Normally I\'m not interested in Studio Trigger works, more often than not, they have a cast full of jerks with hearts of gold (I personally loathe this trope), a style so over the top that makes (in my opinion) them look like newbies, with bodies radically changing proportions each scene and action sequences so packed and over-the-top that you can barely see what\'s going on.
While I personally do not share your dislike for Trigger.... I have to agree this is a pretty accurate description of their style. Especially the bit about the bodies.
Pure curiosity though, why do you hate the Jerk With A Heartof Gold trope?
I was going to say that I don\'t see the \"cast full of jerks with hearts of gold\" descriptor. The way I see Trigger works is that they start off with plentiful charm and self-aware humor but they always fall apart at the end because their themes are one-dimensional (usually fighting against a unilaterally bad authority figure or fate itself) and their once charismatic main characters simply will their way to victory. This was true for Little Witch Academia, BNA, and Kill la Kill, and from what I\'ve heard, Gurren Lagann.
\'While I personally do not share your dislike for Trigger.... I have to agree this is a pretty accurate description of their style. Especially the bit about the bodies.\'
Yeah, this is their style, this is completely up for personal tastes alley, so I don\'t say its \'bad\' or \'good\'. Weirdly, I tend to prefer Madhouse Studios because while similar, their style is more controlled, they know when to go full bonkers and when to keep things smooth, and while they do sometimes have proportion problems its more \'you get what you pay for\', for example that awful X-men series.
\'Pure curiosity though, why do you hate the Jerk With A Heartof Gold trope?\'
Because of its overuse and extremes in media in general, especially in usa productions. There are many works where a character, or many character will behave as complete jerks or ass*oles who wouldn\'t have a single friend if it was real life, but because they do one or two good deeds, they\'re chalked as \'hearts of gold\', everything they do is forgiven or, worse, they are seen as good examples. So they can be awful to genuine goodhearted people, and will be forgiven by said genuine goodhearted people, while at the same time transforming said people into buttmonkeys or the target of their ire to rarely any comeuppance.
\'I was going to say that I don\'t see the \"cast full of jerks with hearts of gold\" descriptor.\'
I only watched from that list Kill La Kill, BNA (and other two works that I can\'t recall specifically), Ryuko starts the anime as a brash b*tch full of hate that starts mellowing out due to her friendship with Mako and Senketsu. In BNA Michiru while overall lost in this new setting, is also a brash loudmouth that can act like a bitch, while Oogami behaves as if he is the sole police of the setting, and at one point locks Michiru inside a closet, you know, for giggles! Their protagonists are an extension of their style, hotblooded brash-mouthed hyper-active that can do foul deeds for giggles, but its ok, they are good people!
I agree the show goes along pretty well, only to lose its way completely in the last episode. The finale wants to be taken somewhat seriously, but you have absurd numbers of cars getting blasted around like something out of the Blues Brothers.
It also annoys me the way the show suggests every Runner gets addicted to augments and ends up a psycho; somehow no one in this setting is capable of curing their addiction or dialling back, even when they see everyone around them going psycho. No one learns anything.
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Yeah, I agree, the show treats cyberpsychosis as something inevitable without giving a reason why. I didn\'t want to get into overly spoilerrific territory, but Everything after the timeskip stops making sense, and it gets worse the more you think about it. Why David went so unhinged in cyberization to the point of getting cyberpsychosis? EVERYONE not only told him to stop before getting burned, but he lost his mentor to cyberpsychosis right in front of him. There is literally no reason for him to burn himself up. \'Follow up Maine\'s dream\'? What was Maine\'s dream? Why would it be so strong to make David go the same path? \'Send Lucy to the moon\'? He even notes how cheap it is to send her there and himself, and considering that he lives in a sweet two-floor apartment in the middle of a hellhole and can afford very expensive equipment, that sort of money wouldn\'t be that much of a problem. The anime bites itself in the ass because there is literally no reason as to why everything would end up like it did, the way it did. David gained enough experience to know that tangling with Faraday is a gigantically bad idea, and its not like he can\'t refuse him. Lucy can tell him her story, but not that he is being targeted by Arisaka? Heck, even Rebecca\'s death felt cheap and unnecessary, if not comedically stupid. She literally has enough speed to kill fifteen goons in less than a second, but can\'t see that a titan is going to drop on her like an anvil and simply get out of the way?! Bad decisions pile upon bad decisions solely to move the plot to a bad ending.
