@@rassest I was watching the movies in the theatre and then when I saw this message saying he was dead I broke down and well when I saw this video I decided it should be known that this legend did indeed pass away
Why? Lemme guess -- Rings of Power? This isn't being produced by the same people. You can relax. What if Peter Jackson was putting out another film, would you be just as nervous?
Absolutely. From the look of the Hera image, I'm concerned we're going to get a lot of 21st century social politics interjected into the narrative and character motivations. This would include a healthy dose of "female empowerment" and feminism with some multiculturalism thrown in as well because, after all, every film, TV show, and commercial now has to look like the United Nations cast it.
I don’t think it’s worry over anything other than the state of entertainment nowadays. Everyone wants to push there own narrative and not tell a good story. I personally trust this company to do good on telling a fantastic story but I still understand and relate to the concerns.
Hear me out, but what if they did the Scouring of the Shire in the same animated form as this? Have it start with the Ring getting destroyed/Aragorn’s coronation, and have it cover all the chapters that weren’t in the Jackson movie (with the Scouring of the Shire being the main part). Then close it with the Grey Havens/Sam saying “I’m back.”
Animations free the writers from the bonds of live action, you don't have to worry about CGI, the limit is what your team's artists can do... Personally, I think certain histories should be done in animation because of that
Not me. Peter Jackson is not canon. What Tolkien wrote, that's canon. Peter Jackson made some good adaptations (and some bad ones). Future readers should feel free to apply an entirely different visual vocabulary to adapting Middle Earth in film. I hate that Jackson is now basically being treated as Tolkien's coauthor, and sometimes, being true to Jackson's look is even taking precedence over being true to Tolkien's words. We need to snap out of this! There will be a future and Tolkien's work will be in it, and we need to be open to their making everything look very different from PJ/Weta/New Zealand. It's ok for modern pianists to play Bach and not just follow Glenn Gould's Goldberg Variations, no matter how brilliant that performance was. It was Gould playing Bach, not Bach himself. Imagine if Peter Jackson made such a great version of Macbeth that future audiences got so hung up on that they came to think that future adaptations looked wrong if they didn''t look like Jackson's. That would greatly diminish the depth and power of Macbeth. And I think we are diminishing the power of Tolkien's books by getting so hung up on this one particular performance of them. I never ever want to hear another Middle Earth dwarf sound Scottish. But will I? I bet I will.
@@davidhoracek6758 peter jackson > davidhorace the gender fluid confused. true peter jackson was awesome in loter but complete trash in the hoobits.. rop > the hobbits
@@abdullahalkandari2976 if im right, peter jackson was asked to help with the hobbit pretty late in the progress of filming and had to "save" it to some point. I think, if jackson had as many time for the hobbit, as for LotR, he would have delivered. Oh and anything is better then rop.... even the russian version lol
@@Senthor90 christopher lee - great actor, yet his script was so childish and 0% relevant .. ian mckellen -great actor, yet due to his age, he should not be in the hobbit, his voice is unheard 13 dwarves - or perhaps all dwarves were pure cringe martin freeman in the hobbit was cringe laketown - cringe orcs, goblin, sauron, TROLLS - MEGA cringe
@@boris3973 It's starting to change with series like Invincible and X-Men 97. But the west has to catch up to anime when it comes to taking animation seriously. They've been taking and pushing animation story telling since the late 70's with Gundam.
@@boris3973 That is bs, most anime is childish and not serious in any way, for it to be regarded as a medium only for kids makes perfect sense given most of the content is very childish. Vinland Saga is good though.
@@dinmavric5504 Most of RU-vid is targeted at kids, what are you doing here? Have you no shame, using this children's platform instead of buying newspapers?
Definitely has a solid anime vibe. I would even say high-end anime. I'm sure it will look amazing. I think the sword will be the one handed down to Theodin. At least I hope so, it's a great call...forward? to LOTR. I agree with your assessment that using Hera as the focal point gives the writers a lot of freedom to flesh out the story while still keeping faithful to canon. I'm cautiously optimistic even given the failures of ROP.
Why does ROP mar the perfection or reputation of this Anime? It's not like they're both from the same studio or something. I just don't understand your logic.
@@matthewmcdevitt6792 I should say Japanimation was highly influenced by the art brut style of Disney and Fleischer, and I would prefer the animation style which existed prior to the late 1940s, based on traditional Japanese woodcuts.
@@matthewmcdevitt6792 I think you might be reading too much into their statement. ROP simply caused folks to be cautious of big studio exploitation of the LOTR ip. Some might be awesome, for sure, but it's reasonable for people to mistrust anything related to WB.
