Birdy the Mighty Decode:02 Discussion Thread

[Fencedude]

Second season of Birdy the Mighty

ANN (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=10207)
Official Site (http://www.birdy-tv.com/)


Note
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[Fencedude]

Picking up a month after the end of the first season, we see the hijacking of a prisoner transport ship.

Back on Earth, Birdy and Tsutomu continue their life together, Tsutomu and his friends getting roped into helping Hayamiya investigate the event from a month ago.

The criminals arrive on earth and get disguised as humans, Birdy is ordered to track them down.

There is a large amount of ARITA SHION DE ARIMASUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

Birdy finds one of the aliens, but he is murdered before she can take him into custody.

Tsutomu gets hit by a car.

On the way out of the hospital, Birdy meets an old friend...

[cxt217]

There is a large amount of ARITA SHION DE ARIMASUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU


...And we see a very familar face, looking even less excited than Arita Shion, standing in the background...

C.T.

[Fencedude]

There is a large amount of ARITA SHION DE ARIMASUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU


...And we see a very familar face, looking even less excited than Arita Shion, standing in the background...

C.T.

Yes! Forgot to mention her (also I've forgotten her name) but seeing her in the schoolgirl outfit was hilarious.

[HitokiriShadow]

Wow, that was a pretty bloody episode. OP is decent but I liked the previous one, in terms of music, a bit better. This was one of the shows I was looking forward to the most this season and I wasn't disappointed.

It seems Capella is staying with the old hag as well, but while she popped up in one scene, they didn't say anything about her. I'm pretty sure Birdy would recognize her, even with that gettup, so I'm curious what's going on with her.

Looks like the running joke with the Yakuza guys' car is continuing in this season. And apparently, eskimos make for good disguises when trying to keep a low profile in Japan.

I'll be shocked if Nataru lives to see the credits scroll in the final episode.

Edit: Also, the ED is really cute and in an interesting style.

I've recently taken an interest in looking into who's involved in certain areas of shows, particularly ones that are very well animated and visually appealing. And I'm particularly interested in Studio A-1 titles since they are new guys on the block. So I was looking at the director, art director and chief animator for this series. All of them have a fairly small resume but have been involved with a decent number of good looking, well animated shows. The director and art director have both been around for over a decade but haven't done a whole lot.

The chief animation director, Ryousuke Sawa, as worked on about the same number of titles but all are from within the last 2-3 years. Also, this is his first gig as chief animation director; everything else was in key animation for particular episodes, including series like Gurren Lagann, Baccano, Seirei no Moribito, Kamichu, Black Lagoon, and Noein. Actually, all three of the people I was looking at worked on Noein along with several other people in production, so that was interesting. I haven't seen Noein yet, but I saw some previews that looked pretty impressive. My Noein set just arrived a few days ago and its next up on my viewing list.

[Fencedude]

I'll be shocked if Nataru lives to see the credits scroll in the final episode.

I'm already 99% certain where they are going with him, and I just hope they can do it in a way that is simultaneously not incredibly skeevy and not facepalmingly stupid.

[HitokiriShadow]

I'll be shocked if Nataru lives to see the credits scroll in the final episode.

I'm already 99% certain where they are going with him, and I just hope they can do it in a way that is simultaneously not incredibly skeevy and not facepalmingly stupid.

Where are you expecting them to go with him?

[Fencedude]

Where are you expecting them to go with him?

Tsutomu is currently sans-body, and the Federation either can't (or won't) create a new one from scratch (or we wouldn't be in this situation to begin with).

Tsutomu will end up in Nataru (Natal?)'s body by the end of the series.

It solves any number of issues, when you think about it.

[HitokiriShadow]

Where are you expecting them to go with him?

Tsutomu is currently sans-body, and the Federation either can't (or won't) create a new one from scratch (or we wouldn't be in this situation to begin with).

Tsutomu will end up in Nataru (Natal?)'s body by the end of the series.

It solves any number of issues, when you think about it.

I hadn't thought of that at all. It seems like a good possibility.

[something]

Episode 1:

- Really cool OP animation, though I'm not feeling the song yet.
- Well, that was actually sort of bloody. Neat.
- Looks like we're one month later, so not a lot of time has passed since season one.
- Hayamiya! <3 Tsutomu sucks at talking to himself.
- ARITA SHION LOOOOOOOOOVE
- Hmm, so the premise for this season is capturing the high ranking officials who were behind the Ryunka debacle. That could be pretty good.
- Bwhahaha, it's whatshername in a Kannagi school uniform. XD
- Nice tension building music and animation as Birdy gets ready to take the first guy out.
- Though she's beaten to it!
- HAHAH! Oh god, poor Tsutomu. Run over by the same recurring characters who just seem to have no luck with cars.
- And he's trying to explain to the doctor why he's completely unharmed. XD!
- Then Birdy meets a friend from her past, who looked waaaaay too much like Tsutomu back then, though that seems to be intentional.

Oh my godddddddddddd the ED is just beyond adorable. Adorable!!

Very nice start to the second season.

[something]

Tsutomu is currently sans-body, and the Federation either can't (or won't) create a new one from scratch (or we wouldn't be in this situation to begin with).
Tsutomu will end up in Nataru (Natal?)'s body by the end of the series.
Hmm. Well, younger Nataru does look exactly like Tsutomu so no doubt that's roughly how an older Tsutomu would look. But it's almost like they'd need some kind of time skip in this season then, and the setup doesn't seem conducive to that. Nataru is just too much older looking than Tsutomu, and for Tsutomu to take his body, he'd either have to leave his whole current life behind or let everyone in on the details.

...or they might all die, negating the need to explain ;_;

(And yeah, Natarl is probably right, since he's an Alterian, not Japanese. It probably doubles as a convenient cover name in Japan since it's so easy to convert over.)

[jcrharris]

Episode 1:

- Really cool OP animation, though I'm not feeling the song yet.
- Hmm, so the premise for this season is capturing the high ranking officials who were behind the Ryunka debacle. That could be pretty good.
- Nice tension building music and animation as Birdy gets ready to take the first guy out.
- Though she's beaten to it!
- Then Birdy meets a friend from her past, who looked waaaaay too much like Tsutomu back then, though that seems to be intentional.

Oh my godddddddddddd the ED is just beyond adorable. Adorable!!

Very nice start to the second season.

- I'm also not feeling the new opening song. It lacks the catchiness of 'Sora'.
- The next logical step in the story, it had always stated that the theft of the Ryunka was a conspiracy against the Union.
- I hope Birdy/Shion getting spotted by that maid doesn't come back to haunt her in later episodes.

I like how the season is starting though it seems one of the dangling threads from season 1 (Gomez) won't be involved in this story. As for Birdy's friend... c'mon if this guy lives after the alst episode I'll be stunned.

James

[Fencedude]

- I hope Birdy/Shion getting spotted by that maid doesn't come back to haunt her in later episodes.


What do you mean, you hope it doesn't!?

