(no subject)
I've been more open about the fact I love the Magical Girl Lyrical movies far more than I do the original series. In comparison to the movies, I actually found each season a drag to watch. The internal dialogue in the opening sequences slowed the pacing down and was telling instead of showing. The use of tentacles and panty shots also made me cringe and made me frequently want to stop watching. They had great concepts, but were poorly executed for the most part in my opinion imo.
Both movies always hit the right emotional notes and had more solid character development, especially for Fate and Hayate. I've talked about it a lot, but I thought Gil Graham's presence was problematic and removing him made the story come together much better thematically.
Also, removing the cat girl familiars also means the creepy sexual assault jokes are gone.
The movies had far less creepy fanservice. The use of tentacles and panty shots also made me cringe and frequently made me want to stop watching the series. But unfortunately, the gross transformation scenes are still present.
I used to think the original A's airtight storytelling too until I re-watched it not long before the movie came out. I noticed a few things when I re-watched.
For one thing, Chrono nor Lindy have any reaction to the Book of Darkness (the super dangerous magic relic that killed a member of their family). We don't find out about their past involvement with the Book until about halfway through the season. Admittedly, we don't find out until that point because the mystery of who the masked men are is slowly unfolding, and Clyde's death is a crucial piece of the puzzle. So while it works from a plot perspective, it's not consistent from a character perspective.
Clyde’s death becomes more about Graham’s plot than it does his own family. Chrono’s main purpose in A’s is to uncover who’s behind the mystery. We don’t know he felt at the time of his father’s death, and Lindy doesn’t get to feel anything about it all. The only time she talks about her husband’s death is when she’s reassuring Graham that she doesn’t blame him for it. Poor Lindy lost a husband, and suddenly became a single mother. But we never see how she had to struggle. She’s deprived of a voice in the original A’s. The A’s movie changes things so she was the one who witnessed her husband's death. This shapes her role in the movie, and her relationship with Fate. Lindy wants to stop the BoD from harming any others, and her personal experience with it helps to build the plot. And in this version, her and Fate know what it's like to watch a family member die in front of them, they're helpless to do anything about it. And they end up becoming a close family who supports one another.
And finally, Reinforce was introduced so suddenly in the original A’s. They only way you know about her existence is if you had listened to the drama CDs. The audience really needed to be introduced to her early on in series. Her character was built up more before her appearance towards the end in the movie. Our sympathy for her grew as we found out more about her situation, and her relationship with Hayate was stronger. So her eventual death had much more impact this time around.
The writing in the movie was much stronger and more emotionally effecting to me. I haven’t even listed all the reasons I think that, but this post is already tl;dr. So in summary, I like the movies better because I think their more character driven and less problematic.
Both movies always hit the right emotional notes and had more solid character development, especially for Fate and Hayate. I've talked about it a lot, but I thought Gil Graham's presence was problematic and removing him made the story come together much better thematically.
Also, removing the cat girl familiars also means the creepy sexual assault jokes are gone.
The movies had far less creepy fanservice. The use of tentacles and panty shots also made me cringe and frequently made me want to stop watching the series. But unfortunately, the gross transformation scenes are still present.
I used to think the original A's airtight storytelling too until I re-watched it not long before the movie came out. I noticed a few things when I re-watched.
For one thing, Chrono nor Lindy have any reaction to the Book of Darkness (the super dangerous magic relic that killed a member of their family). We don't find out about their past involvement with the Book until about halfway through the season. Admittedly, we don't find out until that point because the mystery of who the masked men are is slowly unfolding, and Clyde's death is a crucial piece of the puzzle. So while it works from a plot perspective, it's not consistent from a character perspective.
Clyde’s death becomes more about Graham’s plot than it does his own family. Chrono’s main purpose in A’s is to uncover who’s behind the mystery. We don’t know he felt at the time of his father’s death, and Lindy doesn’t get to feel anything about it all. The only time she talks about her husband’s death is when she’s reassuring Graham that she doesn’t blame him for it. Poor Lindy lost a husband, and suddenly became a single mother. But we never see how she had to struggle. She’s deprived of a voice in the original A’s. The A’s movie changes things so she was the one who witnessed her husband's death. This shapes her role in the movie, and her relationship with Fate. Lindy wants to stop the BoD from harming any others, and her personal experience with it helps to build the plot. And in this version, her and Fate know what it's like to watch a family member die in front of them, they're helpless to do anything about it. And they end up becoming a close family who supports one another.
And finally, Reinforce was introduced so suddenly in the original A’s. They only way you know about her existence is if you had listened to the drama CDs. The audience really needed to be introduced to her early on in series. Her character was built up more before her appearance towards the end in the movie. Our sympathy for her grew as we found out more about her situation, and her relationship with Hayate was stronger. So her eventual death had much more impact this time around.
The writing in the movie was much stronger and more emotionally effecting to me. I haven’t even listed all the reasons I think that, but this post is already tl;dr. So in summary, I like the movies better because I think their more character driven and less problematic.