The director of the upcoming Rohirrim anime is *Kenji Kamiyama* who has directed most of the *Ghost in the Shell - Stand Alone Complex* anime which are great and has prominent female MC (Major Motoko Kusanagi). He is also the original creator of the *Blood* series (Blood-C & Blood+). He directed *Eden of the East* , *Ultraman* Netflix show (all 3 seasons) & *Blade Runner - Black Lotus* too. So, his direction is solid. But now it's up to the writing team to do a good job to keep up with Kenji Kamiyama's anime directing talent.
6:19 i really agree with your point here about how animation can add to the lotr content. Especially ever since ralph bakshi proved LOTR is perfect for an animated feature. Novels in general provide an ample base for animators to bring to life tolkiens words. Its just another avenue to enjoy LOTR.
The parts of it that weren't live action (including the rotoscoped animation) did look nice I'd say. He was definitely hindered by the budget of the time.
@@Hulavuta I gotcha, and hey like what you like, but if I'm trying to show someone that LOTR works great in animation (while staying true to the source material and not glossing over everything) I'm not pointing to the bakshi interpretation to prove my point lol. Either way, I was just busting OP's chops, lol.
It's all good, I'm just making conversation. It definitely has got its issues. I'm not sure there is a better example though. The Rankin-Bass Hobbit I do enjoy, though the Return of the King one is barely animated.
Thank you so much for sharing the new look and your thoughts. I am beyond excited to sit in a theater come December as well and enjoy watching a story about my favorite LOTR culture.
Another fun fact is that in The Two Towers movie, Haleth is the son of Hama :) Also, based on how the blue 'falls' on that man in the background in that shot of Hera, it seems like some shading over the white furs, not actual blue color. All in all, I like what I'm seeing in terms of drawing style. I'm pumped :D
3:04 could this just be shadow/shading instead of the soldier actually having blue? I know sometimes these animations add like a dark greyish blue to make shadows.
In the movie, Haleth is also "son of Hama", The Doorwarden. Aragorn asks to look at/hold his sword and tells him before the Battle of the Helm's Deep/Hornburg, "There is always hope".
So you mentioned the name Hama is used as the door warden. But i THINK in the movie Haleth is also reused. When Aragorn decides to fight with the Rohirmin he meets a scared young child with a rusty sword. He tells the child "This is a good sword". But before this, he asks the child's name. Its Haleth I believe.
It's hard to say, and someone could probably find some evidence somewhere for or against, but the art style to me looks very similar to that of the Netflix Castlevania series, which I thought had some phenomenal animation and design. If it is the same animation house doing War of the Rohirrim, I'd consider that a positive, personally.
@@ohiasdxfcghbljokasdjhnfvaw4ehr As mentioned, the post was about the art and animation. I do have thoughts on the series, both positive and negative, but not going to derail a thread for it.
I personally would want a style looking like Anglo-Saxon art, or since Tolkien said the Rohirrim weren't REALLY Anglo-Saxons of course, have a style akin to Hungarian folk art (since Taliska is actually based on the Ugric languages).
The Castlevania series have been produced by Powerhouse, an American studio. War of the Rohirrim is being animated by Sola, which is a Japanese studio. Based on the limited art we've seen from the film, I'm actually expecting it to look fairly different, if in subtle ways. The Castlevania shows are great, but there's a certain flatness to some of the art at times. The characters and backgrounds in WotR appear to have more detail and dimension. This is typical of a film production vs a series. But there's some clear differences in the art style of the characters too. WotR looks more 'traditional' in a sense (not surprising from a Japanese studio), yet seeing that approach being used to adapt the PJ film look is quite intersting and gives it a unique feel that's hard to place. Vinland Saga might be the closest I can think of, but that may just be down to the Viking era setting. I'm also seeing the slightest hint of Ghibli in there, something about Hera looks very 'Ghibli Heroine' to me. With the money of the LOTR franchise behind it, I would certainly expect this to have very high animation fidelity and impressive production values. It's quite fascinating seeing a western film studio collaborate with a Japanese anime studio on a western franchise this big. I don't think it's ever been done before for a feature film.
@@blue-guy333I will point out that the Japanese Manga/Anime story-writers are absolutely fascinated and enamored with the European medieval eras and culture. Most of their inspiration comes from the West.
@@blue-guy333Sounds like you're approaching this with prejudice based on shonen stereotypes instead of having an open mind! Not every show has cutaways to chibi Edward Elric whose otherwise a tragic stoic getting bonked on the head by a tiny elderly character and going 😭 or women characters making sex grunts when mildly surprised, i promise you.
