Granbelm has been quite a roller coaster for me. It does some things so well and others so not well. Let me tell you what I thought about this week’s episode over on Karandi’s blog.
Even visually. I seem to be the only person that notices when the art quality dips down but it does. Noticeably!!! This week was pretty good though!
I just noticed how scary the background in those training scenes is. Usually Granbelm sky is colour coded to whoever is the main character of that episode but I guess the training area is just plain black. It’s not bad. I sort of wish it was always like that. It might make the action easier to follow.
It’s been a long time since I’ve seen the old black and white flashback move used in an anime. I like a clear visual separation between current scenes and past scenes. Although this may be a bit cliché, it’s still much better than having the audience wondering what exactly is going on every few minutes.
By now these over-saturated sunset scenes have become a staple of the series. It think they may have overused them a bit lately. We’ve seen this exact palette in the last 3 episodes and it’s lost it’s impact a bit. At least for me.
The red skies in Anna’s arc where just more striking. I’m trying to figure out if these scenes are colour coded but I don’t know who’s yellow/orange? From my notes Shingetsu is purple, Mang is pink, Nene green, Kuon is white, Anna red and Suishou light blue.
Mangetsu and Shingetsu do have some visual similarities to Madoka and Homura. A bit too many for it to be mere coincidence. I’m calling it an homage.
It looks like I’ve given up a bit. This huge block of images all together. The thing is, I find the visuals in Granbelm (meaning in the fighting realm) very homogeneous. That’s not bad. It works well in creating the feel of a pocket universe. It also makes me want to group them all together.
Looking over the faces, I miss how expressive Anna was. She really had a design that you could twist into conveying emotions well. Kuon and Mangetsu are a bit more subdued in their facial expressions.
Oh, I forgot to keep an image as a post closer. Well I’m reusing one then!
