[algo448]

Macross 7: That one Macross sequel that leaves the real robot aspect for a while and focuses on a music band fighting space vampires with the power of rock and roll.
Yeah... it's odd.

To be fair while that is the usual synopsis, the show has more than that, the UN is the main fighting force, and the "space vampires" are simply an alien race that for the biggest part also fights using Valkyries, so the usual humans vs aliens story is there, and Fire Bomber (the music band) ultimately ends up as a neutral force in the conflict, a pacifist group that doesn't shoot at either side but simply sings in an attempt to stop the battles.

And in that sense, it's quite promising, for once we have a genuinely pacifist protagonist in a mech show, Basara does not shoot, and learning that his valkyrie is loaded with live rounds was enough to enrage him, likewise the setup is interesting with the clash of interest between the regular military, Fire Bomber and the civilians themselves.

But Macross 7 is incredibly formulaic, every episode more or elss tarts with the band practicing a song, going to a concert, the Protodevlin attacking and Basara flying out in his plane to sing. While there are enough developments to keep the plot moving the format itself rarely changes. And the characters don't change much either with the exception of Gamlin and arguably Mylene.

Macross 7 is what I'd call an "acquired taste", music has always been essential to the franchise, and pacifism is a recurring trope in mecha shows, so in this case the njoyment comes mostly from how fond are you of the ideas over the execution, because in the end you stick with the show because of the rpemise and not the developments.

Also, every single one of Basara's songs are huge ear worms, it's an amazing soundtrack.

Shingetsutan Tsukihime: Hey, it's that Tsukihime adaptation that it's suppsoedly so bad that most people say it never existed.
Is it that bad? Not really.
Is it good? Not by a long stretch, but the shortocmings come from different aspects that what I had been told.

Adpatations are interesting, in japan the y tend to be more or less direct translataions of the original source, the same story told in a diffent medium, while in the western world we are more used to adaptations that drastically altere events or are mostly based on general ideas rather than an specific narrative, so once you add to that the fact that Tsukihime was originally a visual novel with 5 different routes you get an interestign result.

Shingetsutan is not a direct adaptation of Arcueid's route, as is common with VN adaptations it takes elements from all the stories, but in something that surprised me, it also changed a lot and added original elements, the characters develope differently and have new personalities and motivations, some of their roles like in the case of Nrvnqsr or Satsuki are drastically changed, and in all honesty, the way they set the events and organize the content is a pretty brillaint way to tell the story of Tsukihime, this is a different take on the story, their take, but it's organized on a great way.

The problem is not a matter of the order or the changes, but rather the way the scenes are prioritized, filler can be long, silences are extended and as a result the more improtant parts get very little screen time, specially confrontations, and that's mostly due to the animation.
This show has some of the worst animation I've seen in my life, movement is incredibly limited, and it ues every single trick in the book to avoid showing it, whether it is focusing on distant objects while characters talk, long shots, still images, this show does not want to move, and asu such the only scenes that are shown somewhat consitently are conversations, anything that involves action is downright terrible and almost impossible to recognize.

So it's the kind of show that can do good setup, but it's terrible at concluding it, and everything just screams low budget, giving the feeling that even the studio had low expectations on it and tried to paly it safe.

Shingetsutan is a bad show, but it's not aobut the way they adapted the story but rather due to the production values, which is a shame, since in all hoensty, I liked the way they tried to tell the story.