View Full Version : Gonzo and Nitroplus team up for new series
This can either turn out pretty good or to be complete crap. Gonzo is very inconsistent and anything from them makes me hesitant about signing on anymore. ANN is the source for this one again.
The Japanese animation company Gonzo and the design studio Nitroplus (Phantom of Inferno) announced at the annual Nitro Super Sonic event on November 1 that they are collaborating on BLASSREITER -genetic-, a new anime project with director Ichiro Itano (Gantz, Battle Royal High School). Niθ (Demonbane, Neppu Kairiku Bushi Lord games) is creating the original character and mechanical designs, and Naoyuki Onda (Gantz, The Animatrix's "Detective Story") is refining the character designs for animation. Gen Urobuchi (Phantom of Inferno, Fate/Zero novels) is supervising the scripts which are being co-written by Yasuko Kobayashi (Claymore, Shakugan no Shana). Noboru Kimura (My-HiME, Cosplay Complex) will write a preview manga in the January 2008 issue (on sale December 19) of Akita Shoten's Champion Red, and Shū Hirose will illustrate it.
I do like Nitro+'s character designs and Detective Story was my favorite Animatrix short. Hopefully Gonzo can succeed with a decent staff behind them, hopefully..
Fencedude
11-05-2007, 05:11 PM
This will either be the awesomest thing ever, or complete shit.
Dagger
11-05-2007, 05:30 PM
<-- Huge Nitro+ fan. GONZO or not, I refuse to be pessimistic about this. (Not yet, anyway). :)
This will either be the awesomest thing ever, or complete shit.
Completely agree. It'll all come down to directing and writing, because Gonzo's animation style will complement Nitroplus stuff very well so at least that's one hurdle jumped.
Suwako Moriya
11-05-2007, 08:26 PM
As interesting as the idea of a team up may be, I'll wait for more info on the actual series itself. Since the whole "Look who's making it!" only goes so far in my view. In short I can neither get worried or excited yet. At best I can only be curious.
LelouchLamperouge
11-05-2007, 10:23 PM
This will either be the awesomest thing ever, or complete shit.
Agreed. From the looks of the staff, it doesn't look impressive, but I'm always up for a Gonzo series.
Kurou
11-05-2007, 10:49 PM
I like Nitro+ (points to av), and Gonzo's done a few shows that I liked, so I'll definitely give this a try.
Westlo
11-05-2007, 11:08 PM
It will probably suck but I'll watch the first episode at least.
kakugo
11-06-2007, 02:09 AM
Seeing as Itano is directing, it'll likely be both at once. :D
I mean, I love the guy but admit that everything he's done is kinda' schizophrenic. Angel cop was equal parts Robocop, Scanners, and Mein Kampf and that was more than enough to keep me watching in awe that such a show could even get made, let alone have great animation and a surprise ending.
Battle Royal High School... I don't know what I saw over the course of that hour, apart from somebody exploding backwards, a Tiger Mask satire and a gender confused elf demon. All I know is it was pretty damn cool. Even if I don't have a clue what actually happened.
Similarly Violence Jack: Evil Town defines style over substance, using hardcore rape and psychedelic limited animation instead of the little things like character development and common sense. Plus a guy turns into a big rat-monkey-wolf thing after eating his shemale girlfriend. That's quality edutainment right there.
I've never seen Megazone 23 Part 2. I'm as surprised as you are.
And Gantz... well, I've written books about it on AoD prior, so I'll let anyone interested use the search feature for themselves. What a fascinating, if misguided, experiment.
Any project that has Itano attached to it is a title I'll be interested in. And having never heard of Nitro+ until this, my curiosity has defiantly been piqued. Nobody else has done anything I've actually seen, so again, I'll just say I'm looking forward to it and leave it at that until I hear more.
Vicserr
11-06-2007, 07:28 AM
This could be interesting, but just like Shoji Kawamori, Ichiro Itano should be kept away from the director's chair and just do the stuff he knows how to do well. :roll:
The official site is up (http://www.nitroplus.co.jp/pc/lineup/an_01/index.php) with a tiny preview clip. While it makes me a little less excited, the series looks to have a "Burst Angel" type of a feel to it.
Dagger
11-13-2007, 03:29 PM
With Gen Urobuchi, chances are that it'll be more like Burst Angel with an actual story.
I'd prefer more 2D animation to that heavy level of CG, but as long as the characters are still 2D, I won't complain--GONZO does seem to give its higher-budget series more CG, so that might be a positive indication about the overall production quality.
Looking forward to getting a better look at the character designs.
My expectations are already greatly diminished.
Suwako Moriya
11-13-2007, 06:51 PM
To be honest the trailer isn't really much to go by. However given how bleh of a series "Burst Angel" was. The more like that series this is then the less reason to even bother.
Westlo
02-15-2008, 04:29 AM
Saw this on that forum, Extended Trailer here. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkrgxOjXfwU)
This makes 16 series I'll be checking out this Spring season.
Nagato-san
02-15-2008, 06:33 AM
Watching the trailer, my fealings are split on it. On one hand, it's got the typical Nitro+ character designs. On the other hand, the Gonzo CGI looks like the worst CGI to come out of them so far.
