Alright, so back again with this week’s 10 Thoughts column! It’s finally June, which means summer is truly just about here at last. While this means the season of being outdoors, swimming and every other summer pursuit is very much here to stay for a few months, there’s still plenty to talk about when it comes to animation. Here’s this week’s musings:
1. Rewatching Assassination Classroom’s OPs actually gave me a newfound appreciation of them. Seriously, watch them in this video back to back to back:
There’s a condensed version of the show’s narrative being told in them, and even more cool (which can’t be noted here) is the fact that as new students or teachers join the class, they actually join the OP. This was most noticeable after Irina Jelevic joined the staff in season 1, as well as two other “transfer students.” The amount of detail as a result, is actually worth noting…as is the silly dancing of the first two iterations of the OP, which grows on you. Sometimes, the lesson to to be learned is that a refreshed look at some aspect of a show can make you learn new tidbits, and appreciate it all the more.
2. As has started to become a habit in this column, My Hero Academia isn’t far from the mind, and especially so with such a hugely pivotal episode hanging in the balance for next week. For those of you not watching the third season yet, this information should probably serve to ignite more intrigue, and for those of you who are watching, it’s going to be appointment television. (Then again, it’s really more like computer streaming these days. Seriously, I always liked the phrase, but it really made me just stop and think about my audience, and now I feel old.)
3. A big thank-you to all the new followers this week, and the continued support of those who’ve stuck around for a while here on AniB Productions. You know who you are- and it means the world to me. As for the past week’s pieces: It’s really true what they say about your favorite pieces not getting as many views, but plenty of love from the audience you care about the most, and that was certainly true with young Nagisa from Assassination Classroom. The feedback was pretty awesome on that piece, and for anyone still on the fence about the show in question, watch it! (Heck, I even talked about its OPs as point 1.)
4. I’m going to believe to the end of time that Coco was the best film of 2017. No, not just best animated film, but best overall film. It had everything- eyecandy animation that augmented the storytelling, an authentic cultural experience, lovable characters, a heart-rending narrative, and one of the most emotional endings I’ve seen in any film. I did write about it at Christmas, but this thought was reinforced after seeing quite a few of last year’s films since the semester ended.
5. Since we’re on the topic of movies, I really hope the third iteration of DreamWorks’ How to Train Your Dragon franchise really flies next year. To put it bluntly, the first two films are the only thing in the last decade that even remotely reached the level of Pixar (or now, Walt Disney Animation’s) finest movies in the same stretch, and they were both a pleasure to watch, complete with wonderfully fluid animation that brought this intoxicating, rough world of Vikings and dragons to life, and an emotional core to match. Maybe it’ll win the Academy Award this go-round though. Who knows?
6. Last week, I brought up Martian Successor Nadesico. I’ll be looking to try and turn that into a review, perhaps even this week. One heck of a catchy opening in that show, as I noted in the previous 10 Thoughts.
7. I’ve been meaning for a while to do a deeper dive into retro Western animation. You may or may not recall a while back that I did in fact take a look at Hanna-Barbera’s The Huckleberry Hound Show, and also wrote about the classic Looney Tunes episode “Duck Amuck,” but not much else. The classics are the classics for a reason though, and I’m very fond of them, and there’s a reason for that, beyond the history: most of them are still really, really good productions.
8. I noted recently that in a little over a month, it will mark the ten-year anniversary of the Avatar: The Last Airbender finale of “Sozin’s Comet.” What an incredible finish to an incredible show, and one that still resonates as deeply now as it did when it debuted.
9. Since I asked last week, if you’ve got a favorite character, leave a comment below! I might turn it into a “What’s in a Character piece” for the future, and that could be exciting.
10. Now I definitely need an Incredibles 2 thought in here: We’re finally within a tangible distance away from the movie’s release and I’d be lying if this wasn’t my most hyped movie in forever. It’s not just the fact that audiences waited 13 and a half years for this sequel to come along, but it’s also the fact that The Incredibles has always been my favorite film, since I first saw it in theaters back during December of 2004. The timeless narrative, which had an appeal to people of every age, and the innovative blending of a dynamic family narrative and the silver age of superheroes combined to form one heck of a movie, and one that bias aside, can still be consider one of Pixar’s best. Who knows? Maybe I’ll have an Incredibles review in the next 10 days…and then of course I’ll cover the film. I know my M.O. is shows, but my first love was always movies and you bet I’ll be covering this one.
Like what you see? Enjoy the 10 Thoughts column? Still have a character or show you want to see done? Leave a comment!
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