I love gorgeous visuals. Well, not so much gorgeous but visually compelling. I’m someone who watches movies or TV shows for their costumes and their sets. I’ve already written about how I buy books based on their cover.
Arcane
I wasn’t going to watch Arcane. Just another animated production based on a video game that I’ve never played, and never plan to. But the tile in Netflix was enough to draw me in.
The animation is lovely throughout, but it was really the opening sequence that hooked me. The way they combined a very different style of animation with the music was gorgeous.
And there’s a great attention to detail. I love anything art deco, so the faucet handles in the shower scene were delicious. And they made great use of those little details to delineate the class differences.
Wheel of Time
In Wheel of Time it’s the costumes, in particular those in S1:E6. Even though the Aes Sedai are divided into their groups, and the colours become a uniform, it was interesting to see how each individual woman had her own style. I don’t know if that’s the same in the books, or if all the women in a colour group wore a similar uniform to each other.
And the costume of the Amyrlin Seat — airy and heavy all at the same time — both matched the eponymous seat she sat in as well as the tower but also separated her from the other women.
The use of details in the costumes and setting in the opening of S1:E8 clearly indicated that this was different time in the world.
And I appreciate the aesthetics of Daniel Henney — that’s not objectify! It’s an objective appreciation of physical beauty where I find it 🙂
Cowboy Bebop
Yes, haters, I loved Netflix’s Cowboy Bepop. Full disclosure, I never watched the anime and don’t plan to. They may just appeal to different audiences.
The world in the live action series was great. Right from the Vegas inspired The gritty wild, wild west of some locales contrasts beautifully with the opulence of the opera on Ganymede and sleek austerity of the Syndicate headquarters. Again, I loved the costumes.
And the Bebop itself reflects its residents. A little dark, a bit broken, rough around the edges, but it keeps on keeping on.
I did have a few issues with the story. I liked the earlier episodes more than the later ones, where they were more self contained, though had hints of the characters larger lives and history.
Now, I’m onto season 2 of The Witcher. Maybe I should have waited until after I’d watched that before posting this.