Dead Fantasy 3 — Assorted Ramblings on Direction

July 14th, 2009

Continuing from my previous semi-rant before… even though art and animation has been inarguably getting better across the board for last decade, direction really hasn’t. Many action shows think that they can get by with just grunting and stills, not that I’m looking at you, Needless, Basara, or any bloody Jump series ever. That makes things like Monty Oum’s machinima Dead Fantasy series all the more impressive. Sure, it’s fanwank to the extreme, but awesome choreography never goes out of style. No matter how well animated your grunting or yelling may be, it’ll never live up to real martial arts. Sadly, these days, real action sequences like you used to find in J2 or Tokyo Majin are the exception rather than the norm. I blame that drill show for repopularizing grunting, whatever it may have been called. I’m sure they’ll make a resurgence in popularity eventually. Probably at the point when people realize that extremely detailed background animation or falling cherry petals is actually very very boring.

Also, I’m glad that DoA got some love after the second edition was almost all Final Fantasy love.

Posted in Doujin | 19 Comments »

19 Shouts From the Peanut Gallery

  • IcyStorm says:
    July 14, 2009 at 6:53 pm

    Ooh, it’s finally finished. Dead Fantasy III-V are pretty insane, although I don’t think anything will top Dead Fantasy II.

    • Yue says:
      July 15, 2009 at 2:31 am

      Plus, Dead Fantasy II has uberpowered Rinoa in Angelwing mode. ^__^

      As if the Sheer Trigger gunblade wasn’t enough to overkill.

  • DmonHiro says:
    July 14, 2009 at 7:26 pm

    Well…anyone else recognize BlackStar Big Wave as the move Hitmi used?

    • Aroduc says:
      July 14, 2009 at 7:47 pm

      Assuming you’re talking about the last attack, it’s just a backward elbow strike. Probably borrowed from muay thai.

      • DmonHiro says:
        July 14, 2009 at 7:49 pm

        I know…but the way the materia flew out of Tifa after she got hit was pretty much like those spheres flew out of whoever got hit by BlackStar Big Wave

  • Anonymous says:
    July 14, 2009 at 7:45 pm

    Tifa got beaten up too easily, to be honest. She had all those materia and she didn’t bother equipping any Master Materia? If she had Master Summon, she could just spam KoTR. But then I guess we’d have to suffer through lag and the antagonists beating up the KoTR. Regardless, Tifa failed hard at the end. :(

  • muchan says:
    July 14, 2009 at 10:45 pm

    Hmm…at Anime Expo this year, parts III-VI (or was it up till V?) were shown during the AMV show. I must say, it gets very, very gory and bloody and violent. In other words, total win…

    • Suzumiya Yuki says:
      July 17, 2009 at 7:31 am

      Oh thank god there is IV and V.

      I was gonna cry that I was lied to when way back when I was told that The wrath of the Ninja(Rikku VS Ayane) was the next.

      Ermmm, there was a Rikku/Ayane in the full show, right?!!

      As for the III, I was more shocked by how powerful Tifa was in II. Not so shocked that she got OWN’D by Hitomi though. She was on Power Up from the go so Hitomi juicing up on Materia was obviously gonna be buttshit superior!

      Now I can’t wait for the rest….

  • Celestial says:
    July 14, 2009 at 10:56 pm

    nerd!

  • Anonym says:
    July 15, 2009 at 2:27 am

    Cause it’s always been a trope that temporary blinded heroes=win. But I guess I’m happy with the result. I wanted Hitomi to win anyways :P

  • jeffng9 says:
    July 15, 2009 at 4:59 am

    erm… finally we get to see blood? though tifa lost and hitomi win but i still feel this 3rd episode is missing some elements.

  • sora says:
    July 15, 2009 at 12:04 pm

    OMG! This was totally awesome! it has made my day :) tho I was surprised at it’s results (tifa losing) but it adds to the show! Great Job! I more interested now bc of the end!

  • moridin84 says:
    July 15, 2009 at 1:36 pm

    Compared to I and II(didn’t actually see two before this), I didn’t really like III. Seems kinda boring in comparision

    • jeffng9 says:
      July 18, 2009 at 4:17 am

      i totally agree with your comment. i can’t find the excitement that i find in the previous 2 episode. missing some elements like i say.

  • Anonymous says:
    July 19, 2009 at 7:10 am

    I still miss all the action in Airmaster, when are we going to get a fighting show like that?

  • Neclord X says:
    July 21, 2009 at 7:22 am

    It continues here…

    http://www.gametrailers.com/video/dead-fantasy-monty-oum/52836

    This guy lost his way, i allways thought Kairi was to much but HIM…how sad is this part.

    I think he is traying more than he can handle.

  • Hirvine says:
    July 26, 2009 at 11:01 am

    Monty Oum is really cool in thinking up combo’s. Poor Tifa, I guess she was exhausted. :)
    Where did the others go? I thought Dead Fantasy III would be huge, especially after the end if II were the party became huge.
    @moridin84 I agree, I and II were better.
    Mayby monty is pushed far too much by fans :/

  • Caliban says:
    August 15, 2009 at 5:14 pm

    Just my two cents on this… It frustrates me a little bit to see everyone continuously knocking DF 3 in comparison to #2. Granted, it wasn’t as drop-dead OMFG crazy-ridiculous as DF2, but hey… we’re actually starting to see a little bit of (*gasp*) story!

    Also, just to consider… I appreciate that Monty is continually pushing himself to improve. The technical work he put into this — trying new effects, smoother transitions, more complicated choreography — it’s encouraging to see that he’s not just “Oh, hey. People liked what I did in #2. Let’s just churn out more of the same.”

    I’ll admit that #3 is, perhaps, a small step back from 2 in terms of sheer wow-factor, but I’d argue that’s a -large- step forwards for the series in terms of content and technique. And frankly? I’m perfectly okay with that. Keep up the good work, Monty!

    ~ Caliban