Quarantine Control #21: It’s Enough to Go Berserk

It’s far too easy to forget that we’re still living through a pandemic after so much time, given how the news refuses to let up on a daily basis to a tiring and infuriating degree. But it very much still persists. Though the spread is starting to relax again in the worst-hit countries (especially the United States), the death rate is still terrifying. Too many schools that have attempted to open with in-person learning have quickly realized how futile a decision it was, though several colleges are only doing this at the start as an excuse to charge full tuition and then be suddenly shocked when they have to stop classes due to COVID spreading through classes and especially on-campus parties. It’s a continued great time all around, but at least you can be entertained by these Quarantine Control entries.

 

Geoffrey Barnes

Whoa, I watched some anime in the last week.

Berserk: The Golden Age Arc (2012-2013)
Source: Blu-rays
Episodes: Three movies

The movie trilogy for Berserk’s Golden Age Arc is the second attempt to adapt Berserk into the anime medium, which is funnily but understandably starting with the same story (though after the TV series’ first episode). The Golden Age Arc starts several chapters into the manga, first presented in the form of a long flashback that documents stories in the series’ universe before the land went to hell with a massive demon invasion (to put it lightly). It is, to be fair, best starting point for the series, to see how main characters like Guts, Griffith, and Casca came to know each other and grew over time, and exactly how the land became a living hell, though it wasn’t exactly sugar and rainbows before that.

Yes, I’m being vague about the story here despite what happens to the three characters mentioned above and others around them being well known at this point. It’s best to go into these movies as fresh as possible.

In one way, the trilogy is a good way to get caught up to speed about this particular Arc compared to the TV series thanks to it advancing the story further and fully concluding the arc. But it’s still not perfect. It was possible for the entire story to be conveyed within the space of three movies, but this trilogy stumbles a bit in terms of giving each character necessary character development, time for the events to breathe, and pacing — especially early on. The first movie comes off feeling like a quick compilation of the earliest Golden Age events, jumping too quickly from one development to another. It still shows enough and provides just the right amount of context to prevent serious confusion, but at a mere 77 minutes, the first film could have been so much more if the production team was given more time to adapt it.

The second film fortunately has better pacing, though still lacks some necessary breathing room. The space between one break from a battle to the beginning of another one in the middle of the movie is too quick. Fortunately, the third movie is great all around, with excellent pacing and storytelling to showcase how everything literally goes to hell, and the series’ shift from a fantasy adventure with dark and violent themes to a horror-driven action experience. It’s also nice that the movies didn’t have to hold back with the violence and sexual content compared to the TV series, despite the latter getting away with quite a bit for a 1997 show.

The movies have snafus, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy them. They’re the best way to get caught up on the Golden Age without reading the manga. The heavy use of CG did look janky in parts compared to the 2D-animated aspects, with larger battles containing identical-looking soldiers going at it and select faraway shots having animation that simply doesn’t flow well. But the use of it didn’t detract from the storytelling heavily enough to ruin the experience.

Even though I enjoyed it, I still think this isn’t the animated adaptation a well-known manga series that’s been in circulation for so long deserves (though the long hiatuses have helped prolong it), but it’s the best anime introduction for the Berserk series that currently exists. It’s just a damned shame the adaptation of the Black Swordsman Arc through the CG TV series turned out so poorly thanks to an animation team pushed way beyond their limits. Perhaps Berserk will get the full adaptation it truly deserves when the manga ends, assuming that ever happens.

Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam: A New Translation (2005-2006)
Source: YouTube
Episodes: Three movies

I knew what to expect from the Zeta Gundam movie trilogy going in. They were originally made to condense the 1985 TV series’ 50 episodes into three considerably shorter movies, similar to what was previously successfully done with the original Mobile Suit Gundam. But Zeta’s effort wasn’t done nearly as well for a simple reason: Despite Zeta being longer than the original Gundam series (the original was 43 episodes, though was planned to be longer than that), the Zeta movies are shorter than the original Gundam movies, leaving less room to condense the entire story. I was well aware of this, but I was still surprised at just how much of a mess these movies are in every way after finishing them.

The intention of the movies, according to director and Gundam creator Yoshiyuki Tomino, was to condense the story so it would be easier to understand. But I would have had trouble comprehending what happened or why some characters were fighting at all if I hadn’t seen the TV series years ago, and already had familiarity with the plot. Anyone who hasn’t already done that will wonder what the hell they just watched after finishing this. It doesn’t help that the animation from the mid-1980s is mixed in with new animation produced 20 years later to condense portions of the story, to a jarring degree. This gets funny when the animation styles switch within the same conversations and some battles.