[something]

- I hope Birdy/Shion getting spotted by that maid doesn't come back to haunt her in later episodes.
I was wondering about that too. :sd: I can see the lady turning on the TV and seeing Arita Shion de arimasuuu~~ and calling the cops. Though, it could be a lot worse - Birdy just needs to never take that form again (though I'd be sad if so) and the cops' investigation would grind to a halt.

[cxt217]

- I hope Birdy/Shion getting spotted by that maid doesn't come back to haunt her in later episodes.
I was wondering about that too. :sd: I can see the lady turning on the TV and seeing Arita Shion de arimasuuu~~ and calling the cops. Though, it could be a lot worse - Birdy just needs to never take that form again (though I'd be sad if so) and the cops' investigation would grind to a halt.

Well, aside from the fact the body disappeared, and that it was in partial light, and for that matter, Arita Shion has 'witnesses' who probably would back her alibi up (For a price.)...

C.T.

[HitokiriShadow]

I like how the season is starting though it seems one of the dangling threads from season 1 (Gomez) won't be involved in this story.

It's only been one episode. He has another 11-12 episodes to make an appearance and I have no doubt he will.

[jcrharris]

I like how the season is starting though it seems one of the dangling threads from season 1 (Gomez) won't be involved in this story.

It's only been one episode. He has another 11-12 episodes to make an appearance and I have no doubt he will.

Well, I'm guessing that due to his non-presence in the opening that he might not be involved but that could be a dupe. Man this show and manga need to get picked up. They are just too much fun.

James

[cxt217]

It seems Capella is staying with the old hag as well, but while she popped up in one scene, they didn't say anything about her. I'm pretty sure Birdy would recognize her, even with that gettup, so I'm curious what's going on with her.


You think Birdy would know who she is, but maybe not, since Birdy did not actually get a good look of her the last time they met, though the Diety who captured the Ryunka did.

Of course, that raises the question of why she is still on Earth, since the other conspirators involved with the Ryunka and were uncovered got arrested, which help set-up the plot of the second season...

Looks like Capella will actually have a speaking part in Episode 2...

C.T.

[Shiroi Hane]

- Bwhahaha, it's whatshername in a Kannagi school uniform. XD

Glad I'm not the only one who thought that and also can't remember her name. I did like her character design in the first series so good to still have her around.

[Shiroi Hane]

I've recently taken an interest in looking into who's involved in certain areas of shows, particularly ones that are very well animated and visually appealing. And I'm particularly interested in Studio A-1 titles since they are new guys on the block. So I was looking at the director, art director and chief animator for this series. All of them have a fairly small resume but have been involved with a decent number of good looking, well animated shows. The director and art director have both been around for over a decade but haven't done a whole lot.
There was an article in A-1 in the first volume of Animage Original and I have pictures of a few of the pages here (http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/CfZv0PD41SfbDbdfThHlhw?feat=directlink) if you are interested.

[pi8you]

Gah, I somehow missed this last weekend ;_; Still, its back with a vengeance(and the awesome jump sounds), so I'm quite happy.

So am I alone in liking both the OP animation and track? Sure, its a bit of a different tone than the first season, but it had me hooked pretty quickly. Regardless, I think we can all agree that the ED is the most adorable thing ever(but what's with the crossed out line towards the end?).

Nice to see that Tokyo actually has to deal with the repercussions of the Ryunka, as well as the whole angle with the conspirators that initially released it- :poof: instant stable of targets for the show to focus on. And who's her competition?

Capella looks sooooo thrilled to be wandering around with the old hag >_>

I could certainly see Tsutomu merging with Nataru, but that ruins the dual-gender hijinks and convenient disguising :(

[pi8you]

Well, this has gotten a bit personal now, hasn't it?

- Serious Business flashback, wonder who her mystery savior is....
- Catching up on old times, leaving Tsumoto in the dust
- Artist's Rendering of the murderer... Bwahaha!
- Poor Capella/Katella :(
- Hmm, that's an ominous march down the hallway... medicine? And the hospital staff's already playing matchmaker XD
- Jealous Shoko is Jealous(and ego-deflating).
- Birdy reveals her ignorance on the intricacies of relationships(while Tsumoto's clearly more knowledgable, heh)
- Ahh, dead sibling/friend, but what happened?
- Oh god, she's been creeping the natives out for a millennium? D:
- Oooh, sinister, really liked the animation where Nataru was walking up the stairs
- Poor, poor Capella/Katella/Katara ;_;
- Birdy, why aren't you changing to combat gear?? Arita Shion takes to the skies!
- Seriously want AIC to have A-1 do the ever-delayed BGC2041, the leaping around and schink-ing are perfect for it
- Those brothers just need to move out of the country, its the only way their stuff will be safe.
- Again, Birdy, why haven't you transformed?
- And there's Nataru's dirty, obvious secret revealed, that dude can MOVE. Graveyard scene explained, motivation made crystal clear
- But not without a cost, which ties back to the earlier medicine comment as they continue to keep track of the details.
- Preview: Nataru vs crazy hobo w/ wrench? Sounds like fun to me!

[cxt217]

- Poor Capella/Katella :(


Well, considering that her involvement with the Ryunka should have seen her get sent to the same prison station as the others were on their way to, she is getting off pretty lightly.

Then again, working for the manager might be sentence enough...


- Birdy reveals her ignorance on the intricacies of relationships(while Tsumoto's clearly more knowledgable, heh)


Actually that seems odd, since Birdy/Shion had obviously picked up a few things about romance, as seen by her comment about flowers in the first season.


- And there's Nataru's dirty, obvious secret revealed, that dude can MOVE. Graveyard scene explained, motivation made crystal clear
- But not without a cost, which ties back to the earlier medicine comment as they continue to keep track of the details.
- Preview: Nataru vs crazy hobo w/ wrench? Sounds like fun to me!

The revealing of both the true opponent and his motivation this early surprised me. You would have expected them to wait another couple of episodes...

BTW, I was watching Episode 1 again and I love the small cameo they slipped into the cultural festival discussion scene, with one of the guys reading an issue of the Birdy the Mighty manga.

C.T.

[something]

Episode 2:

- More mini-Birdy! Nice action.
- Unsurprisingly, Nataru has issues.
- I wonder if maybe Capella didn't get the worst punishment of all. She's playing Kannagi schoolgirl cosplay waitress to creepy old lady and Arita Shion. :sd:
- The character art feels a little weird in this episode, I have to say. It's pretty rough, and not in the nice stylistic way this show often pulls off. Instead it just looks somewhat rushed.
- Shouko is Kawasumi Ayako! And she's not charmed by Arita Shion de arimasuuuuuuu~
- Ok, animation is more than just rough, it's dipping right off into bad at times. I'm surprised, A-1 is better than this. Here's hoping they get their act together again for 3+.
- Hah! Tsutomu and Birdy's conversation here is totally backwards. Usually it's the girl lecturing the guy on his romantic insensitivity. It's an amusing turnaround.
- And Nataru chats with his dad on the phone right after telling Birdy he doesn't even know if his dad is alive?
- Tsutomu's friend Chigira's family is connected to Birdy's pimpess? I wonder if the number of descendants of Alterians on earth is going to turn out to be fairly high.
- Nataru's dad is the guy helping out the Ryunka fugitives. And the not terribly subtle implication is that Nataru is the one killing them. Given their distastes for Alterians and Nataru's feelings of being a persecuted Alterian, it's a perfect fit. Actually, hell, maybe they revealed this already in ep 1 but I totally forget what happened right before the first guy died.
- Bwhaha, Capella is so disgruntled.
- I looove the sparky building jumping. Rough as the animation has been this ep, it looks nice here, since it's mostly fast moving and/or zoomed out shots.
- Oooh, so Kagami died in the Ryunka attack. So we know Nataru's motive, but not where he got his power from.
- Man, this season really is going for a much bloodier approach. Nataru killing this second fugitive was brutal. A couple shots were actually a bit much for me, to be honest.

