will make me watch this. :] It has always been on my “plan to watch” list, but I just never got incentive to do so. Thanks for the review!

By: Impz

Impz — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 12:19:36 +0000

I have never realized about this series at all due to the rather non-existent blogging by any of the anime bloggers. However, this looks really beautiful and I will probably hunt you down later at yim to know more about this series.

*will say more when he actually watched the show*

By: jiff

jiff — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 11:42:18 +0000

@ blissmo

only 15 minutes less, that’s the beauty of short film ^_^

@ANIMEKRAZY123

when I was younger I used to hid under the covers with a flashlight to read, and I actually burned a hole in the sheets once. be careful with that towel!

By: ANIMEKRAZY123

ANIMEKRAZY123 — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 09:36:30 +0000

Oh!!! God, something else to watch T-T!!!! What a good and bad thing.
i’m staying up all the way till 3.am and earlier hiding from my parents and using a towel to hide the light from the cp screen T-T and typing xtremely slowly as to not make sound since it’s summer and i actually have a little bit more time than usuall to watch anime Oh the pains and joys of Ani-manga!!!!!!!!

By: blissmo

blissmo — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 05:34:05 +0000

Thanks for the review, now I’ll have less time to do homework since I’ll be too busy watching this lols.

And it looks like no one warned you about Impz being a trap either. Shame …