keyofnik: My final 172 post involves looking REALLY REALLY HARD at this. Because there is MOVEMENT, and I shall know of the movement, yes I shall. Sadly the movement is extremely limited. There are only four characters who move at all. But two of them are entirely gratuitous, and that’s pretty excellent. Here are the six frames where the characters do something but stand in a circle like they’re all at lunch and the bell’s about to ring to get back to class. it’s easier to see in motion, but have no fear! I shall point out ALL DETAILS. (All six of them.) Here’s our default position. Same order as in this shot, in case you can’t make out the little blobby colours. (It’s really cute that Chibs and Mamoru are still holding hands, by the way.) Here’s after the first character has moved: It’s not much, but Mako is beginning to go to Usagi. Third frame. Mako closer still. Mako in front of Usagi now. Also Michiru has moved slightly. It looks like she’s turned her head toward Haruka. Haruka’s now looking at Michiru too. It looks like Michiru has curled up next to Haruka as well. The little white blobs for their bodies are now more visible and right next to each other. (In truth it looks like that could be Michiru’s back, but that would mean she’s hugging Haruka, and I can’t see Michiru doing that in front of people, so I think she’s just leaning into her heavily. Hello and welcome again to “Michiru is like three seconds from passing out and needing urgent care”. The last frame is hardest of all, as we’ve really pulled out by this point and we’re fading out, but there’s just enough to see. Haruka and Michiru still snuggling, and Mako reaching out for the earring. So two things I really love here. One is all of Haruka and Michiru’s stuff, because as I said, it’s entirely gratuitous. They wanted to show movement, here, so you’re reminded that our characters are still alive and well and live is going to continue after all this mess. But they didn’t want to animate everybody, so they made a choice: the best and most natural way to convey life going on? Haruka and Michiru snuggles. And that is fantastic. The second thing I love is how long it takes for Mako to take the earring. Again, from an extra-universe standpoint, this is because they’re having a dramatic zoom out and need things to go slowly while Luna and Artemis do voice-over, but they didn’t want to animate much. So Mako reclaims her earring kind of painfully slowly. But no extra-universe answers to in-universe questions, so here’s what I’m seeing. First is that Mako, too, is hurting. Not as bad as Michiru, which is a tremendous testament to Mako (who took several minutes more of direct abuse from an enraged and murderous Nehellenia who was actually Nehellenia, not one of her Mirrorlenias), but in a lot of pain and moving stiffly. (The girls are just a mass of pain and bruises and exhaustion, which is doing wonders for my mental image of them after this, all curled up in a pile on the floor of Rei’s room like a pile of puppies.) But I’m also seeing her and Usagi talking. This helps explain too why no one else moves. They’re watching the moment between Mako and Usagi (Haruka and Michiru, of course, have their own moments). What Mako and Usagi say, I don’t exactly know yet. But that they’re saying it is really the important part to me right now. That really is about it for this shot, but as always, the fantastic part is in the details.
