Amazing what one can realise on a bus

[puddingcat]

The scene where Omi shoots his brother bugged me since I watched the episode at the weekend, and not *only* because of Omi's appalling hand position.

He uses a compound bow, but not a trigger release.

Considering (a) the detail in the animation of all other technology (identifiable cars & bikes, accurate brake systems, etc - if I still shot I reckon the bow would have been an actual model as well), and (b) the whole character / storyline thing, that just doesn't fit. An assassin should use the most accurate tool for the job; i.e. a trigger release, not fingers. And if he's skilled enough to hit someone through the windscreen of a fast-moving car, he should be skilled enough for his hand to end up by his shoulder, not flopping around in midair.

I reckon he should have used a bow sling, too - but I shot recurve and can't remember whether compound archers use them.

< / archery geek >

Comments

[vampwillow]

I didn't know what "WK" was so clicked-in.

It was *definitely* interesting to me (even though I wasn't in the required category) ;-P

[puddingcat.livejournal.com]

Weiss Kreuz - an anime series that's more addictive than the plotline should allow :)

[daegaer.livejournal.com]

That's very interesting! I know a lot of WK fans stress the cracktacular nature of the anime (and cracktacular it most certainly is), but it does some things very well - I really like the odd, stylised fight scenes and the slow-building introduction of Schwarz, for example - and it's fascinating to know the technology-depiction is so good as well, despite the sometimes shaky quality of the animators.

I wonder if there's meant to be a characterisation reason for Omi's choice there (as opposed to the writers thinking it looked more dramatic)? I mean, all the other characters look like stylised anime young men, while Omi looks like a little kid till the scene where he's being beaten by Hirofumi, and it's clear that he has (as he should) the physique of a late teenager who has been a trained assassin since he was eight - which makes me thikn that Omi purposefully plays down his age in a sort of creepily pathetic way. (Till he wants to seem older of course, when he wears his terrifying disco suit - have you reached the episodes where he starts wearing the horrid smock-thing yet? It's like he forgot to change after his night off of picking up skeevy older men).

[daegaer.livejournal.com]

Dear me, I forgot to suggest what the characterisation reason might be! Which is, simply, that Omi's awfully good at the assassin business and hates that fact, and sometimes seems to sabotage his own success.

[puddingcat.livejournal.com]

Speaking of sabotage... Has Schuldig ever killed anyone? Odd question, but he ran out of bullets before actually *hitting* anyone in the Ouka scene.

[daegaer.livejournal.com]

He doesn't kill anyone in the first series (he is such a bad shot!), though he certainly does try. At one point he almost strangles Yohji, but it's actually a diversionary thing, not a real attempt. He does kill - with his bare hands - in Gluhen, and in the manga he and Nagi are responsible for planting the bomb that takes out Mr Fujimiya's workplace.

[puddingcat.livejournal.com]

For some reason, I didn't think of the bomb. Good point ;)

I've only watched Gluhen up to the point Schwarz first appears (in all their camp glory); the last two episodes, as well as those few in the middle, wouldn't download for me from ysi :(

[daegaer.livejournal.com]

Oh no! When I'm back from holiday I'll upload them again to another service for you. Schuldig's moment of glory should not be missed! (And Crawford may look like some sort of gay Victorian Nazi, but he at least has all his sarcasm still on show).

[puddingcat.livejournal.com]

Wonderful, thanks! I'll check which I still need, to save you uploading anything I already have :)

Crawford's new look is easier to accept than Schuldig's. At least Brad doesn't wear braces over a bare chest, or have Farrah Fawcett flicks.

(And Schuldig looks *far* too good in that icon. Are you sure it isn't from an X-rated outtake?)

[daegaer.livejournal.com]

This icon's from the episode after Ouka's death, where - at least in one short bit - the animators do really, really well with how Schuldig's hair moves. (Every so often you can tell he's been drawn by someone who really fancies him!)

[puddingcat.livejournal.com]

Yes! The actual artwork really impresses me, but there just don't always seem to be enough frames per second. (There's also not nearly enough Schwarz, but that's another matter ;p)

I'm up to Ep 12 (Ouka dying). I can see exactly what you mena about Omi - he clearly *isn't* a kid, but it isn't clear (yet) whether it's *him* pretending to be younger, or whether it's just the anime style making him look like that.

It would make sense if he was sabotaging himself, either consciously or subconsciuosly. After all, missing the shot through bad technique would mean that his brother was still alive.

Hmmmm....

[daegaer.livejournal.com]

When Omi becomes Mamoru (as he is in this icon) he acts in a far more mature manner, which makes me suspect that his Omi-childishness is in fact meant to be something he puts on. (There are some later scenes where he does act up the ditzy teenager thing, or acts in a very sweet and tender way towards those that need help, in a manner that seems either conciously childish or girlish). Poor lad. He's a crazy mixed up kid!

[puddingcat.livejournal.com]

Crazy? Mixed up? Next to the rest of them, he's positively sane!

I can't work out whether the disco suit I'm imagining is better or worse than the too-short shorts he's so fond of...

[daegaer.livejournal.com]

Omi's fashion choices make so much more sense if you just assume he REALLY likes older men who never quite mentally left the 1970s.

[puddingcat.livejournal.com]

*Sporfles*

Of course, I'm now thinking of Jeremy Clarkson...

BAD brain!

[daegaer.livejournal.com]

Ahahahaha!

Oh dear. Pass the brain bleach.

[mami-san.livejournal.com]

Ehh, I like this discussion about Omi. It's interesting, as is the talk about the bow. The only bow I halfway understand is the Japanese kyudo bow, so I accepted Omi's weapon in a tra-la-la sort of way. His kiddiness was a little harder to swallow after a while.

If you still can't get the Gluhen eps 12 and 13 from somewhere and want them, I could up them to a different file sharing thing for you, but they're .rm format for realplayer. Would that be okay? I'm afraid if the "those few in the middle" are between 1 and 6, I couldn't offer them, because I don't know how to rip VCDs. *is dumb* 7-13 are all .rm format.

[puddingcat.livejournal.com]

Oo, I haven't heard of the kyudo bow. Is that the one where the limbs are different lengths?

In short, a longbow is a stick (straight when unstrung); a recurve covers everything from the Mongolian horse bows to modern Olympic ones (unstrung, the tips curve forward from the vertical; strung, they're the vertical bits when the body of the bow curves forward); and a compound has pulleys at the top & bottom with cables, to take most of the strain of pulling it back.

Omi uses a compound, which makes sense as they're the most accurate, send the arrows fastest, and are most technologically advanced. In modern competitions, the 10 ring of the target is smaller for compounds than for other bows, because people were getting perfect scores. Hence not using all the available gadgets (trigger release, to stop his fingers fouling the string, peep sight to aim better, stabilisers to absorb the recoil) he really did make the shot hard for himself. The more I think about it, it would have been the perfect solution for him if he'd missed - he'd have tried, so Aya would be happy (well, as happy as he ever gets!), but Hirofumi would still be alive as well.