Excellent animation, sound, and coreography. I do admit, as soon as the target spoke in that voice I was instantly of the opinion he had to die, good riddance. The elder guy giving the mission does look like the Third Hokage from Naruto, and even sounds a bit like him, which is kind of jarring, but it works.
Reviews for "Kagemusha Prologue"
Well i believe 3d animation is fine. hell rwby is a good example in my opinion. sorry if you get that comparison a lot. But because of that very example, I feel your animation is great but not as fluid as it could be. Action still is awesome
Very cool! The style works very well in 3D, you see alot less of it around here than the 2D anime stuff (which all looks the same to me) so I will commend that choice. A couple of the male voices felt a bit forced but that's really it. Good going so far.
Here me out on this, I have a point:
Phew..., well I must say I did see your work and mostly all of it is 3D based and balanced towards anime :/ although, 3D and anime don't go that well together. If it were 2D it would be great and than again 3D must focus entirely on 3D elements.
And as I am a hardcore anime fan, who've been a part of many fanbase contributions, it's best to keep the two things seperate. In addition to this, the ninja and samurai have been covered many times in anime over and over (it becomes a head-ache and also quite boring if you see the same thing over and over). Perhaps a better plot setting is required, the same 'anime' feel won't attract much, I've seen too much Japan culture lately and 'it is very sad to copy it and have it running with Western culture/America' - imagine an English born mixing Japanese and English together, making phrases like "that is so kawaii".
We need a game-changer and just ripping off other peoples artwork, cultural history and similar story-telling wont do. Please make something better than ninjas, samurai, magical girl, shinobi and whatever that gives a rip-off of Japanese anime. Here's a heads up - We are Western, Not Asian (No Offense, just saying it before anyone shoots us down with the same statement).
Kel-chan responds:
There's plenty of western media out there already, and there's plenty of asian media too. This is just another one in the latter catergory- my NG name is sort of telling in that respect- Kel-chan. There's plenty of stuff on NG that is not anime inspired that does very well. Check out http://warlord-of-noodles.newgrounds.com/ She does a very awesome original american series built on very american myths and legends and it's great.
Realistcally I could make this story in merry old england but then I'd have people complaining its a game of thrones ripoff or something.
As a maker of this kind of stuff- I have to do what interests me (unless I'm being paid for it) and even then as a commission it would be the same thing.
As for 3D, I've only recently started that this year, everything before was 2D. I don't think the medium matters much, only whether its done well or not, I want to get good at 3D so I'm gonna stick with that for while.
Obviously this is not for everybody, even if I did it in whatever genre, its still not going to be for everybody. It's not a a parody, it's not funny, it doesn't have sexy female characters. I'm not playing to an audience really because even most anime fans won't like this since its not really "anime" enough. In reality this story is modeled after Korean historical dramas. Why?
Because I like them.
I'm just gonna tell a story, whether people like or not is up to them.
I should add- I'm working another series that has a sci fi setting but... unfortunately it is 3D and the characters are rather "anime" looking. I garuantee you when I release it people will be saying its a star wars ripoff though.
Pretty well done! Animation still can be smoother (say when compared to Mounty Oum animations) and the models could also be more detailed along with other graphical details. Maybe also try playing with different camera angles during the fight scenes? Although you do accomplish a sort of manga-esque feel which is pretty cool!
Keep it up! :D I'm looking forward to many more things from you!
~Phyrnna ^_^
Kel-chan responds:
yeah- next month I will get a better mocap setup which will help with making these movements more realistic and smooth.