• Auster@thebrainbin.org
    2·
    4 days ago

    Watched Suzume a few days ago. It was a good surprise.

    Some thoughts on it (beware spoilers)

    Pretty good imo. Drama, comedy and suspense well-balanced, and it could tell quite a lot of the background story by show-don’t-tell. Might also need to rewatch it though, as some details felt a bit on the air, like the storm seemingly being foreboding, and if it is tied to a certain detail on the later half of the movie. Or a scene just with Suzume near the ending, which I feel like there could be two interpretations, one that ties twice back in the beginning of the movie.

    Also special note about visuals and audio directions, which were fantastic. The big angle shots give a good perspective of scale, backgrounds feel hand-drawn (or as if someone spent far too long refining each image), 3D felt either kept to a minimum or well hidden, and the instrumental vocals sure add to when they appear.

    Also wonder if someone/the team involved with Suzume the movie was also involved with The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. The story flow, the juxtaposition of daily life and the fantastic, the switching of tones, the scenic views, sounds including music playing only if needed, even the art style all feel oh so very vaguely familiar…

  • CerebralHawks@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    2·
    4 days ago

    Wife and I have mostly been watching Gachiakuta, also known as the trash anime. It’s about a guy who gets exiled to what he thinks is an endless dump, but it’s just the real world, and also the dumping ground of a floating island he’s from. Trash, and discarded things play a major role in the story, and the magic system is interesting: the more love you give a thing, the more it can do for you. The story is kinda meh, but the world building is outstanding.

    We’re also watching The Expanse, a sort of dystopian sci-fi series where people living on Earth, as well as Earth colonists from Mars and other places (typically the asteroid belt or some moon or another) vie for control of… I’m really not sure what they’re fighting over, exactly, but nobody is happy with what they have and they’re all dicks to each other. Also, a hard-boiled detective is searching for some oligarch’s missing daughter, and some guys whose ship was destroyed are trying to track down the people responsible, for some reason bullying the guy from Deus Ex 3 who never asked for this and he’s letting them, but he also has secrets. And this is just the first season. It’s cool, but it’s hard to tell where it’s going and what it’s all for.

    • wjrii@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      4 days ago

      I literally love hearing somebody talk about watching The Expanse for the first time. Glad you’re enjoying it, and stick with it. It’s probably the best space sci-fi series of the last 20 years, and I’m saying that trying not to exaggerate.

      • CerebralHawks@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        2·
        4 days ago

        No, I know, and I hope you realise I wasn’t shitting on it. I like it, but it seems a bit aimless? But I like the setting and it’s not too slow for me. It’s not as fast as Star Trek or Battlestar, but it doesn’t need to be.

        I am also aware that each season adapted a different book in the series.

        Wife and I are committed to finishing the series.

        • wjrii@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          4 days ago

          No worries. I actually liked seeing a take with fresh eyes. The co-authors were deeply involved with writing the show, and frankly they wrote the books with an eye towards suitability for TV, so the threads that you’re trying to follow now will come together in a pretty satisfying way, I think.

          When they do eventually indulge in ship combat, that too comes off surprisingly solid as a spectacle.

    • ComradeMiao@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      4 days ago

      The Expanse is so darn good! Only sad they cut it short. Fantastic believe this was funded and so unknown!

  • ComradeMiao@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    4 days ago

    The new game of thrones show was decent. Avatar 3 was also okay. The housemaid was mid. Blood diamonds continues to be a fun classic.

  • wjrii@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    4 days ago

    Starfleet Academy, which has improved over the first season. I still maintain that the Galactic situation is actually insanely stable for it to be 900 years after Voyager, like to the point where it should imply a subtext about cultural and technological stagnation, but I don’t think that’s what they’re going for.

    Ghosts (US) is a guilty pleasure. My wife thought I was subtly trying to get her to try it when I would say as much, but I was not. It’s my Ortolan Bunting. Andor is the show I try to get her to watch, as yet unsuccessfully.

    Shrinking has settled into being wish fulfillment emotional comfort food, but it’s doing it way better than Ted Lasso season 3 did. I’m here for it.

    Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is solid, mostly because the casting and chemistry is spot on. The story itself is pretty by-the-numbers.

    Mighty Nein had a promising first season, and could end up better than Vox Machina.

    Finally, when I really want to just watch something soothing before bed, an episode of Frieren does the trick.