people on Tumblr crying over the beauty of Steven Universe backgrounds

Anonus

they understand me and crying over the beauty of backgrounds

finally

Sredni Vashtar

Any Ghibli film, really, has backgrounds to die for, even if the film itself is not amazing.

LW

I think Non Non Biyori has some pretty great backgrounds too.

Spoiler:

 

Sredni Vashtar

I have heard really good things about that show. That is one of those things.

Yarrun XIX

I remember pausing SU when Steven confronts Lapis in space and thinking "man, that's some good space they've got there"

Anonus

You all know my fondness for early H-B background art

Anonus

Being a CNS show, I'd like to believe SU's art was modeled on them somewhat, but it's not 1997 anymore and creators under 30 don't seem to cite anything H-B as an influence these days

Salix Babylonika

Anonus said:

Being a CNS show, I'd like to believe SU's art was modeled on them somewhat, but it's not 1997 anymore and creators under 30 don't seem to cite anything H-B as an influence these days

I think Rebecca Sugar has cited 90s anime and european animation has her formative influences but don't quote me on that.

Anonus

I might also throw Paper Mario in there, just as a guess (it most definitely influenced its stylistic sibling Cucumber Quest)

Anonus

fun fact - I was once so enamored of how accidentally Gigi Digi nailed mid-century aesthetics in CQ's backgrounds that I considered basing Cirque du Yogi's backgrounds on them, but eventually snapped back to referring directly more to the original, more experimentally-bent Huck Hound show BGs

LW

Sredni Vashtar said:

I have heard really good things about that show. That is one of those things.

I like it a lot. That said, I am a bit hesitant to recommend it to you, since it seems like we have pretty different tastes in anime and I can see how people would find it pretty boring.

The backgrounds are definitely good though.

Tachyon

idk about crying over the Steven Universe backgrounds but they're really pretty.

as for cartoons with backgrounds i liked . . . hm, Haruhi had some good ones, imo, especially the first season

and for totally different reasons, i like the Adventure Time backgrounds - namely, the way they hide things in them, like bits of old human technology long before the reveal on that

Sredni Vashtar

LW said:

Sredni Vashtar said:

I have heard really good things about that show. That is one of those things.

I like it a lot. That said, I am a bit hesitant to recommend it to you, since it seems like we have pretty different tastes in anime and I can see how people would find it pretty boring.

The backgrounds are definitely good though.

I like slice-of-life stuff when it is done well. Don't hesitate to recommend something you think is really well-executed.

Tachyon said:

idk about crying over the Steven Universe backgrounds but they're really pretty.

as for cartoons with backgrounds i liked . . . hm, Haruhi had some good ones, imo, especially the first season

and for totally different reasons, i like the Adventure Time backgrounds - namely, the way they hide things in them, like bits of old human technology long before the reveal on that

Yeah, that show has some really interesting stuff going on with the small details.

Tachyon

actually that reminded me, not a show i'd recommend to Sredni but i really liked the attention to detail on the British scenes in Kiniro Mosaic

they did their homework, it was very convincing visually

Sredni Vashtar

That happens.

Barely connected, but I am really bad at knowing what to recommend to people sometimes because I want to recommend stuff I love but when I think of The Tatami Galaxy I remember "reallyfastsubtitlesmygod" or with Texhnolyze it's "DARKEST SHOW EVER" and Mononoke probably requires a primer in Buddhism and Shinto and an epilepsy warning...

Salix Babylonika

I recommend people YuruYuri

for the sea urchin lass

Sredni Vashtar

I am aware!

Odradek

Tatami Galaxy is really good.

Sredni Vashtar

I know! It is one of my favourite shows. But I have to check myself when I recommend it sometimes because the first episode has really, really fast dialogue and I know some people get lost when they are trying to read at that pace and watch at the same time.

LW

Tachyon said:

actually that reminded me, not a show i'd recommend to Sredni but i really liked the attention to detail on the British scenes in Kiniro Mosaic

they did their homework, it was very convincing visually

Did you ever see this article? It talks about the real life B&B that Alice's home in the show is based on.

Sredni Vashtar said:

I like slice-of-life stuff when it is done well. Don't hesitate to recommend something you think is really well-executed.

Eh, I am sort of used to the criticism that slice of life shows can get, so I have become leery about recommending them to people, particularly ones with mainly female characters (mostly because of the "moe show made for otaku men" issue, which I admit is a legit issue and something I personally dislike thinking about).

I do think that NNB probably has a bit more universal appeal than some other SoL shows do though, since its focus seems to be on childhood experiences that people can relate to rather than on the high school girl slice of life tropes that pop up a lot in stuff like K-On!!, Azumanga Daioh, Kiniro Mosaic, Sketchbook, and GA Art Design Class. Granted, I like all of those shows a bunch as well. I think I would just feel more comfortable recommending NNB to somebody who is not otherwise a big fan of schoolgirl slice of lifes. 

Obā-san

sredni will give things a fair shake, I swear up and down

Sredni Vashtar

I actually really enjoyed what I saw of Azumanga Daioh, at least when Osaki and Sakaki were the focus. And Catdad. God, Catdad.

That said, Non Non Biyori sounds good for entirely different reasons.

lee4hmz

catdad is awesome

Tachyon

i feel Azumanga Daioh is a bit of an odd series out there, as it has more of a comedic bent, and is a little zanier than i associate with 'slice of life'.

LW said:

Tachyon said:

actually that reminded me, not a show i'd recommend to Sredni but i really liked the attention to detail on the British scenes in Kiniro Mosaic

they did their homework, it was very convincing visually

Did you ever see this article? It talks about the real life B&B that Alice's home in the show is based on.

i don't know if i did . . . that explains the attention to detail, though!

In terms of 'wow, they did their homework' i was particularly impressed by the Homepride figurines in the kitchen, and the way the trains are painted like First Great Western trains.

i was surprised that duvet cover was real though, with the flags. Woah.

Salix Babylonika

Azumanga Daioh is a classic of its genre though

Sredni Vashtar

But by the same token, I feel like it might be part of a subgenre within slice-of-life anime different from the niche into which Non Non Biyori falls—the latter being more of an iyashikei series, given what I have read, and the former being a kind of absurdist situation comedy.

Tachyon

Yeah, that.

Salix Babylonika

iyashikei is such a great concept

Sredni Vashtar

It is a pretty nifty way to approach fiction. It's a bit like ambient music.

Salix Babylonika

it's basically ambient TV

which I love

LW

Edit: nevermind.

Salix Babylonika

iyashikei and slice of life aren't actually the same thing though

slice of life is a genre, iyashikei is more like an aesthetic or mode.

Sredni Vashtar

It does sort of qualify as a subgenre in that it is an aesthetic that defines a certain kind of slice-of-life fiction.

Tachyon

i know i've said this before, but 'genre' is a super vague term

genres are defined by convention, basically

Sredni Vashtar

Pretty much, yeah.

LW

queenpoison said:

iyashikei and slice of life aren't actually the same thing though

slice of life is a genre, iyashikei is more like an aesthetic or mode.

Ah, okay, I think that makes sense. Sorry for messing that up, I am not really an expert on slice of life or media criticism stuff, so I probably should not have added my uninformed opinion, haha.

Sredni Vashtar

It is perfectly OK to be wrong sometimes. You can't learn from your mistakes if you think you make none.