Dragon Age 2 Anime Trailer and Interview

[LordFisheh]

At 0.27, when the dragon roars... Is that the Normandy's engines I hear? Seriously.

 

[Kahunaburger]

So much nerd rage right now.

Dear Bioware,

Spoiler: this

is Kurosawa.

Your thing is shitty CGI with shitty cel shading.

Regards,

Kahunaburger

 

[Amondren]

I just wut so hard. I think Dragon Age is a great game but I'm not going to see this it looks very bad.

 

[Nerdstar]

Or maybe, just maybe, it'll turn out to be another Baccano or Full Metal Alchemist instead of something as disastrous as, say, Elfen Lied.

care to explain your resoning as to why elfin lied was bad?

 

[Smeggs]

I think I want to punch someone right now.

"The great thing about anime is that it is well respected in the North American Community as a more adult form of animation."

So glad to see that people have so little faith in western animation that they feel the need to go anime to be taken seriously.

I don't have anything against anime, but I do have a beef with people who look down on Western products in comparison.

Doesn't even look like anime. The only thing I can see possibly akin to anime is the way the fighting looks like over the top ninja stuff.

Y PEEPL NO GIV THINGZ A CHANZ AN JUJ DEM B4 NOING WUT ITZ LIK?!

 

[Olivia Faraday]

Western animatino is only seen as for children because assholes like Bioware don't want to give it a chance. They work off of some predetermined bias that works off of the ASSUMPTION that western animation is only for children.

They diss western animation for not going places, but its their own damn fault because people aren't willing to let it go anywhere.

Is it so evil to not want to reinvent the wheel when you're just trying to put out an animation? Sure, people could constantly talk up Western animation and push projects in western amination and make it legit -- and I'd like to see that. But if they don't care about the issue, I'm not going to witch hunt them. They're not out to change the world. Just make a film.

 

[Pedro The Hutt]

I think I want to punch someone right now.

"The great thing about anime is that it is well respected in the North American Community as a more adult form of animation."

So glad to see that people have so little faith in western animation that they feel the need to go anime to be taken seriously.

I don't have anything against anime, but I do have a beef with people who look down on Western products in comparison.

Well, to be fair, when was the last time you saw an American cartoon that was meant for adults in a way that wasn't basically "(c)rude comedy"?

That said, if they're going to make a Dragon Age "anime" they should make it an anime rather than a CGI film that somehow manages to look worse than Appleseed. If it went above and beyond Dragon Age, grand, but this? Eh... Oh well. Suppose I could give it a fair chance.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

I think I want to punch someone right now.

"The great thing about anime is that it is well respected in the North American Community as a more adult form of animation."

So glad to see that people have so little faith in western animation that they feel the need to go anime to be taken seriously.

I don't have anything against anime, but I do have a beef with people who look down on Western products in comparison.

Well, to be fair, when was the last time you saw an American cartoon that was meant for adults in a way that wasn't basically "(c)rude comedy"?

That said, if they're going to make a Dragon Age "anime" they should make it an anime rather than a CGI film that somehow manages to look worse than Appleseed. If it went above and beyond Dragon Age, grand, but this? Eh... Oh well. Suppose I could give it a fair chance.

I again point people to Batman: Under the Red Hood.

 

[Pedro The Hutt]

I'll give you that one, but that is one title, and you could argue the original animated series was mature too.

But the list of mature anime is much longer by comparison. But I don't think this has much to do with liking or hating a certain country, the cultures simply are different, most people in the US still believe cartoons are something for kids, while in Japan anime, and even moreso, manga, are seen as just storytelling formats like any other. That or they simply have less objection with presenting more "mature" themes to youngsters. Seeing how something like Death Note got printed right alongside Naruto or One Piece.

But basically, if you want someone to animate you a more adult oriented story, or young adult, at least, you're more likely to find a studio that fits the bill in Japan than in the US. Not to say that this particular studio will fit the bill for a Dragon Age animated feature, I'm reserving judgement on that until I've seen the final product.

 

[Kahunaburger]

But basically, if you want someone to animate you a more adult oriented story, or young adult, at least, you're more likely to find a studio that fits the bill in Japan than in the US. Not to say that this particular studio will fit the bill for a Dragon Age animated feature, I'm reserving judgement on that until I've seen the final product.

To be honest, it looks to me like they picked this studio because they want something to go straight to DVD at minimal expense.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

I'll give you that one, but that is one title, and you could argue the original animated series was mature too.

But the list of mature anime is much longer by comparison. But I don't think this has much to do with liking or hating a certain country, the cultures simply are different, most people in the US still believe cartoons are something for kids, while in Japan anime, and even moreso, manga, are seen as just storytelling formats like any other. That or they simply have less objection with presenting more "mature" themes to youngsters. Seeing how something like Death Note got printed right alongside Naruto or One Piece.

But basically, if you want someone to animate you a more adult oriented story, or young adult, at least, you're more likely to find a studio that fits the bill in Japan than in the US. Not to say that this particular studio will fit the bill for a Dragon Age animated feature, I'm reserving judgement on that until I've seen the final product.