I don't like what happened to the animation in this episode but the episode itself was quite good.

Oh, the ED changed too.

[Fencedude]

Arita Shion is really much more attractive than Birdy, and I really liked seeing her jumping around like that as Shion for once.

Also, I'm betting there's a lot more Alterians on Earth than anyone suspects...

[ArcticMech]

- Poor Capella/Katella :(


Well, considering that her involvement with the Ryunka should have seen her get sent to the same prison station as the others were on their way to, she is getting off pretty lightly.

Then again, working for the manager might be sentence enough...



She certainly got knocked off her perch. But after all the trouble she caused in season 1, I won't grow tired of seeing her being worked to the bone by the manager.

[ArcticMech]

The character art feels a little weird in this episode, I have to say. It's pretty rough, and not in the nice stylistic way this show often pulls off. Instead it just looks somewhat rushed.

- Ok, animation is more than just rough, it's dipping right off into bad at times. I'm surprised, A-1 is better than this. Here's hoping they get their act together again for 3+.

I don't like what happened to the animation in this episode but the episode itself was quite good.

Oh, the ED changed too.

The character art and especially the animation made the characters look and move unnaturally, which detracted from an excellent, hard hitting episode.

I wonder if we'll get a new one each episode. I appreciate the extra effort.

[HitokiriShadow]

Man, they really ratcheded up the blood for this season. Anyway, it was pretty much a given that Nataru was linked to the larger story in some key way and its nice to have his role and motives out in the open right away. And that beating was brutal. Man, the action scenes in this series are awesome.

I'm looking forward to more Shoko.

I love Capella's scenes. Her misery is my entertainment.

Looks like one of Tsutomu's high school pals is an alien...

[HitokiriShadow]

- Ok, animation is more than just rough, it's dipping right off into bad at times. I'm surprised, A-1 is better than this. Here's hoping they get their act together again for 3+.

The animation was great in the sense that a lot of effort was put into making things move and quite nicely at that, but the character designs were horribly off model for the bulk of the episode.

[something]

Episode 3:

- WE HAVE A NOTO MAIKO! For a line anyway. She seems to be a robot or cyborg or something.
- The surviving fugitives gather to discuss their next steps, after two of their number were killed in quick succession. I have to keep reminding myself that the utterly adorable twins are in fact nasty frog-like things (or whatever they were) responsible for the murder of thousands... It's hard though. God they're cute. They even finish each others' sentences.
- Takumi. She clearly says Takumi. It's not ambiguous or slurred. Why are these people always so... ::shakes head:: I think I may get a little behind on this thread in the future as I wait a little longer for something better.
- Anyway, Tsutomu and friends investigate the refugee camp and run into an energetic little girl named Marina.
- The body sharing is still a bit odd. Tsutomu and Birdy still do that thing where they "look at" each other when talking, even though there's nobody there because the other person is inside their head. And just now Birdy commented that everyone was looking at Tsutomu, but they were behind him and he couldn't possibly have seen it. Since when can she see things outside his line of vision, or vice versa when she's in control? I suppose I shouldn't think about it.
- DAMNIT, who is Marina's seiyuu? It's not on ANN or Wiki or even Japanese Wiki from what I could tell. But I know know know I know that voice.
- Hayamiya is so cute. She gets a bit depressed when one of the refugees says she and her friends are just having fun with the misery of the refugees.
- Oh jeeze, wait a second. Marina is Horie Yui, isn't she? It's totally Manabi I was hearing. I think hearing her as Minorin in Toradora threw me off, because it's a slightly different voice.
- So Takumi and Marina try to make a bus in the Roppongi ruins their new home (because Takumi is supposed to move to a new refugee camp), and they get attacked by some thugs. Nataru is about to turn them into a bloody mess when Birdy saves him the trouble and beats the crap out of them. Best scene? Birdy gets shot in the head, falls down, then gets up and scares the shit out of the bewildered thug. XD

ED is... I think it's just the first ED again. If there are changes, they're too minor to notice.

Oh btw, the animation was just fine this episode. Everyone was right back on model and the action was slick as always. Episode two's way way off model designs was probably just a fluke.

[HitokiriShadow]

Mamiko Noto appears! Though I'm not exactly shocked since Violin is at the top of the list on ANN's (really lousy) cast info page.

Marina was a fun character. She had an awesome entrance and it was amusing to watch her extort money from people.

I also liked that brief flashback to little Birdy with a bunch of bloodstains surrounded by giant monsters, a few of them clearly dead.

I'm betting the "mystery man" from Birdy's memory is Nataru's dad. Unless there is some funky aging going on, the person is too old to be Nataru but he appears to have the white hair Nataru has shown when his power activates. If this power is genetic, well, there ya go.

Ditto on the frog twins. They are cute and I love how they finish each others' sentences but, yeah, I have to remind myself they are actually adult alien frog things that conspired to annihilate the planet.

[something]

I'm betting the "mystery man" from Birdy's memory is Nataru's dad. Unless there is some funky aging going on, the person is too old to be Nataru but he appears to have the white hair Nataru has shown when his power activates. If this power is genetic, well, there ya go.
I was trying to figure that out too. We've seen it a few times (it' in the OP, I think?), but he's definitely older than Nataru could have been. Nataru and Birdy were pretty equal in age in all the flashbacks, and when using the white hair power thus far Nataru never appeared to age. It being his father makes sense, particularly if that was also the person who trained Birdy. And it'd make for drama when she finds out the man she liked is assisting the fugitives in their escape. Sets up a father/son clash with extra drama too.

Ditto on the frog twins. They are cute and I love how they finish each others' sentences but, yeah, I have to remind myself they are actually adult alien frog things that conspired to annihilate the planet.
I love seeing all the Ryunka group bastards getting torn apart one by one, but I kinda hope the twins get taken out in their original forms... I wonder if they'd actually show brutally bloody deaths of them as cute children? Hmmm. Will be interesting to see.

[Fencedude]

Mamiko Noto appears! Though I'm not exactly shocked since Violin is at the top of the list on ANN's (really lousy) cast info page.



Someone really needs to fix that page.

[cxt217]

Wow! They are moving fast, are they not? The escalation continues.

Initial impression follows:

1) Arita Shion in a swimsuit! Though for some reason, Birdy is not very thrilled by it...

