Distance Shots/Talking Heads #04 — Meanwhile, From Far Away

October 22nd, 2011

 

We really love those distance shots, don’t we?

Impressions:

Don’t let the clip fool you, it’s just the longest uninterrupted bit of action in the episode… and even that is still about half Saber standing there, narrating what’s going on. Most of the the episode was the same static shots from 50 feet away and focusing on everything except the fight that has plagued every single episode to date. "What’s Tokiomi up to? I bet it’s super important. Let’s cut away and watch him sit rock still for the next few minutes. Exciting! I’m so glad I got to see a slow zoom of his eye instead of some boring fight." Try counting how many times they use shots like this with slightly different backgrounds… usually for at least 30 seconds at a time, I think it’s at least 6. Close-ups of feet and weapons from 6 inches away while shaking the camera are the main attempts at ‘action’ through the first half. 

The second was definitely better, but every 10 seconds of ‘fighting’ is punctuated by two or three minutes of then talking about it. Better than cutting away entirely as the first half did, but still tedious and keeps the episode from ever actually being exciting because it feels the need to expound at length instead of trying to make what should be a visceral scene actually visceral. Sometimes I like to imagine if other media pulled this crap. "Bond is fighting Jaws but… wait, let’s see what Q’s up to right now. Maybe he’ll have a new invention. No? Okay, back to Bond. They punched each other once. Now Bond is wondering what Jaws’s teeth are made of. Enough of that, let’s cut to Goldfinger watching the fight via monitor off-screen. Now they’re staring at each other. Fan-bloody-tastic." Don’t make me start using Blood-C as an example for how to direct a cohesive action scene, UFOTable. I’ll do it. I will do it.

At least a couple minutes is better than nothing though, but it’s still struggling to get even up to Blood-C’s level of action, let alone what C3‘s done for the last couple weeks. That’s not a good place to be.

 

Posted in Fate/Zero | 13 Comments »

13 Shouts From the Peanut Gallery

  • feal87 says:

    “If you’re reading this, it means that I forgot to change the template.”?!

  • TEd says:

    boring bad horrible man anime is so horrible these days dont know which is worse this of shana. Both of them should have stayed done or for this make a sequel not a garbage prequel.

  • Anacone says:

    What’s up with all those money saving shots. They really have too much time to spare.

    • Nan says:

      Exactly what it says.

      From what I recall, there isn’t really much going on in the first book. Even the author thought of it as the ‘introductory part.’ While it definitely could be handled better here, I’m hoping they’re just skimping on purpose and saving their budget to do the later parts well. Optimism.

      • Anonymous says:

        I remember the bridge fight being really exciting, this scene should be better than it’s being presented by UFOtable. They’re obviously cutting things to save cost.

    • Anonymous says:

      Even with the distance shots, actual fight animation was top-notch, so it’s kinda fair.

      And Aroduc, the multi-perspective thing going around in the fight is the point of it, being the first fight in the war it’s also time to see how everyone is watching it and scheming.

  • takebou says:

    *spoiler*
    Lol, at least we get some hax berserker next ep.

  • Anonymous says:

    If next week’s fight doesn’t cut it then I think the future for this adaptation looks grim. UFOtable needs to remember that they’re making an anime, so doing exactly what happens in the book (which needs to tell the audience what’s happening rather than show it) isn’t a good idea.

    • Anonymous says:

      But that’s the point of this fight, they are testing each other and making strategies based on what they got. You need information, is not just random clashes.

      And in second half of the episode everything got awesome, so who cares?

  • The Phantom says:

    Bha, Blood C at least had fantastic fights, but this, wtf? all they do is talk, and in the middle of the fight they keep talking and when it seems that is finally going to start getting serious, some idiot musclebrain goes in the middle and interrupts them /facepalm.

  • FlameStrike says:

    Heh it’s refreshing to see some diversity in the anime blogosphere. Among the sea of “OMFG FATE ZERO IS THE BEST” (I agree with that though) some people forget that flaws exist in every anime.

    For me, the budget saving closeups and pan a ways are an acceptable trade off. The art and animation quality is so high and looks so good, it’s almost movie level. Out of all the shows this season, only Guilty Crown can come close to F/Z’s art quality. GC has more fan service, but less story depth.

    One’s tolerance for all the dialogue and cut aways that break up the fights varies depending on how much one cares for what’s going on in the background. Some people will be really annoyed about the awesome fight being interrupted. Other people, me included, enjoy seeing the bigger picture and plans made unfold around the fight. The fight itself is important, but there’s a hidden side to the war going on too.

    The quality of the fight was very well done though. In some anime sword fights and duels are just characters hacking away at each other, it’s fast and looks pretty, but can get tedious if drawn out. However UFOtable animated the details of the fight very well. You can feel the weight behind each blow and see the strategies forming as the duel progresses. Saber and Lancer clash while trying to gain a positional advantage against each other. Each stage of the fight pulled me in and flowed logically considering the abilities of each combatant.

  • jowny says:

    guys srsly if u have a problem with how theyre adapting the novels or whatnot, either stop watching the show or join the production company and fix their mistakes(which I highly doubt will happen…well in the end, ppl will always want to find shit to complain about…