The main reason that Japan has a wider variety of mature series isn't due to quality, but to quantity. The largest demographic in Japan for anime is still shonen and younger. So with a larger pool to choose from, its obvious why people would say that Japan produces more good mature series. But the DC Animated Universe can easily stand toe to toe with the most popular Shonen series out there.

It's a matter of quantity over quality. You can get loads of good shonen series, but are hard pressed to find as many strong western series.

The ratio of quality to crap is about even for both art mediums. The only difference is the quantity.

Anyways, that's a different discussion. The Bioware fellows are still being awfully ignorant and talking out of their ass on this one.

 

[Not-here-anymore]

What exactly makes this anime? Other than that one shot of someone performing a flip in heavy armour (which the game has anyway), it doesn't seem to pander to the normal exaggerated nature of the style at all.

Is it possible that anime has now just become synonymous with 'cartoon for grown-ups' in the west? Pokemon begs to differ, as do assorted Batman features (Under the Red Hood, or Year One, for example)

 

[Kahunaburger]

What exactly makes this anime? Other than that one shot of someone performing a flip in heavy armour (which the game has anyway), it doesn't seem to pander to the normal exaggerated nature of the style at all.

Is it possible that anime has now just become synonymous with 'cartoon for grown-ups' in the west? Pokemon begs to differ, as do assorted Batman features (Under the Red Hood, or Year One, for example)

I think they made it Japan, and it is animated (albiet CGI), hence anime. What it looks like to me more than anything is DA2 cutscenes, but cel-shaded.

 

[Risingblade]

It looks pretty, I'll watch it.

 

[ZeroMachine]

Oh boy.

Oh boy.

Wasn't one of the head writers or something on Dragon Age 2 someone that just screams "yaoi fangirl?"

For the fans of the original, this is going to rip open the wounds that are only just healing from Dragon Age 2's mediocrity.

EDIT: Or maybe, just maybe, it'll turn out to be another Baccano or Full Metal Alchemist instead of something as disastrous as, say, Elfen Lied.

EDIT 2: And the CG looks like ass. I don't hate CG when it's done right, but when done badly it looks like a fucking PS1 pre-rendered cutscene. And that's exactly what this looks like. It's bad. It's horrible. It needs to go to hell.

As an optimist and fan of Dragon Age 2, let me just put that "maybe" to rest, and say "I doubt it with every bone in my body" -_-'

The animation looks like ass. Really, you put it best. Like ass.

I'd put a picture of an ass next to a picture of the anime if it wouldn't be against forum rules. Hell, if it's a girl's ass, I may even enjoy that one more than this.

*sigh*

I love Dragon Age and DA2 but as a whole I'm glad I've never delved into the extended universe.

EDIT: And, really, as good as FMA? Even I know that wouldn't be possible, and I dislike anime in general (absolutely love FMA, though, I was gonna start another watch-through of it tonight )

 

[Alex Bakhtadze]

When I read this thread title I got excited, two of my favourites combined(Anime and a Western RPG). But after watching the trailer, I was terribly disappointed. This is not Anime, it's not traditional 2D and even if it is CG, the characters do not have anime-esque features or design. Even Vexille(which they mentioned) in the trailer looks more authentic than this sad attempt. They're just trying to coin the phrase so they can draw in more unsuspecting fans. And as a anime fan, I shake my head in disappointment.
I think they could've done a better job by doing it half CG(for all the grand set pieces) and half traditional, like in the Ghost in the Shell series. That would've worked much better than this nonsense.

 

[NickCaligo42]

So they wanted to make an anime out of Dragon Age, and they end up making an extremely wooden CGI movie...

Couldn't they have made something more akin to, oh I don't know, this:

Is that an OVA or a new series? Either way, looks way better than this shlock.

Though to be fair, the plastic look of the Dragon Age anime certainly matches the texture quality of the game.

That's Berserk, man. That's a fossil of an anime. One with an insanely low budget, too--but damn, damn good. Another show that anime fans can go to instead of this obvious attempt at pandering: Claymore!

EDIT: Woops, didn't catch the "2011" part. The Berserk REMAKE, my mistake. Nice to see it finally get the budget it deserves.

OT: I just don't get what they're playing at here or who they're trying to kid about this. It comes off as the Dragon Age team being delusional about the popularity of their game and trying much, much too hard to pander to some squeeing fanbase of DeviantArt goers.

I mean, I look at this shit and I wonder if they know who played the first one and who was fooled into buying the second one in that first week before their sales tanked off. My understanding was that people were drawn to Dragon Age mainly due to its sense of grounding and grit, and I'm seeing a chick flying through the air doing Advent Children style acrobatics with two swords. Was that part of the appeal in the first place, or am I just missing something here? Either way, I'm not getting the sense that they know their audience all that well.

 

[Dr. wonderful]

Is it strange that when I saw "Dragon Age 2 anime" I felt totally required to edit this image into being?

...This just made my whole damn day.

Thank you.

 

[Dr. wonderful]

Is it strange that when I saw "Dragon Age 2 anime" I felt totally required to edit this image into being?

...This just made my whole damn day.

Thank you.

Oh. It's look exactly like Appleseed.

I'm STILL unsure if this is good or bad. But at Least Beserk is comingback with a big damn budget.