It’s a shame how these turned out, because behind-the-scenes reports suggest this wasn’t due to the production team. They reportedly wanted to reanimate the entire series from scratch for the movies, but production company Sunrise wouldn’t give them the money. That’s unfortunate, because beyond the movies looking prettier, it would have been preferable if the new animation could have been used to condense the entire story without the added complication of having to fit it in with the old animation. Tomino also wanted to make the movies a bit more lighthearted compared to the TV series. The many deaths that occur over the series are not undone, but a couple of characters are made more sympathetic.

The Zeta Gundam movies are fun to watch for curiosity’s sake, only if you don’t have anything else to watch and you don’t have to pay for them. (They’re only temporarily available on YouTube as part of the Gundam Online Expo, and will leave on August 31st.) But there’s no way you’ll understand any of the story and most character motivations by watching this without seeing the TV series first or reading an outside scenario. It’s possible the series could return to the Gundam Info YouTube channel one day.

 

Joseph Daniels

The far right, Donald Trump included, love to claim that the news has a Liberal bias.  They’ll call it fake news.  They love to discredit the media.  But when there’s a Conservative bias, it’s apparently more than acceptable.  Take these two tweets from the New York Post this week:

“Jacob Blake had a knife in his car when he was shot by police, DOJ says”

“Suspected teen gunman Kyle Rittenhouse spotted cleaning Kenosha graffiti before shooting”

They probably went over Jacob Blake’s car with a fine toothed comb just to find that small knife so that they could justify their use of excessive force against an unarmed black man.  Meanwhile, Kyle’s motivations were because he liked law enforcement and guns, so he’s very clearly a Good Boy.  A Very Good White Boy.

Oh, I’m sorry, did I get political?  Here, have a podcast instead.

Kevin And Ursula Eat Cheap
Source: Spotify (and/or your favourite podcast service)
Episodes: Ongoing (currently 298 plus bonus episodes and two “Pandemic Chronicles” episodes)

There are some things which shouldn’t be improvised, and the antics of the Swedesh Chef are high up on that list.  Compare his unscripted nonsense in Muppets Now to a video uploaded to the Muppets YouTube channel back in 2010 called “Popcorn”.  The Swedesh Chef can be funny, but perhaps there isn’t a place for him in the Muppets any more, at least not in the current incarnation.

Instead, this week I’d like to direct you to a much better and also totally improvised cooking show.  In Kevin And Ursula Eat Cheap, technology professional and media producer Kevin Sonney and his wife, freelance writer and artist Ursula Vernon, review food that can be purchased relatively cheaply.  Occasionally they’ll also review food that is a bit on the “spendy” side (read: more than a couple dollars will need to be spent on it), but it’ll still be affordable food if you’re on a budget.

Given that the show is recorded mainly in real time and so food is cooked as you listen, the topics will sometimes go all over the place.  This turns the podcast into more of a general topics podcast than a cooking show, but it’s entertaining nonetheless.  It helps that one of the two hosts is the mind behind such works as Digger and Irrational Fears, as well as the Biting Pear of Salamanca.  If anyone can carry a cooking show by improvising topics, it’s Ursula.

Be warned that if you do decide to try this series out, the episodes get longer as you go.  Early episodes were approximately a half an hour each, but eventually they grew to one hour, then started pushing two.  Episode 273, for example, is over three hours long.  I’d been thinking of listening to a recent episode before writing this up so that I would be able to talk about how the show has changed in the years it’s been around, but one look at that episode had me change my mind very quickly.  If you plan to listen to the archives of this show, you’ll eventually need to start setting aside an afternoon or evening per episode.  At least dungeons in the Dragon Quest series tend to be long, so I’ll have entertainment for those.

Hmm, what should my rating for this series be?  Oh, I know.  I’ll rate it out of empty ramen packages.  I’ll give it… 6 out of 7 empty ramen packages, but a good brand like Ichiban and not a crappy one like Top Ramen.  That way you do want to eat more than one because it’s good and not have to choke down several out of utter necessity.

By the way, this isn’t the only podcast that Kevin and Ursula do.  I should try out the other one and let you know, next week, what I think.

 

Please continue to stay safe and stay alert. This isn’t solely referring to the pandemic anymore, though that’s the reason why the quarantining continues. The hellish state of the world feels like it’s just getting hotter by the day.