2) Talk about a fast moving plot - how are they planning on lasting 13 episodes? We already have Birdy trace the chips the fugitives are using to disguise themselves, right back to...another fugitive, with a personal link to very familar face...

3) And the fugitives find out in short order, with retribution following fast on the heels of the discovery. Birdy's little favor turned out for naught.

4) And with clockwork precision (Revenge does that.), another one of fugitives get ripped before being dispatched, in the most graphic way possible. Quite deserving, but the fact the male of the twins did not turn back to his original shape before being...dealt with...Well, if you thought the series was graphic before, it is starting to go to another level.

5) Another tender moment...

C.T.

[pi8you]

Another great episode, they're not wasting any time getting things done, but somehow still find a moment to stick Birdy in a swimsuit without making it feel tacked on.

2) Talk about a fast moving plot - how are they planning on lasting 13 episodes? We already have Birdy trace the chips the fugitives are using to disguise themselves, right back to...another fugitive, with a personal link to very familar face...
Very fast indeed, but they can very easily take it back into space to keep things going, there is that whole rebellion that seems to be brewing within the Federation.

[Fencedude]

Things are certainly getting complicated, but I love how we're getting lots of time with "Arita Shion", who's always been better looking than Birdy anyway.

I'm also impressed by how utterly irrelevant to the plot Tsutomu is, meaning minimal amount of time is spent as him.

[HitokiriShadow]

I'm also impressed by how utterly irrelevant to the plot Tsutomu is, meaning minimal amount of time is spent as him.


He got his chance to shine and be relevant in the first season and did a good job of it. Birdy was the firepower in the first season, but while she moved the plot in some ways, it wasn't really about her and she was kind of a secondary character.

It's the opposite this season. Birdy is the one with the connections and she gets to be the main character while Tsutomu mostly watches. While I didn't really think about it until now, I agree, I'm impressed that the series is being smart and keeping Tsutomu on the side and not shoving him where he shouldn't be. He's far from a bad character, but he's normal, which means just about everyone else in the cast is more interesting than him almost by default. I expect him to become a bit more relevant at some point this season, but probably not by a whole lot.

[Fencedude]

Of course, since I mentioned it, Tsutomu is now very important, but in a way that is actually quite interesting.

The "mental fusion" we were warned about back in season 1 starts to happen, and Birdy collapses during a fight, and when Tsutomu wakes up (after a bizarre dream that involves fragments of both his and Birdy's past) he finds that he is now controlling Birdy's body, and Birdy is nowhere to be found.

What follows is actually a very amusing segment where Tsutomu has to do all sorts of embarrasing things as "Arita Shion", and its quite well done.

Looks like next episode we're going to learn a lot more about Birdy's past...

[ndm]

I watched episode 7 last night, and I have to comment that the animation really went downhill. I haven't had a problem with any of the animation up to now, but it was like they ran out of time to animate scenes and so just left in placeholder scribbles. Hopefully they go back and touch up those scenes for the dvd since they really ruined what should have been an exciting action sequence.

[HitokiriShadow]

Hah, yeah, Tsutomu became a lot more significant now. Now he IS Birdy. The trippy dream was pretty interesting and he got the opportunity to experience the life of Arita Shion and it was pretty amusing.

Also, we got more of Studio A-1's awesome action scenes.

[HitokiriShadow]

It's backstory time! They've dropped hints about Birdy's past for a while and now they are actually showing it, though the major stuff won't be until next episode.

Also, Birdy had some, uh, interesting clothing choices as a child.

[something]

Episode 4:

- God damn Arita Shion your cleavage is godly. Not quite Akiha godly, but awesome anyway.
- Hmm, Murota knows Nataru's father? And Birdy (as Shion, doesn't that seem like a liability to her alibi?) finds out where the chips were sold.
- Well then, quite a lot just came out into the open. Who Nataru's father is, and why he helped the escapees. Explains why Nataru would be working against what seemed to be his father's wishes too.
- Bwhahaa the yakuza brothers again.
- Well so much for Nataru's dad. This season really isn't wasting any time, is it? That's great and all, but wow, this is only episode four.
- Oh, wow. We were wondering what form the frogs would be in when they were torn to shreds, and Decode 02 ain't pulling any punches. Seeing his hand break and then his arm just get torn right out of the socket was really fucked up. Geh, it makes me a bit ill.

I guess his "sister" is next. Not really looking forward to seeing that, to be honest. I'm all for the character dying the terrible death it deserves but the actual visual is probably going to be unsettling.

[something]

Episode 5:

- Violin~
- So the fugitives don't even consider Nataru a potential culprit. Doesn't even seem to cross their minds.
- Shouko is so in love with Nataru. Too bad her guy of choice is an alien berserker of sorts.
- lol Capella.
- Niiiiiiiice. The whole confrontation with Valic was done damn well. I also love seeing Capella rescue Irma and she's STILL in the Kannagi school uniform even during important scenes. XD
- HAH! Birdy's opponent finally lands a hit and her fingers break without leaving a scratch! XD But it really makes no sense that they pulled out just as Birdy was nearly incapacitated. Hell, she collapses unconscious mere seconds later.
- Man, right now Tsutomu (you know, that's the first time I've typed his name since partway through episode 3) and Birdy's memories are getting incredibly jumbled.
- ::blinks:: And now Tsutomu's consciousness is active in Birdy's body. What the hell? That could be problematic. There's talk of an "Entangle weapon" but no real indication of what that means.
- It's funny, just as we were talking about how Tsutomu has no bearing on this season, suddenly we're left with just him! But... as Birdy. lol at the underwear scene.
- Bwahhaahah! Tsutomu doing a signing as Birdy. How awkward for him. He keeps screwing up her polite copulas.
- HAH and it just gets more awkward.
- And hilarious. Oh my god.
- Mental fusion, whee.

Great ep, yay for so much Arita Shion de arima-- er, de aru desu~

[something]

Episode 6:

- Wow, you know, this strikes me as the most complex, convoluted way I've ever seen for a show to go about giving us a major flashback. But for the same reasons, it's also one of the best. Beats the pants off of just having someone hit their head and fall unconscious. :sd:
- This OP is growing on me big time.
- Mmm, Birdy ass. Time for the dive! Don't pass the ghost line!
- NOOOOOTOOOO MAAAMIIIKOOOO!
- Good lord Birdy, what do they make you wear to school? It looked silly enough in the ED but actually seeing it in-episode is just... yeaaaah. Uh. I'm pretty sure the designer should be in jail.
- At any rate, Alterians sure get treated like shit don't they? Her first day of school does not go well.
- Skeletso again, wahaha. Birdy looks really cute in this different outfit, and with a nice ponytail.
- TUTE!! I miss you ;_;
- Oh and there's that Iksiola thing again, that was mentioned last episode, but with more explanation this time.
- Tsutomu sure drops a bomb on Megius (Nataru, his father, the fugitives), and does it pretty casually. :sd:
- Koti are totally nikuman with inverted nipples.
- And Birdy befriends some drunks.

Well, that was quite nice, but obviously the calm before things get ugly. And judging by the preview, the animation gets ugly too. What the hell, A-1? Here's hoping it's not as big a deal as I fear.

