Fairy Tail Dragon Cry Thoughts

This is more of general thoughts than a review proper so excuse me if the structure is a tad messy. So i went to see Fairy Tail Dragon Cry at a local cinema on the 17th and while i did have a good time overall (The humour was on point), there are definite issues with this movie and not just on a story level. Before we get into it here's the trailer so you can see the quality of film we are dealing with.

Top 10 Favourite Cuts (Animated Sequences) of 2016

Well that certainly was quite a year for anime. After One-Punch Man's excellence last year, Studio Bones decided to fight back to reclaim their place at the top of the anime industry with Mob Psycho 100, Fairy Tail's second series ended with a high note adapting the well liked Fairy Tail Zero spinoff manga, Funimation and Crunchyroll combined to form an Industry Voltron of sorts, Makoto Shinkai became the new Miyazaki apparently, Naruto kind of ended but didn't, Yoshihiko Umakoshi worked himself silly, Terumi Nishii exploded back on the scene with her designwork on Jojos Part 4 and Toei Saved Christmas. It was a bit of a tough year on many other fronts however for a lot of people (Including me) which is why I'm glad that dumpster fire of a year is gone. Lets see how 2017 treats us and just be glad it finally arrived.

Now like last year, the 3 simple rules i set for myself are as follows:

• I have to have watched the show (no just seeing a cool clip on sakugabooru, i have to have watched a good amount of the thing).
• The show must have aired this year (only episodes of a continuing show that aired this year count).
• One sequence per show.

Warning before we continue as usual, there will be spoilers for many shows including but not limited to Mob Psycho 100, Jojo's Bizzare Adventire, Sound Euphonium and more. Now without further adieu.

Batman: The Killing Joke Review

Full disclosure, i ain't never read the Killing Joke and i don't plan to but if i did i know for sure I'd enjoy it more than this adaptation. To call this movie disappointing would be a big understatement. It's not even that its that bad but there are choices made here that hurt the movie greatly and coupled with the animation issues we have a lot to discuss here, let's get into it.

Architecture in Anime: It's use as a visual storytelling device among other things

Architecture is something I've been passionate about for a very long time. Since i was a wee lad in my southern African nation of origin (not South Africa) reading about what cool buildings were being constructed around the world in glossy magazines in fact. It's the art form that has the most impact on even the most casual observer as we interact with architecture every waking moment of our lives. Architecture for me is the design of buildings, structures, objects or spaces for a specific purpose. Be it simply for shelter, for a client, for oneself or for the art of it, you are very calculated in the way you approach designing something like this as you think about every single variable and try to account for as many different types of uses as possible. Most architects like their work to be flexible so it can be used for more than even the specific use they had in mind as you never know what the future holds for any building.

As much of an animation fanatic as i am, architecture is the art i chose to study in the end. There's several reasons why that's the case but to put it simply, I just love architecture. I've recently become more interested in analysing architectural essays by many great architects but never really read much discussion about architecture and its uses in other mediums of expression. Specifically in storytelling mediums such as film and animation. You tend to find more writing of that nature from individuals who are in those fields than from architects themselves. So here's a little analysis of architectures use in the medium of animation from someone that's kinda passionate about both.

Top 10 Favourite Cuts (Animated Sequences) of 2015

Well that certainly was quite a year for anime. Continuing on from how good 2014 was, 2015 was yet another good year with lots of shows to enjoy. Plenty got ridiculously popular. Yutaka Nakamura had a particularly noteworthy year producing some of the best work of his career and that's saying something since his work is always exceptional. On the movie front we got a meh Psycho Pass movie that at least was a decent action movie rather that total shit like season 2. Miss Hokusai came out, Studio Wit didn't completely screw up with Seraph of the End. Ufotable shit the bed on God Eater and i laughed for days. A lot went on this year but overall for me this year i probably watched a lot less anime than i did last year. Mostly down to personal preference as there were less shows i could really get into but the ones that were there for me entertained me to no end. My favourite anime of the year is a four way tie between Shirobako, Seven Deadly Sins, One-Punch Man and Ushio and Tora. Ushio and Tora specifically started a bit slow but i've grown to really love it despite the fact it hasn't been giving me much sakuga to sustain me. The good scenes we have gotten were by Yoshihiro Kanno and Kanno is whats keeping that show afloat with his episodes as animation supervisor being the best by far. Now like last year, the 3 simple rules i set for myself are as follows:

• I have to have watched the show (no just seeing a cool clip on sakugabooru, i have to have watched a good amount of the thing).
• The show must have aired this year (only episodes of a continuing show that aired this year count).
• One sequence per show.

Warning before we continue as usual, there will be spoilers for many shows including but not limited to Seven Deadly Sins, One-Punch Man, Shirobako and more. Now without further adieu.