I have very good memories connected with Blue Submarine No 6, and I recommend it well. It seems Range is keen on any army or military service topics, as in this sphere Last Exile and Submarine are similar. Even the characters are alike: Kino being slightly more friendly Tatiana, Hayami being Alex and Mei-Ling as Alvis. No 6 had very austere climate (I don't know if this is the proper word for what I meant), and the viewer was given few information about the anime universe, which is somehow similar to Last Exile, which I liked. (Of course the wiki and other sources give us many major informations, but you couldn't soak the anime atmosphere knowing every detail - this is what I mean writing that).
I've read that Shangrila, created around 2006 (?) was pretty badly received, but I haven't watched it. Maybe the main character made of Lavie was too 'active' and overwhelming over the other characters, which got annoying. Have you watched it? How did you like it?
As I remember there was one more anime about Submarines, in which Range took part, but I may be wrong.
Do you know other Range's animated/manga works apart from those? How did you like mentioned above? Is Shangrila that bad?
Other 'Range Murata's' anime & manga
-
Csilla Aria
- Posts: 154
- Joined: Fri May 24, 2013 9:17 pm
- Location: Illinois
I haven't seen any of his other works, but I did see both Blue Sub 6, and Shangri-la
I loved blue Sub 6, but it's been forever since I watched, and all I can really remember is that I really, really loved Mutio.
Shangri-la was ok, and had some good characters like Momoko, and Miiko. The Big Bad throughout the series was just like a really shallow copy cat of Delphine with no style at all though, and the ending really fell flat to me.
I loved blue Sub 6, but it's been forever since I watched, and all I can really remember is that I really, really loved Mutio.
Shangri-la was ok, and had some good characters like Momoko, and Miiko. The Big Bad throughout the series was just like a really shallow copy cat of Delphine with no style at all though, and the ending really fell flat to me.
Shangri-la was a science-fiction light novel written by Eiichi Ikegami and released in 2004-2005, transposed into manga for Kadokawa Shoten and eventually into an anime series in 2009 by Studio Gonzo. Murata was the character designer however the series was directed by Makoto Bessho and written by Hiroshi Oonogi. The fact that Shangri-la was badly received was not due to Murata's work (as far as I know his drawing style is always received positively) but mainly to the anime adaptation.
As for Blue Submarine No.6, it is an even older story (1967!) whose anime adaptation (by Studio Gonzo) was done around 1998-2000. It can be considered a test for animation techniques that later were used to produce the first LastExile series (mainly integration of CGI with traditional 2D animation). Also in this case Murata drew characters and mecha but the director was Mahiro Maeda (well... director, storyboard & mechanical design).
Indeed, Murata is mainly a chara designer and a conceptual design artist but the actual success of an anime depends on the whole anime production process. You can hire the best character designer ever, but if either the storyboard or the script is weak what you get is an overall unsatisfactory product.
I almost forgot: if you want to know more about Murata's past works you can visit his Pasta's Estab website. It's mainly written in Japanese but it has a tiny section in English too.
As for Blue Submarine No.6, it is an even older story (1967!) whose anime adaptation (by Studio Gonzo) was done around 1998-2000. It can be considered a test for animation techniques that later were used to produce the first LastExile series (mainly integration of CGI with traditional 2D animation). Also in this case Murata drew characters and mecha but the director was Mahiro Maeda (well... director, storyboard & mechanical design).
Indeed, Murata is mainly a chara designer and a conceptual design artist but the actual success of an anime depends on the whole anime production process. You can hire the best character designer ever, but if either the storyboard or the script is weak what you get is an overall unsatisfactory product.
I almost forgot: if you want to know more about Murata's past works you can visit his Pasta's Estab website. It's mainly written in Japanese but it has a tiny section in English too.
Yeah, I know. Firstly I wanted to name the topic "anime that Range took part in", but it didin't sound well.
About his other works and art books I wanted to ask later, but maybe an another topic is appropriate on that subject?
I haven't looked deep into Pasta Estab's page yet, are all his works collected there? Thanks for the link anyway.
About his other works and art books I wanted to ask later, but maybe an another topic is appropriate on that subject?
I haven't looked deep into Pasta Estab's page yet, are all his works collected there? Thanks for the link anyway.
Resurrecting topics is my thing.
I also watched Blue Submarine No. 6, but although the designs and setting appealed to me immensely - I loved the half-submerged, grungy city of the first episode - I didn't like it much in terms of story, which felt rather naive in execution... The character designs of the non-humans also looked somewhat childish, so I couldn't take them seriously either. Last Exile just felt a lot more mature to me.
Also, although the list on PSE WEB is fairly comprehensive, it only goes up to 2012 even though he's still quite active. If anybody's interested in the collections of his commissions which he releases regularly at doujin events such as Comiket, it's worth taking a look at his Keibunsha Bambio page, which as far as I know is up-to-date. Unfortunately, they don't do any internationally shipping, but I believe those desperate enough can resort to using proxy services such as Goody-Japan.
I also watched Blue Submarine No. 6, but although the designs and setting appealed to me immensely - I loved the half-submerged, grungy city of the first episode - I didn't like it much in terms of story, which felt rather naive in execution... The character designs of the non-humans also looked somewhat childish, so I couldn't take them seriously either. Last Exile just felt a lot more mature to me.
Also, although the list on PSE WEB is fairly comprehensive, it only goes up to 2012 even though he's still quite active. If anybody's interested in the collections of his commissions which he releases regularly at doujin events such as Comiket, it's worth taking a look at his Keibunsha Bambio page, which as far as I know is up-to-date. Unfortunately, they don't do any internationally shipping, but I believe those desperate enough can resort to using proxy services such as Goody-Japan.