[Fencedude]

Calm before the storm. And lol Birdy's outfit.

And the animation in the preview WTF?

[something]

And the animation in the preview WTF?
Yeah this won't go down as A-1's most consistent show, despite looking so great most of the time. Here's hoping it's no worse than 3 or whatever the other one was, and that it doesn't really affect the action scenes, which I expect there to be a lot of in 7.

[Westlo]

And the animation in the preview WTF?
Yeah this won't go down as A-1's most consistent show, despite looking so great most of the time. Here's hoping it's no worse than 3 or whatever the other one was, and that it doesn't really affect the action scenes, which I expect there to be a lot of in 7.

A-1 weren't going for a consistent style in the first place, the animation is meant to be sketchy, similar to Studio Satelights Noein. That title being brought up since they have the same director as well as animator Ryo-chimo who did the character designs for Birdy.

Ryo-chimo also did the harbour battle in Noein which drops consistency completely and goes all out in fluidness. I think they went for something similar in Birdy 2 Ep 7 because the scenes are well animated and fluid but th designs are horrible.. Episode 12 of Noein this isn't....

This ep is definitely sakuga animation though, should be on some upcoming sakuga mads for sure.

[something]

A-1 weren't going for a consistent style in the first place, the animation is meant to be sketchy, similar to Studio Satelights Noein. That title being brought up since they have the same director as well as animator Ryo-chimo who did the character designs for Birdy.
There's a huge difference between sketchy and bad, though. Birdy has always been "sketchy" in its fights and looked damn good in the process. The earlier off model ep and the very not promising looking scenes from the preview after 6 are not the same thing. They're just badly animated.

[Westlo]

Saying the animation for ep 7 is bad reminds of when Naruto fans though Naruto 133 was bad becuase the designs were different. Yet it was by far the best animated and fluid fight in the entire franchise (including movies lol).

Birdy 7 is well animated, it's fluid and even has some nice rotating shots, it's the art direction that sucks. While Noein 12, Naruto 133 and Macross Frontier 4 (all these eps were the most fluid of each show) copped undeserved hate for being different and not consistent while being sketchy and way more fluid than normal Birdy 7 deserves everything it gets because the art is appalling period.

Have you seen this sakuga mad?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhGTCiBg9mk

Birdy 07 reminds me of the crayon shinchan part.

[something]

Birdy 7 is well animated, it's fluid and even has some nice rotating shots, it's the art direction that sucks. While Noein 12, Naruto 133 and Macross Frontier 4 (all these eps were the most fluid of each show) copped undeserved hate for being different and not consistent while being sketchy and way more fluid than normal Birdy 7 deserves everything it gets because the art is appalling period.
It's partly a terminology thing. I'm just saying "animation" broadly speaking, i.e. everything we see. I wasn't getting technical and separating the various aspects of the visuals. That is, I'm concerned about whether it's a pleasant visual experience or whether it's not pleasant. Full stop.

But to get more detailed: Fluidity (again I suppose that depends on how we're defining it) can be great but it isn't always a virtue. Fluid, high motion animation often seems to result (as is only reasonable) in tradeoffs in other areas, like shading or colors or visual details or design consistency or good line art or some combination thereof. You can almost never have all of the above done well at the same time, even if the scene still looks great overall (say, the awesome fight at the end of the culture festival arc in Toradora for a random recent TV series example that had to sacrifice design consistency and details for kickass fight animation). It's only really in action scenes that sacrificing consistency for fluidity can pay off. In slower paced dialog scenes it's killer (lol Nanoha dinner table scene wtf).

I think by and large Birdy has found a really awesome balance. It's very fluid without unduly sacrificing other things to achieve that effect... usually.

If the visuals focus on doing one element well while disregarding or degrading the rest, then yeah, that's bad. "It's different, not bad" is a useful position because it's so hard to challenge, as it makes everything much more subjective (note that I have not seen the three episodes you cite so I can't comment on them directly). But my response would usually be that most (not all) shows tend to take care to cultivate a visual aesthetic during their run, and making a sharp and sudden break from that is generally not a good thing, unless it somehow manages to be better in all respects (not just some). There's room for creativity and just plain old variation in style and approach among different staff members, but when they bring someone in to completely change things up for an episode, I just don't think that's good directing (or whatever term I should be using - maybe just "decision making" generally). The difference between "artistic decision" and "we ran out of time and gave it to the B (or Z) team" is moot if it's the same visual result in the end.

Birdy 7, I have not seen, of course. I only voiced concern based on the preview, which gave me bad flashbacks to episode 2 or 3 or whatever it was. And the non action scenes of that episode were quite bad. Doesn't sound like I should get my hopes up for 7 either, but we'll see.

[pi8you]

Tetsuwan Birdy DECODE -The Cipher- OVA Announced (http://www.moetron.com/2009/03/03/tetsuwan-birdy-decode-the-cipher-ova-announcement/)

Looks like a direct-to-DVD(+CD) release bridging seasons 1 and 2, out in late July. Perhaps this is where S2E7's budget went? Not quite sure what all there will be to cover in it, but if nothing else, I'm hoping we get the story behind Capella's current situation.

[pi8you]

Oh god, Birdy, what happened to your art quality? D: I think Gurren Lagann 4's been bested. By at least a mile.

As expected, this episode was almost entirely flashback, filling in most of the gaps from the earlier opening flashes that we were privy to. A couple of really well choreographed fight sequences, but damn, that could have used a lot more time to bring it up to their regular standards of visual quality. If it weren't for the suboptimal animation at the end, I could forgive it for being a 'side-effect' of hazy memories. :fingers crossed for a DVD fix:

Ohhhh. Unless there was a mistranslation, I think Birdy's rescuer must have been Christella Revi, even though I don't recall her having any actual prior screentime, will have to do some rewatching.

[something]

Episode 7:

- That kinda sucks... all Birdy's memories of a warm and loving Violin are fake. THey're just her rewriting her own memories to remember what she wants to remember. The real Violin had no such human emotions.
- Oh jesus, are they serious with this animation? I could sort of ignore it in the non-action segments because there wasn't enough movement to showcase how bad it was, but once the terrorist attack starts it goes to hell.

...::shakes head::

That should have been a pretty important episode, and it's something they've been building up to all season, but instead it was just disgraceful. Honestly, you can't even call that particularly "fluid" animation when it was so utterly lacking in framerate.

Quite possibly the worst looking episode of anime I've seen in years. If not ever.

And no next ep preview? I was rather hoping to see if the art returned to normal. Blah.

[HitokiriShadow]

Well, this isn't so bad. A little rough around the edges maybe, and some of the alien's mouths don't really move while they talk, but maybe it was always like that. I don't see what all the fuss is ab- OH MY GOD, WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS!?!?

I was expecting lousy art after seeing some comments about art quality issues, but this was far beyond my expectations. Something went seriously wrong in the production of this episode as they clearly didn't have time to finish it and had to slap the bare minimum together. I don't think I've ever seen such an utterly awful art crapout since I started watching anime.

