Anime Brigade: We all have 8th grade syndrome~

[Lord Celebi]

I'm trying to decide if I should watch Kill la Kill. It has a big fanbase, and people love to discuss it but I fear I can be too picky. I am very open minded though, I'm not easily offended and such I just crave good character development and a smart plot. I'm not sure if Kill la Kill has either of those things, anyone care to tell me otherwise? haha. :P

No, it doesn't really have brilliant character development or an entirely original plot. It's pretty friggin' awesome though. The visuals are gorgeous and the characters are a hot-blooded mess of awesome.

[Homura]

Ya KLK was basically a show designed to be over-the-top.

In any case, Rebellion's out on BD. Wheeeeeeeeeeeee~

[Braixen]

In any case, Rebellion's out on BD. Wheeeeeeeeeeeee~

Just rewatched it last night, was an even better experience without the multilingual subtitles and horrible cam corded quality haha. I definitely recommend rewatching it now to anyone who hasn't yet. It's an awesome anime movie, but part of me wishes it was a season two or the anime series or at least a 6 or 7 part series since it felt a tiny bit rushed and a LOT happened. I loved some of the "for the fan things" like the magical girl transitions (Kyoko is the best!!) and the fight scenes are great. Eeek.

It was beautiful to watch again.

[Homura]

I picked up a lot of stuff that I didn't see the like 5th/6th time through. this movie is packed with a lot of little things and checkov's objects are everywhere if you look carefully for them. It's incredible how much they packed into such a small package.

There's a Homura 1st take version of audio, which gives you the 1st take of Homura's dub for the movie, which essentially changes the flavour and meaning of the ending completely. I'm glad they didn't use the 1st take, but if you're SUPER hardcore die-hard, it's worth it to go through it again.

The story hasn't ended for Madoka. So...ya wait a couple years. Urobuchi isn't done yet, afaik.

[Braixen]

Hmm! I wonder what they will come up with then, they really left it at a point where it could go either way. Eek. I will probably watch it again in a couple month just to take in more... and to watch all that insane animation again, oh my!
@Homura
Have you watched Kaiba?

[Homura]

I haven't watched Kaiba actually. I heard about it though. :3

~~~~~~~~~~

Currently gushing over how awesome No Game No Life is. That anime gets the over-the-topness right as well. lol

[Lord Celebi]

@Homura... so I did it. I started Madoka Magica. For years I wrote it off, but I am half way through it right now and it's pretty good. However, whenever I see Homura, I keep thinking he's you because your avatar has been Homura for the last two years so that's how I've always pictured you in my head. It's weird as hell. x.x

I was thinking though... there should be a guy version of Madoka Magica but instead it's about how a bunch of gym rats become Magical Bros.

EDIT: Holy crap. Kenny. I just watched Rebellion. What the hell happened?

[Homura]

@Homura... so I did it. I started Madoka Magica. For years I wrote it off, but I am half way through it right now and it's pretty good. However, whenever I see Homura, I keep thinking he's you because your avatar has been Homura for the last two years so that's how I've always pictured you in my head. It's weird as hell. x.x

I was thinking though... there should be a guy version of Madoka Magica but instead it's about how a bunch of gym rats become Magical Bros.

EDIT: Holy crap. Kenny. I just watched Rebellion. What the hell happened?

Nya~
Well I dunno about gym rats, considering where I am. But I'm glad you think it's weird as hell I'm Homura~

Rebellion was really good. The "what the hell happened" can probably fill like a few pages of discussion. I personally have a lot of my own speculation and understanding going into it.

[Lord Celebi]

Rebellion was really good. The "what the hell happened" can probably fill like a few pages of discussion. I personally have a lot of my own speculation and understanding going into it.

@Homura

Spoiler:

After the initial shock, I spent most of Saturday morning reading critical reviews of the film. In particular, Bobduh's recently article about the film really put into perspective some of the things that I wtf'd at. I still definitely need to watch the whole movie again to piece it together, though.

I would contend that the entire movie is Gen Urobuchi thumbing his nose at Hideaki Anno moreso than his fanbase. The film, stylistically, is quite similar to End of Evangelion in ways that I feel like Urobuchi was trying to outdo Anno. In some ways, he succeeds. In terms of pure vision, the artistic design of Rebellion is fucking gorgeous. However, during the phantasmagoria scene of Rebellion, the narrative is driven far more by plot than it is by themes, unlike End, wherein the Phantasmagoria propels and climaxes the themes of Evangelion.

As a sidenote, one of my favorite bits of the movie is when everything goes to shit there are signs in the movie saying "Do you enjoy the movie?" Definitely got the sense that Urobuchi was mocking his audience there and loved every second of it.

[Homura]

@Lord Celebi

Spoiler:

I like the read, rusty.

My initial analysis of the movie did actually state that the first hour or so was a critique of the fanbase, i.e. an illusion written for the fanbase specifically for Urobuchi to write down upon. It's his statement of the fanbase being wrong. It's interesting that this particular review also has the same interpretation as I do, as the majority of critics and reviewers consider it as simple fanbase pandering and fan service. Still, his insistence that the entirety of the movie is essentially "indulgence" does annoy me, if you consider that the final half hour of the movie was nowhere near what fans would call indulgent, and it alienated many fans.

There were many, many examples of people stating Homura went completely out of character in the final part of the movie. That's preposterous, because Homura is internally consistent throughout the entirety of the movie. The only things that changed about her as a character was her methods and her understanding of the world. Rebellion is a character piece, an exploration of Homura as a character, tossed in with fluff and fan pandering that ultimately gets shattered. This is why Rebellion is a departure from the original series, because it's not about magical girls and their struggles. It's about Homura and only Homura.

However, the urgency of Homura's decision was one she had to make. Kyubey continued to mock her throughout the witch portion of the movie. His tacit confirmation (by not revealing anything, as usual) of what he, as part of the universe, would do to Madoka enforces the fact that Homura cannot possibly protect Madoka in her current state as a witch, much less in the state where she would become (non-existence). She had to destroy/separate the law of cycle herself to protect Madoka.

I must admit, much of what I like about Homura is due to how reflective of me she is. I'm, ironically not much different from her in her past and current form. What I ended up seeing at the end was not strictly an act of violence, but rather an act of selfishness and selflessness. To her, and to me as I was watching it, there was the option of inaction and failure to protect Madoka, or action to actively do so. In that sense, her decision was logical. Why not do something in the grey area to get what we want?