Hopefully the plot will turn out to make up for the CGI.
Gatts
02-15-2008, 06:54 AM
Hopefully the plot will turn out to make up for the CGI.
As long as it's Nitro+ doing the plot and not Gonzo there shouldn't be a problem. Of course I would prefer if there wasn't any 3DCG in the anime, but I know that Gonzo doesn't know how to leave good enough alone.
something
02-15-2008, 07:40 AM
On the other hand, the Gonzo CGI looks like the worst CGI to come out of them so far.
Have you seen Dragonaut? That is, the worst CG ever put into an anime? EVER?
If you have, and this is even worse, then oh god... I won't even give this show one second.
Westlo
02-15-2008, 07:46 AM
It's better than Dragonaut.... but that's not exactly saying much is it...
something
02-15-2008, 08:06 AM
It's better than Dragonaut.... but that's not exactly saying much is it...
No. >_> Depends what is bring CG'd too of course. Guess I'll look at the trailer when I go through the list of Spring shows later.
And then probable drop it anyway. (Though I guess it's not dropping if I haven't started)
HitokiriShadow
02-15-2008, 02:40 PM
*sigh* More crummy CG. And they spend 99% of the trailer showing cyborg things fighting and only about five seconds of the characters.
I'll give this an episode or two, but I don't expect much from it.
Suwako Moriya
02-15-2008, 02:50 PM
Saw this on that forum, Extended Trailer here. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkrgxOjXfwU)
Nice to have a better trailer, but two words come to mind for me. Shiny and Boring. The trailer definitely does not sell me on the series. It's not so much the CG, but the fact I couldn't get into it. I felt no sense of motivation being created by it.
Watching the trailer, my fealings are split on it. On one hand, it's got the typical Nitro+ character designs. On the other hand, the Gonzo CGI looks like the worst CGI to come out of them so far.
Hopefully the plot will turn out to make up for the CGI.
Funny how that works, huh? As time passes the tools to make convincing and better CGI for less money keep getting cheaper and easier to use, yet Gonzo seems to progress backwards as the resources available to them progress forward.
And here I was feeling guilty about liking Dragonaut for the boobs(I'm looking at you Witchblade)
something
02-16-2008, 12:06 AM
Saw this on that forum,Extended Trailer here. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkrgxOjXfwU)
Oh good god no. I should not have bothered, but I checked this out.
Ugh. Get that CG garbage out of my animu. So, so very passing. Passing SO HARD.
Nagato-san
02-16-2008, 12:31 PM
On the other hand, the Gonzo CGI looks like the worst CGI to come out of them so far.
Have you seen Dragonaut? That is, the worst CG ever put into an anime? EVER?
If you have, and this is even worse, then oh god... I won't even give this show one second.
Actually, I completely skipped Dragonaut (Never watched a single episode, nor will I be buying it on R1 DVD), so I can't really compare what I saw in that trailer to Dragonaut. When I saw the CGI, I thought I was watching some FMV sequences from a Dreamcast or early PS2 game.
Nagato-san
02-16-2008, 12:36 PM
Watching the trailer, my fealings are split on it. On one hand, it's got the typical Nitro+ character designs. On the other hand, the Gonzo CGI looks like the worst CGI to come out of them so far.
Hopefully the plot will turn out to make up for the CGI.
Funny how that works, huh? As time passes the tools to make convincing and better CGI for less money keep getting cheaper and easier to use, yet Gonzo seems to progress backwards as the resources available to them progress forward.
Yeah, you would think Gonzo would invest in some better CGI (and I don't mean anything groundbreaking, but something on the level of the majority of the other studios.)
I know that CGI is cheaper to use, but maybe they should experiment with not using it at all.
As long as it's Nitro+ doing the plot and not Gonzo there shouldn't be a problem. Of course I would prefer if there wasn't any 3DCG in the anime, but I know that Gonzo doesn't know how to leave good enough alone.
Yeah, that's my only hope for this series is the Nitro+ story. At least they created an original (it is an original story, right)story, instead of letting Gonzo get Jingai Makyo
HitokiriShadow
02-16-2008, 12:47 PM
Unfortunately, the trailer tells us precious little about the story and what we get doesn't look promising. Oooooh, cyborgs and motorcycle robot things fighting. How exciting. :roll:
HellKorn
02-16-2008, 02:32 PM
That trailer makes me think someone within the studio wants to self-destruct.
I know that CGI is cheaper to use, but maybe they should experiment with not using it at all.
Problem is that Gonzo is synonymous with CGI (among other negatives, such as trite and incomplete series, inconsistent and frequently awful animation, etc.). To change would mean that they would have to get rid of a lot of their general staff to rise up to rise up to IG, Madhouse (when they aren't sending everything to Korea), etc.
rg4619
02-16-2008, 03:22 PM
Gen Urobuchi (all early NitroPlus games, Saya no Uta, Fate/Zero, etc.) has an unblemished track record when it comes to ero games and novelizations, so it'll be interesting to see how he does with anime. While I'm unfamiliar with most of his work, Phantom of Inferno is easily the best-written bishoujo game I've tried.
But yeah, Gonzo's CG looks like ass. It's too bad they've teamed up with such a questionable studio.
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