So, uh, nice conclusion to the backstory and some of those scenes would have really kicked ass (and still kind of did) had the art not gone to hell.

Hopefully it will be back to acceptable standards next episode. And hopefully I'll be able to actually watch the next episode within the next week or so. I'm really into this series and I'd like to actually finish it in a remotely decent timeframe.

[pi8you]

Episode 8

Well, the animation's better than 7, though that's not saying much. The normal quality was peeking through for about half the episode, but there were still some rather rough spots throughout.

As to the episode itself, Shouko's being a little possessive, to say the least... This was seemingly a filler episode, up until the last minute anyhow, but who knows what their plans for Shouko really are? Our journalist pal corners Birdy, but she convinces him she's lying by telling him the truth, hah! Lots of Arita Shion-desu to be had throughout. And then wham, let's end on a major cliffhanger.

[Magewolf]

Well I was not expecting that.It was a pretty good episode but I am afraid this has bad end written all over it now for sure.

[pi8you]

Well I was not expecting that.It was a pretty good episode but I am afraid this has bad end written all over it now for sure.
I've been expecting Bad End from the start, really, I'm just curious to see how well/badly he goes out.

Things seem to be back to form with this episode though, and yeah, of all the ways they were going to go with that cliffhanger, time travel was not what I expected. Very nicely done, but those are some nasty side effects :(

[Fencedude]

EARGH

I'm significantly more forgiving than most when it comes to animation, but jesus.

Still, interesting episode. And...am I the only one who always thought the person who rescued loli-birdy was a guy?

[something]

And...am I the only one who always thought the person who rescued loli-birdy was a guy?
Pretty sure that's what they intended us to think. They were sort of playing it up like Nataru's father saved her, I thought.

[Fencedude]

lol

They got outrun by a little girl on crutches. How embarrasing.

The bit with the announcement however was golden.

[Fencedude]

Oooh...now thats a cool power. Though the implications make my head hurt.

Things aren't looking good for Nataru...

[Fencedude]

Dammit Nataru, stop being an idiot.

Also, Birdy's seriously conflicted.

Oh yeah, LOL CAPELLA

[Fencedude]

NAKASUGIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!!!!!!! !!!


I had other stuff to say, but NAKASUGIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!!!!!!!!!

And I forgot.

[Fencedude]

Well, the art got sketchy during the fight, but by and large it worked much better than in episode 7, I think they overdid the stylisticness, but they did a good job of expressing how damn fast they were moving.

Otherwise, WHERE IS MY SEASON THREE?!

[Westlo]

Otherwise, WHERE IS MY SEASON THREE?!

I demand Gomez plays a big role in any season 3.

[Fencedude]

Otherwise, WHERE IS MY SEASON THREE?!

I demand Gomez plays a big role in any season 3.

Gomez?

[Westlo]

Otherwise, WHERE IS MY SEASON THREE?!

I demand Gomez plays a big role in any season 3.

Gomez?

Blonde hair, shades, whipped Birdys ass easy in s1.

[Fencedude]

Blonde hair, shades, whipped Birdys ass easy in s1.

Oh yeah, him. Yeah, he showed up again in episode 11. One of those things I was going to mention before SURPRISE NAKASUGI distracted me.

[HitokiriShadow]

Well, that was a fun episode. Birdy gets defeated by a crippled middle schooler. The part with the two yakuza guys in the taxis, who once again get screwed, cracked me up.

[HitokiriShadow]

Oh wow, that was.... quite the surprise. I sure as heck wasn't expecting an ability like that.

This also likely explains who saved Birdy in the attack all those years ago. Nataru and his father are not related by blood, so his father probably does not have the white hair super strength Nataru has and thus was probably not the one to help Birdy. Since Nataru has the ability to go back in time and change things, that means he had the ability to go back there as an adult and help Birdy. And if that's the case, that means..... Birdy probably originally died at that time and it was only years later when Nataru had the strength and control over his ability that he could go back and change things. If Birdy survived, he probably wouldn't have needed to go help her. Unless, perhaps, she survived but was crippled, which might have pushed him to become a doctor to help others in her situation.

It's also possible that the experiment that produced Nataru had some other person as a base and was attempting to instill an existing ability in other people, and that person was the one to save Birdy. Or the white hair super strength is separate from the time jump Iksiola abilities and Nataru inherited that ability somehow from someone else and they saved Birdy. I don't think those explanations are very likely though. I fully expect it to be revealed that Nataru was the one that saved her.

[HitokiriShadow]

Though the implications make my head hurt.


When he jumped back and caused the very event that caused him to meet Kagami who plays a huge role in his current motives, I immediately started thinking about the implications. I'm not exactly well versed in sci-fi, so there may well be theories to justify this kind of thing, but that seemed, to understate it severely, problematic.

[HitokiriShadow]

LOL Capella. I was wondering if they would ever deal with her.

And it looks like Lamia was going to be Shouko's little sister (at least, I think those were Shouko's aunt and uncle). I was hoping she would survive but I wasn't surprised to see her get ripped to bloody pieces.

Also, while this episode wasn't anywhere near as bad as episode 7 and it was only for a very little bit, it did pass my tolerance level for loose art for the sake of fluidity in the fight scenes against the soldiers.

[HitokiriShadow]

Moss is awesome, Gomez makes a brief appearance, and Nagasuki returns.

Also, I totally forgot about that little bit with the classmate being an alien. I wonder where they are going with that. I don't expect much to come of it in the next episode, at least, though its not outside the realm of possibility.

They certainly don't look like they are going to wrap up all the loose ends in the next episode, though I wasn't expecting Decode 02 to do so since very early on in the series. For a while, its seemed like they were dealing with the Nataru stuff while planting some more seeds to deal with in a sequel. I was surprised the did anything with Capella other than comic relief.

[HitokiriShadow]

Ugh. The fights were great in fluidity but the art crapped out almost as badly as in episode 7, which really hurt it. I'm hoping for massive fixes in the DVD versions.

While I was right that Nataru jumped back and helped Birdy, pretty much everything else about my theory was wrong.

Art issues aside, it was a nice ending, but it begs for a third series.

[cxt217]

Ugh. The fights were great in fluidity but the art crapped out almost as badly as in episode 7, which really hurt it. I'm hoping for massive fixes in the DVD versions.

I am actually wondering if the rough animation actually was intentional on the part of the production. The way they put those sequences into the last episode strikes me as being more than just being overlooked.

Of course, that begs the question of why would they think it was a good idea, if it was intentional.


Art issues aside, it was a nice ending, but it begs for a third series.

I certainly hope there is a third series because my feeling of "That's it/all?" should not be the reaction a viewer gets when he or she is watching the last episode.

C.T.

[something]

Episode 8:

- Uhhh, hell of a gap between viewings for me but I plan to finish this now. I guess I can get two in tonight and the last three tomorrow. Will probably keep comments to a minimum to speed up watching.
- Arita Shion bathing de arimasuuuuuuu~~~~~~ Oh nice, Muroto is finally making a move with Shion.
- BRILLIANT. Totally throw him off by telling the truth. :sd:
- Character art is still loose but anything looks good after 7.
- lol nurse is Amu (or, well, Hayamiya)
- Shouko is awesome. XD She's pretty nimble in those crutches.
- Oh god, is that the mafia boss who loses cars all the time? He's a taxi driver.. ...and his brother. :sd:
- That was some weird use of silence at the end.

