Sixty Years Since Mighty Atom: 2017
Feb. 24th, 2023 07:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
krpalmerLooking back just one day, I did get to wondering if I was being a bit disingenuous in my uncertainty about returning to Flip Flappers. I could have reacted to the sudden thought “do people really still discuss it even in this novelty-glutted age?” with “well, it’s their loss.” Maybe the real uncertainty should have been looking back and realising my own thoughts on the matter had muted over time, then wondering if my own tastes didn’t stretch far enough to really latch on to the series without the prompting of others. (My personal bridge between “anime not known to be anime on TV” and “anime known to be anime at university,” managing to stay interested in Robotech’s story for eight years through practically secondhand means without its seams rubbed in my face, does keep coming to mind...)
With that out of the way, though, I was willing to hope I’d find myself remaining positive about my next pick for the next year in anime. It’s possible “a constant drip-feed of material helps in its own obvious way” is involved; there’d been follow-up series for Symphogear and Gundam Build Fighters, and Shirobako had at least run longer and had a follow-up movie years later. One Punch Man had continued in its own manga, and so had The Ancient Magus’ Bride. At the same time, though, that story beginning with a resigned Japanese teenage girl binding herself over to be sold in the face of the misfortune of seeing spirits detaching herself from her family, only to just happen to have her luck turn around with who shows up to purchase her, turned out to be a more self-contained adaptation in animation. (There should be a new adaptation coming soon based on another “plot arc” in the manga.)
I was a bit conscious at first of Chise’s resignation being shown by the extra lines under her eyes, and by the animation trick of the animal-skull jaw of her purchaser Elias not moving when he talks. There was visual appeal to Chise’s life starting to turn around at last, though, and indeed a first “sense of wonder.” It led into a first magical crisis, and I wondered if this first episode would end on a cliffhanger only for things to be resolved. That led to the “bride” part of the title being invoked at last; as much as I wondered about just who might start questioning Chise’s resignation of will even before that little part of it showed up, I was willing to take note of what moments of resolution she did manage to show.
With that out of the way, though, I was willing to hope I’d find myself remaining positive about my next pick for the next year in anime. It’s possible “a constant drip-feed of material helps in its own obvious way” is involved; there’d been follow-up series for Symphogear and Gundam Build Fighters, and Shirobako had at least run longer and had a follow-up movie years later. One Punch Man had continued in its own manga, and so had The Ancient Magus’ Bride. At the same time, though, that story beginning with a resigned Japanese teenage girl binding herself over to be sold in the face of the misfortune of seeing spirits detaching herself from her family, only to just happen to have her luck turn around with who shows up to purchase her, turned out to be a more self-contained adaptation in animation. (There should be a new adaptation coming soon based on another “plot arc” in the manga.)
I was a bit conscious at first of Chise’s resignation being shown by the extra lines under her eyes, and by the animation trick of the animal-skull jaw of her purchaser Elias not moving when he talks. There was visual appeal to Chise’s life starting to turn around at last, though, and indeed a first “sense of wonder.” It led into a first magical crisis, and I wondered if this first episode would end on a cliffhanger only for things to be resolved. That led to the “bride” part of the title being invoked at last; as much as I wondered about just who might start questioning Chise’s resignation of will even before that little part of it showed up, I was willing to take note of what moments of resolution she did manage to show.