(no subject)
Finishing the Mirai Nikki manga was both a good and bad move: good in that it satiated my curiosity, gave me a lot of interesting things to think about, and actually engaged me further in the anime by giving me a basis to make comparisons between the two mediums in order to determine which one I feel tells this fascinating story better; and bad in that learning what happens did take some of the punch out of the anime, since part of the fun of the series does come from the suspense of having little to no idea of what is going to happen next, and I find that the anime isn't really my "week-maker" anymore. I don't really regret the decision, though, especially because I didn't actually spoil myself. I feel good about having read the story from its source material as was intended.
But I digress. The point I want to make is that even though I already know what happens and therefore cannot really speculate about the anime anymore, I still find that there are loads of things to talk about. For example, the new opening and ending sequences which came out this week, both of which I quite like and have a few observations on.
But since I wrote quite a bit about the opening, and I don't have my thoughts about the ending quite together, I'm saving my thoughts about the ending for another post.
I had to watch the new opening a few times for it grow on me. What strikes me most about it is how much more generalized and less stylized it is than the first opening. The first opening focused almost exclusively on creating a mood of chaotic horror in lieu of having obvious references to the actual story (almost every reference to the characters aside from the relatively generic imagery of Yuno looking creepy and being violent is presented so abstractly and/or is blink-and-you'll-miss-it quick that it is initially very difficult to associate those images with anything in the story unless you have prior knowledge of it). It is more focused on conveying the desired mood of the story rather than any details about the story itself.
The second opening is not nearly as vague. It provides not only imagery associated with all of the important characters, but shows the actual characters and includes allusions to their respective plotlines. The imagery is also much more varied: the first opening was pretty much all bloody weapons and shattering glass and red tinted shadows, whereas the second opening includes images of the characters doing very different things. I think this is one of the second opening strengths because it does more to convey what a diverse and interesting cast Mirai Nikki has got. I also think that combination of the more straightforward pop-rock song, combined with more action imagery, gives the new opening a certain air of epicness. It's as if the opening is saying, "Now that you have a good idea of what you're in for, now it's time to take it to the next level and show you just how awesome this lineup of characters and conflicts is going to get." It's a good opening to indicate that events will be taking place on a larger scale than before, while at the same time holding on to some of the show's unique flair with plenty of creepy and surreal imagery, though it is much more subtle than in the first opening.
I have only one true complaint: the reuse of the Yuno clip from the first opening, very clumsily and unstylishly sped up. It looks terrible and takes me out of the otherwise interesting sequence. Additionally, it didn't really bother me that much, but I did notice that much of the animation in the sequence was pretty average. I'm also not entirely certain why they choose everything to be blue-tinted: I get that it's meant to contrast with the red of the first opening, but I don't fully understand why that choice was made other than for the sake of contrast. For the most part, though, I really like this opening.
But I digress. The point I want to make is that even though I already know what happens and therefore cannot really speculate about the anime anymore, I still find that there are loads of things to talk about. For example, the new opening and ending sequences which came out this week, both of which I quite like and have a few observations on.
But since I wrote quite a bit about the opening, and I don't have my thoughts about the ending quite together, I'm saving my thoughts about the ending for another post.
Click to viewI had to watch the new opening a few times for it grow on me. What strikes me most about it is how much more generalized and less stylized it is than the first opening. The first opening focused almost exclusively on creating a mood of chaotic horror in lieu of having obvious references to the actual story (almost every reference to the characters aside from the relatively generic imagery of Yuno looking creepy and being violent is presented so abstractly and/or is blink-and-you'll-miss-it quick that it is initially very difficult to associate those images with anything in the story unless you have prior knowledge of it). It is more focused on conveying the desired mood of the story rather than any details about the story itself.
The second opening is not nearly as vague. It provides not only imagery associated with all of the important characters, but shows the actual characters and includes allusions to their respective plotlines. The imagery is also much more varied: the first opening was pretty much all bloody weapons and shattering glass and red tinted shadows, whereas the second opening includes images of the characters doing very different things. I think this is one of the second opening strengths because it does more to convey what a diverse and interesting cast Mirai Nikki has got. I also think that combination of the more straightforward pop-rock song, combined with more action imagery, gives the new opening a certain air of epicness. It's as if the opening is saying, "Now that you have a good idea of what you're in for, now it's time to take it to the next level and show you just how awesome this lineup of characters and conflicts is going to get." It's a good opening to indicate that events will be taking place on a larger scale than before, while at the same time holding on to some of the show's unique flair with plenty of creepy and surreal imagery, though it is much more subtle than in the first opening.
I have only one true complaint: the reuse of the Yuno clip from the first opening, very clumsily and unstylishly sped up. It looks terrible and takes me out of the otherwise interesting sequence. Additionally, it didn't really bother me that much, but I did notice that much of the animation in the sequence was pretty average. I'm also not entirely certain why they choose everything to be blue-tinted: I get that it's meant to contrast with the red of the first opening, but I don't fully understand why that choice was made other than for the sake of contrast. For the most part, though, I really like this opening.