So this was basically the "Shouko kicks ass" ep.

[something]

Episode 9:

- ...wut? He can control time (unintentionally)?
- Gah, little girl is SO CUTE. Why does she have to be evil?
- And there with the time travel again. has he used this ability before? Honestly I don't remember seeing anything like it. But, uh, I think he's going a bit too far back.
- All the way back to college? :sd:
- And then back two days into the future...
- Ooh, nice bit of intensity here, as Birdy/Nataru and the fugitives both start maneuvering against each other.
- Heh they finally kiss, though not under ideal circumstances.

Nice setup, and the animation is improved. I think I can fit at least ep 10 in tonight.

[something]

Episode 10:

- Ahahaha Capella. Oh lord, I thought they were never going to address her situation. This is... hilarious. XD
- American soldiers speaking Japanese huh? Also, lol they stole a NUKE.
- Tasera breaks from the fugitives, denounces their violence and wants to live as an elderly couple's daughter? Oh jeeze, they make it so hard to hate her. Oh well, Nataru will dismember her anyway.
- Finally Birdy gets confirmation that Nataru is the killer. Even if she's in denial.
- Oh yeah, Tasera is in trouble.
- Bwhahahah! A wet Birdy kicks in Muroto's door, and all he can say is "That was FAST!" XD
- Well... there she goes. I can't really pity her but I still feel conflicted. She was obviously the least bloodthirsty of the lot, but I'm sure she knew full well the implications of what she helped research, so she's still very much guilty. Still, I'm glad he was quick about it, just a nice old decapitation. :sd:
- Nice ending there.

Hmmmm. Screw it, I'll just finish this off tonight. On to 11.

[something]

And it looks like Lamia was going to be Shouko's little sister (at least, I think those were Shouko's aunt and uncle).
Hmmm, hadn't thought about it while watching, but I went back to check and it's a different family. That would have been a really fucked up thing to do, though, so I'm surprised they didn't.

Also, while this episode wasn't anywhere near as bad as episode 7 and it was only for a very little bit, it did pass my tolerance level for loose art for the sake of fluidity in the fight scenes against the soldiers.
Yeah, I don't like that approach to "fluidity" either. It really didn't look good. The rest of the ep was fine though.

[something]

Episode 11:

- ...Has Tsutomu totally given up on hiding the talking to himself thing? :sd:
- Haha, Nakasugi, gotta love how they totally wrote her out of the second season.
- So one of the refugees actually managed to escape. Well, not before getting a finger in his eye, eww. Also, they're really playing loose with Nataru's powers. Time travel? Teleportation? Heck, it's whatever the scene demands =P Oh well I'll just let them off the hook and assume there's some technomagical explanation relating to the fact that space and time are highly related.
- Er, so Moss kills her old friend forrr.... no discernible reason. Also, jeeze, don't get blood on the nuke, that can't be good for precision machinery.
- Oh. It's that blond MIB dude, who I TOTALLY forgot about since we haven't seen jack shit of him in forever.
- And who the hell is a Levi?
- You think Barrik could be a little less confrontational if he wants protection (even if he has other motives).
- <3 Hayamiya. Too bad she hasn't really had a role this season.
- Nakasuuugiiiiiii~ Character art is really cheap looking again. A shame this series didn't get the top notch A-1 Pictures treatment.
- lol, oh yeah, Nakasugi forgot about all the stuff with Tsutomu...

Hmmm, one episode left. Wonder how conclusive this can be in that time. They should be able to pull something decent out.

[something]

Episode 12:

- Alright, here we go. The choreography in the Nataru vs Moss battle is really really good, but the animation is all off model and sketchy again. I... guess it balances out?
- Gah, just as I say that it starts giving me ep 7 flashbacks. Okay, please let this fight end soon before my opinion of it is ruined.
- And it got even worse. Oi.
- Nataru you moron. Anyway, this fight would be awesome as hell if the characters didn't look like they were drawn by little children.
- Gaaaah, I cant even fucking tell what's going on anymore. Seriously now, wtf?
- Damnit this fight is going to keep going isn't it.
- Token Tsutomu scene.
- A couple minutes left and the baddies still got a nuke. Might want to address that, show. :sd:
- "I just tried to kill you. Let's make out!"
- ...They turned it off? What? That makes no sense. The whole Barrik role has been developed very sloppily.
- Oh god, oh god no, now we're literally revisiting episode 7. Whyyyyyy? Also, this it a total time paradox, what the fuck.
- Let me just hand this advanced alien technology over to this little earth girl...

Yeah, meh. They could do a third season, but if they do I hope they put it in the hands of a different art team. Actually, I'd prefer it go to a different animation studio entirely - A1 really doesn't seem to want to put consistent effort into Birdy, which is pretty disappointing.

I generally liked 8-11 a good bit but the only word I can really use to sum up 12 is "sloppy", in any number of ways. Oh well.

[pi8you]

Yeah, meh. They could do a third season, but if they do I hope they put it in the hands of a different art team. Actually, I'd prefer it go to a different animation studio entirely - A1 really doesn't seem to want to put consistent effort into Birdy, which is pretty disappointing.
Honestly, I think its more the animator's style than an issue with consistency, a lot of the same key crew was involved with Noein and the fight here in 12 brought to mind several of the fights in Noein, but in particular the one towards the end of the show over the harbor(ep 24, I think), and this is just the way they approached those high-intensity fight scenes. I personally loved the fight in 12, but I can't quite put words to why it worked so well for me as compared to 7's, though the overall 'quality' of animation in 7 probably has something to do with it, and either way, the choreography of both was outstanding.

I just finished a 10-12 marathon, so some other thoughts on the final quarter:
-LOL Capella indeed! I wonder how much demand there had been to see her in a gym outfit?
-GOMEZ! You tease, will we finally get to find out more about you in a hopeful 3rd season?! (Levi's his boss-lady from S1)
-Barrick got a fair bit of development there in the final episodes, all of which pointed out how cowardly he truly is, and maybe he sympathized with Tesera's decision more than a little bit.
-Moss has little bit of a combat lust, doesn't she? D: I think its actually a good move that they let her survive (albeit in horribly mangled fashion), a nice sidestep of the archetype's normal comeuppance.
-I'll be honest, I completely forgot Nakasugi survived with the mindwipe-end in S1, seeing her alive was a bit of a shock.
-Also didn't make the connection that older Nataru went back to rescue Birdy until he actually did it(had written it off as young Nataru's powers manifesting), instead I'd been thinking they'd go and have him make a last-second jump with the nuke into space and make for sad Birdy. Hooray for keeping the love interests alive and out of the picture!
-And let's not forget the refugees, that was a very nice show the kids put on, and some touching sentiments on the national view of the incident vs the view of those involved and affected by it, making a bit of commentary on the state of society that brought Eden of the East to mind
-kinda thought Shouko might end up with one of those, nice to see her both out of the wheelchair and off the crutches.

