Very cool...
...but about twice as fast as it needed to be. Seriously, pacing was fine but it was like watching the whole thing on fast-forward. Which is weird compared to the slow pacing of some other anime I've seen...
Reviews for "Pick Up"
Quallity Animation
Very well done. The animation was unique, fluid, and original. In many ways I liked the expostition-goes-as-said style. As long as following episodes fill in the gaps, it plunges the watcher straight into the action. Very Tarentinoesque. So kudos. Well done.
Pretty good watch
The fighting, the action, the explainations, the setting and the animation were solid. I found this very entertaining and it left me wanting to see more.
What got me near the end was that I knew nothing about any of these characters. Now I don't know if this is episode 1-2-3..etc. What can fix this is if you gave us a little more indications on where abouts on your story is this taking place. Also, feel free to have to open up your dialogue more to explain who these characters are, and how they get their mystical powers. (Is it just the swords that give them that empowered look, where they move faster and cause more damage.)
Keep up the good work.
More brilliance from Skaijo!
5/5
Once again, congrats on Front Page, Daily Feature, and that great score. You've struck gold again!
Where do I begin...you have a unique visual style that is creative not only in your use of color, but your selective lack of color. It's one of your defining visual characteristics and it makes a noticeable impact. Your character designs, while rooted in anime (not my personal favorite style) go beyond that. You make them all yours. Your characters are well-delineated and expressive.
The animation itself is smooth and precise. Whether it was tweens or frame-by-frame, it all flowed together into a cohesive whole. The best compliment I can give is that when I watch it, I'm not taking notice of or nitpicking the animation. I'm just enjoying the ride. What I especially enjoyed was the extra effort you went to with the character movements. When they were jumping around the screen, they remained consistent and on-model. Great work. Even your use of broken lines with variable thickness, both on the characters and the backgrounds, helps to create a visually dynamic environment. Your animations continue to improve and I can't wait to see what you'll come up with next.
Your use of camera angles and movements are striking, although it probably doesn't look as nice on slower computers due to the high frame rate. Not your fault though. :) Even your text and menus are slick and highly unique. I'm also glad you included some extra features along with the main 'toon. If I had any AS skills I would love to include some extras with my animations. Teach me someday, will ya? :D
Probably the biggest weakness would be in the sound department. The sound mix between the dialogue and music seemed to favor the music and made the dialogue a little hard to hear. I know you lowered the music volume somewhat, but this area still needs some work. I do a lot of audio work myself and I know full well the difficulty of finding the right balance. Overall though, I don't think it really hurt the animation at all.
The dialogue itself was good and quite funny in spots. I'm glad you went to the additional trouble of having someone translate and double-check everything for you. It's that extra step and attention to detail that really makes a difference. I wish some American animators would bother to check their own dialogue once in a while. :) The voice acting wasn't bad - it wasn't too emotionless or too over the top. Hickory's voice was a little too low-key for my tastes though - when you're attacking someone with a sword you shouldn't sound like you're getting your nails done. :) Your use of Bonobo's music was good as usual. It's another choice that makes your animations all your own. The sound effects were sparse, but appropriately used.
Now, on to the story. If you've learned anything about me, then you know I'm looking for a good story first. I'll ignore poor animation if there's a good storyline behind it all. And your story is a good one. It wasn't totally clear to me on first viewing, but after watching the deleted intro (which you should have kept up front) it all made perfect sense. That's probably my only issue with the story. Otherwise, I liked the setup and I wouldn't mind seeing a continuation. It's a good springboard for a variety of different story opportunities. I even liked your in-jokes to previous cartoons and freeze-frame style text. You have a good sense of humor and I like seeing it come out in your cartoons. I hope you take advantage of what you've begun and continue on.
Michael
P.S. Forget what anyone else might say, the killer blue squares were AWESOME.
Sound was kinda off
The _only_ thing I think was off about this is the fact that the music wa so loud that you couldn't hear the characters voices. I could barely make out conversations, and even then it was a struggle. Otherwise, good job.