Now a few words about the CLAMP group's first ever anime production. I tend to gravitate toward the various works of Clamp so first I will accentuate the positive. RG Veda is the Clamp group's first ever anime production! How amazing! Yes, it is really most notable for this reason. Before I go on I want to say that it IS worth owning for hardcore Clamp fans, for the rest of you, well...
I don't wanna rip this one up but it is seriously lacking in lots of areas. You can tell that the budding members of the well known quartet tried very hard, with some of the scenes looking very nice and others looking half assed and bland. There were obviously others putting in their energies here, and it is interesting to see the usual clamp designs crashing up against some things that they didn't create, but you get over it quick. Even the main cast has a member that really seems totally out of place and ends up as a kind of forgotten limb, doing barely anything at all for the entire 90 minute run. I can usually forgive things like; the 1991 era low fidelity graphics, poor design and even questionable cast members, but what hurts the most about RG Veda is the plot.
It's wandering, disjointed and a near afterthought to the rest of the work. You never really feel like any of what does happen matters. They are here, then there, then there is a fight, and then it's over and nothing is resolved. Not a single thing. We do learn that the mightiest swordsman in the land can be felled by a bunch of pink butterflies, and that nipple tassels on white plate mail armor is the worst fashion mistake in anime history, but other than this you are left at the end with a kind of "And then they went somewhere else..." sorta thing.
What you get with RG Veda is a triumph of design over substance, good intentions over good planning. It is supposed be related to some bhuddist/taoist legend (and not by the way to the book that is was named after, the Rig Veda, a holy book in the Muslim religion) but I can't derive any over arching meaning from it. Whatever fragments of the legend they decided to use for RG Veda I don't think they were taken from the same contiguous parable. At any rate Clamp's first effort is really a first effort. Enjoy it for the novelty of it.
-maguro
3 comments:
I especially liked the part where they went somewhere else.
~raielchan
I look forward to reading your reviews!
Ahhh, some comments! So nice. You guys are the best. Gratz to raielchan for racking up the high score, the score of "4 posts". Are the rest of you gonna take that?? Comment damn you!
Also I'd like to say HI! to my buddy adferraro. We've been very happy with what we've seen and we know that you'll continue your efforts in the arenas where we have seen you do what you do. You do it well. I would like to qualify your comment about "reviews" though. I'd rather look at my anime posts as wholly biased rants that communicate more about my insecurities than my supposed knowledge of anime.
I mean what about that post where I said that Ranma was the guy that turned into a black piglet? Everyone knows that it's Ryoga that turns into the pig. Everyone knows that. So obviously I am not as astute as I want people to think I am. Ranma is the pig?... please. Ranma is the robot guy. DUH!
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