On the whole, I thought those final episodes were quite strong and brought the show back up to the overall quality of the first season, and keep me eager to see word of a third season. If they like, I certainly wouldn't mind waiting 2 cour this time if it meant they were animating it a full cour ahead of airing and giving themselves plenty of time to give it the polish it deserves, but I know things don't work that way.

[Westlo]

Honestly, I think its more the animator's style than an issue with consistency, a lot of the same key crew was involved with Noein and the fight here in 12 brought to mind several of the fights in Noein, but in particular the one towards the end of the show over the harbor(ep 24, I think), and this is just the way they approached those high-intensity fight scenes. I personally loved the fight in 12, but I can't quite put words to why it worked so well for me as compared to 7's, though the overall 'quality' of animation in 7 probably has something to do with it, and either way, the choreography of both was outstanding.

It's obviously intentional from what I can tell, the choreography and fluidiness is way too high level for it to be the work of "kids". And like you said a lot of the staff from Noein are working on the Birdy series, after seeing the staff list I was suprised that it wasn't animated by Studio Satelight.. but I guess they were focusing on Macross Frontier (and seeing as how it was the most successful tv series of 2008... good decision...) so the staff went to A-1.

Ryo Timo did the character designs and is overseeing the animation for the Birdy series... he was the genius behind the dock battle from episode 12 of Noein.. here's a MAD of his work, hope to see a lot more from him in the future.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYLSMo5IEqM

Love his work, hopefully he's working on the Tales of Vesperia movie because his part from the intro in that MAD, 0:49 to 0:54 looked awesome.

Personally I love the sketchy animation style used mainly by Satelight and A-1 Pictures..I will take more fluidness over some design consistency any day of the week... if I wanted pretty and consistant character designs over movement I would stick to manga since anime can't touch manga in regards to character designs....

Even KyoAni are using the sketchy style more these days.. K-ON! for instance had a lot of complaints on various forums as not being as well animated as previous KyoAni shows.. which was lolz... Clannad AS had a scene early on that was sketchy as IIRC.

[something]

Personally I love the sketchy animation style used mainly by Satelight and A-1 Pictures..I will take more fluidness over some design consistency any day of the week...
Some design consistency? Some? What happened in Birdy totally goes light years beyond "some". It absolutely went to hell in the worst imaginable way, which totally wasted the fluidity and pretty much ruined the ending for me. Not that the sloppy storytelling at the end helped either but that's a different issue.

They need to strike a balance! Just going 100% gung ho in one direction and paying no heed whatsoever to the other direction isn't admirable or a mark of skill. This is just as bad as a show replacing all action scenes with a very pretty but totally static slide show of shots that the seiyuu just talk over, with no animation at all. And you certainly shouldn't have to "read the manga instead" to get good consistent designs, that's a fairly extreme reaction.

Even KyoAni are using the sketchy style more these days.. K-ON! for instance had a lot of complaints on various forums as not being as well animated as previous KyoAni shows.. which was lolz... Clannad AS had a scene early on that was sketchy as IIRC.
And that would be an example of striking that balance perfectly. Hell, we don't need to leave the studio or even the same franchise - Birdy S1 did a much better job striking a balance, with the fight against that android doll thing being more impressive than anything S2 managed to pull out.

Sketchy is fine. Profoundly off model art which was only really fluid during fast paced shots (slower movement revealed a disturbing lack of frames of animation and unnervingly jerky movement) and most drastically problematic in the two most important episodes of the series definitely isn't.

I'm still of the opinion that A-1 is way better than this season of Birdy indicates. Here's hoping this doesn't happen to any of their shows ever again.

[pianocello]

2 things came to my mind after finishing this season.
(1) Birdy's clothes when she was a child. Seriously, this is exactly the same thing the female lead from the hentai Boin wore - a naked apron. Who the heck wears a naked apron (and just panties) to school?

(2) Killing little children makes me cringe. Especially since we've seen no evidence (other than the fact she was on the same team) that the little girl is evil. Plus evidence suggests that she regrets it and wishes to start anew.

Animation issues aside, I'm glad that Tsutomu is not such a jerk this season. Oddly it took until this season for them to address the fact the issue of Tsutomu and Birdy looking at each other's naked bodies. I'm glad that they didn't take the Ginban Kaleidoscope way of resolving it as that would have been extremely annoying.

Anyone know if there is going to be a 3rd season? If there is, it will probably touch on Christina Levy and Gomez and the whole sharing bodies issue. I also doubt that we've seen the last of Moss. Considering that the 1st season focused on Tsutomu's romance and the 2nd season focused on Birdy's romance, it might be interesting if the 3rd season had them falling in love with each other. I thought the romance of the 1st 2 seasons was really dull. I just didn't feel the romance at all - the pairings were so hopelessly mismatched and forced.

[bobma]

I figured this here might be of interest. Those of us who watched the 2nd season, will all remember that hilariously badly drawn episode 7 and there's been much discussion whether this was an artistic choice or not. I came across this article here, that should clear things up with some comparison shots (spoilers, naturally):

http://www.sankakucomplex.com/2009/06/08/tetsuwan-birdy-decode-dvd-eternal-shame-unveiled/

Quite the drastic improvement, wouldn't you say?

Minor warning: While the article itself is completely worksafe, the surrounding ads and linked previews of other articles might be less so.

[something]

I figured this here might be of interest. Those of us who watched the 2nd season, will all remember that hilariously badly drawn episode 7 and there's been much discussion whether this was an artistic choice or not. I came across this article here, that should clear things up with some comparison shots (spoilers, naturally):
http://www.sankakucomplex.com/2009/06/08/tetsuwan-birdy-decode-dvd-eternal-shame-unveiled/
Oh good, they're not actually so shameless as to release that travesty on physical media. If I planned to rewatch this show (I don't) it would mean more to me, but at least I'll know that a better animated show is sitting on my shelf, should this ever get licensed.

[pi8you]

I figured this here might be of interest. Those of us who watched the 2nd season, will all remember that hilariously badly drawn episode 7 and there's been much discussion whether this was an artistic choice or not. I came across this article here, that should clear things up with some comparison shots (spoilers, naturally):
http://www.sankakucomplex.com/2009/06/08/tetsuwan-birdy-decode-dvd-eternal-shame-unveiled/
Oh good, they're not actually so shameless as to release that travesty on physical media. If I planned to rewatch this show (I don't) it would mean more to me, but at least I'll know that a better animated show is sitting on my shelf, should this ever get licensed.
Yeah, as much as I was willing to give it some leeway as an intentional style choice, this clearly blows that notion out of the water. It's looking so much better that I think I'll need to track this episode down (and possibly 6 as well?) just to see it in its corrected state.

[Westlo]

i lol'd while reading the comments and seeing someone link that amazing Sasuke and Naruto fight to what happened in episode 7, like it was another fuck up lol.. I still think this was intentional and they just decided to fix it for dvds since it went too far compared to their other sketchy scenes.