For some reason, neither spoiler tags are working, nor editing my comment to remove the spoilers.
I agree the show goes along pretty well, only to lose its way completely in the last episode. The finale wants to be taken somewhat seriously, but you have absurd numbers of cars getting blasted around like something out of the Blues Brothers.
No offense, Maninahat, but based on your Marvel reviews, I... kinda get the feeling you are of the \"it needs to be grounded to be taken seriously\" school. Personally, that part didn\'t bother me.
It also annoys me the way the show suggests every Runner gets addicted to augments and ends up a psycho; somehow no one in this setting is capable of curing their addiction or dialling back, even when they see everyone around them going psycho. No one learns anything.
That on the other hand I admit I\'m a bit puzzled about, because, while I am not that familiar with the Cyberpunk setting, I did go check the trope page, and.... yeah. In the tabletop game at least, they do have ways to cure or treat it. Therapy primarily, or in the most extreme cases, just removing the implants.
It doesn\'t have to be grounded. A show like Jo Jo\'s Bizarre Adventure is goofy and absurd as hell, but I still buy into the melodrama of it. I guess the problem for me is that when the heroes of Cyberpunk easily, remorselessly kill hundreds of mooks in the span of a single car chase, it cheapens any other death for the rest of the show.
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...Ah. Then yes, you got a point.
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Does what's meant to do, but nothing else.
Normally I'm not interested in Studio Trigger works, more often than not, they have a cast full of jerks with hearts of gold (I personally loathe this trope), a style so over the top that makes (in my opinion) them look like newbies, with bodies radically changing proportions each scene and action sequences so packed and over-the-top that you can barely see what's going on. So when everyone started recommending me Edgerunners, I was actually a bit skeptical.
So lo and behold my surprise when this series showed me that this studio can do wonders if it has a good direction. There is still bits and bites from Trigger's over-the-top weirdness, but quite tolerable. This time the proportions are mostly kept clear and the fight scenes are 50/50, sometimes you can see what's going on, others its pure weirdness.
The start of the anime gives a good notion of what is to live in a crappy dystopia, fleshing out David's fall-from-grace, keeping the fact that he is special, but not THAT special at arm's length. Its always clearly stated that 1- There is always a bigger fish, and 2- you always pay for what you get, in more ways than one. The crew he finds is a surprising breath of fresh air: They do seem like a tight-knit group of runners, quickly opening up to David once he proves his worth, but at the same time they are clear that, in this underground life, they can backstab each other in a blink of an eye and keep parts of their personal lives well-hidden and clearly out-of-boundaries.
The middle, showing David's rise as a runner, has a superb piece of show-don't-tell action sequence, crispy-clear with a really good 'what a normal people saw' rewind that, frankly, I didn't thought possible for Trigger.
And then, the final stretch of the show. This is where gets really problematic to me, because it felt like the writers ran out of ideas on how to work this prequel story in an already established setting where they couldn't blow up a building or kill a huge distorted badguy, because everyone, everyone goes beyond grabbing the idiot ball. They grab it, they hug it, they become one with it, while attaching shonen clichés to replace their arms. All in order to direct it to an obviously tragic and completely avoidable ending.
This 'back to form' is so bad, that other fights with David fall back to the 'tell-don't-show' formula that the very same series proved they could do without, and it retroactively made a serious group of experienced runners look like newbie idiots. I'm not talking 'for the want of a nail' or 'inevitable ending in a crappy scenario', I'm talking 'completely disregarding anything remotely sane' levels of decision-making including 'stay right in the path of a five-ton beast while its charging at you'.
But in the end, it didn't ruin the whole series, just left a 'meh' taste in my mouth, and did what it was meant to do: Now I want to try the Cyberpunk game, warts and all. Good start, solid middle, bleh ending.