Thursday, October 11, 2001

Gasaraki - vol 1 and 2

Finally getting a chance to watch the first two Gasaraki DVDs. This was one of the anime titles that I haven't seen yet but looked very cool from the previes on other DVDs that I own. (Yes, I should post a list sometime of what I own.) It has a very nice haunting song in the preview (which is also used as the opening song) which is really what caught my eye.

The imagery in this series is done with a combination of what looks like traditional cell animation mixed with CGI. Some of the effects are very dense with the amount of information that is going on (on the simulated computer screens or the combat heads-up view). The style of the art is realistic (nothing cartoonish about the characters).

The first episode (On the Ancient Stage of Stone) opens with the quote (ADV's release does not show anything other than english text, so I don't know if this screen was originally in kanji or romanji):

With this path I take
In testament to the very kai I house within
I stamp my foot loudly upon this stage of cold hard stone.

The first thing you see is someone logging into the "GDS Operation System" using the login name "TApilot012". "TA" stands for "Tactical Armour". There's a bunch of other messages that flash up on the screen, but I couldn't make them out even with the zoom feature on the DVD player. This episode drops us right into a raid situation using the TAs (no introductions). We're then flipped back and forth between the raid and another situation taking place at a lake.

The second episode is called Opening Movements and begins with the following:

Forever present
The dark murky abyss below is swept by wind
Babbling waters echo, the introductory dance begins.

Labels: Anime

posted by Wuphon's at 9:07 PM