As an animation artist and anime enjoyer, this is very high-end, high-budget animation. Invoking design cues from Miyazaki/Ghibli in level of ornate and detail-centric background and clothing designs, but with a slightly more photorealistic/mature anatomy for the character designs- which makes sense for an audience used to similar juggernauts in grimdark settings like Castlevania for their animation-for-grownups. I'm very excited about the level of mastery and craft demonstrated in these stills alone. My interest went from 4% to 100%.
Love it! Super excited! As far as the audience perspective, in LOTR Tolkien usually writes from the least knowledgeable character’s perspective so it would be very interesting to see line with his writing if we see almost everything through Hera’s “eyes” in this story. I think that would show some true attention to detail and would make many very happy fans.
I hope the story is true and more appropriate to the source material. Im getting frustrated with everything i love recently just becoming corrupted. And my inability to do anything but watch it turn into something i cant be excited for anymore.
Do not hate-watch things, man, it's bad for your soul. Haven't seen a single scene from ROP and am still enjoying Middle-Earth almost on the daily. This isn't a franchise where you have to settle for scraps, there is so much content, you can even start learning an Elvish language or two, that'd take you at least a thousand hours (I know because I'm doing it). You could also go for the works that inspired Tolkien, exploring the rich source material rather than the forced derivatives. Cheers.
@@Marcotonio these are the first encouraging words ive heard in a while. I've read most of Tolkiens works a dozen times over and am probably just being a fanboy. But it's just sad to see. But it's good to see people trying to help bring each other up rather then knock it down
@@deusvault5732 It can be rough when a franchise you care about is ran into the ground for profit; I was a completionist when it came to the band Gorillaz, big fan since the first album in 2001. These past few years I had to accept that the band has simply forgotten what made it good and stop forcing myself to listen to weak albums, trying to find scattered good pieces amidst the bad majority. And people struggling to let go are often the source of negativity, either to themselves (by constantly complaining but still consuming) or to others (by defending it tooth and nail from any criticism). Both stages of grief, now that I think about it. Once you realize you'd need 100 lifespans to consume all the worthwhile content out there, this becomes mostly trivial. And while you're distracted, BAM, things like this anime movie come out as an unexpected treat, that I will have to try and fit into my schedule, rather than thirst over. :)
Don't watch these corrupt and greedy things then. In this age, we not only pay for things with our money, but with our attention. Watching amazon's series, whether you like or dislike the actual thing, is a win for them
Hera is an odd choice for a name, and not from Tolkien, so that's disappointing. There are a lot of Old English female names they could have given her to make sense with names like Theoden, Hama, Wulf, and so on. In Old English, two words are sort of close, and certainly not the inspiration behind Hera (it was probably the goddess Hera). "here" means troop, and survived into Middle English in the same form, and "heoru" means sword, which in Modern English would be *har.
True. Even more, the "heart" is formed by two horses booping noses, while Hera's sword features stylized birds, or at least wings. Also an eagle's head on the pommel. However, I'm 80% sure I've seen that sword before. Can't be bothered to go through the whole extended trilogy though, just to make a point. Or maybe it just reminds me of a sword from a completely different franchise. Oh well...
@@deanzaZZR is there any reason to do such a thing though? (replacing the guard, as well as making a lighter and shorter blade just because shield maiden) because, as far as I'm aware, having a shorter blade makes it far less efficient in combat when facing an opponent with a regular blade. Like bringing a letter opener to a zweihander fight
@@shoulderpyro because a woman's physique is different from a man's? the power to swing the blade, the grip's strength, the comparison between the warrior's height and the sword's length, which is affect the lethality of the attack. even the speed. so in my opinion, the blade that a female warrior would use logically would be different from what a male warrior uses. i read a book about samurai years ago. a girl disguised herself as a man to get revenge and joined a troop. but later her leader found out about her gender. in short, the leader wants to help her revenge. he then forged a lighter, shorter sword for her because she HURT herself when she trained with regular sword usually used by her male companions. but because the lighter and shorter sword would have much lesser strength, her leader said she can cover it with her speed and accuration. proved to be as deadly.
@@tama_ochi and yet when looking at sparring matches today, both blades are of equal length and weight. Yes, women are typically weaker, but a lot of people seem to be under the impression swords are big heavy clunky things. Rohirric blades seem to be akin to one handed arming swords. There's literally zero reason to shorten Hera's blade more than it already is - you'd end up with a glorified dagger. So while I agree with your physique point, do keep in mind the differences between cultures and weapons overall. And then a funny little actual history, and not just a story like your samurai; just because they were physically weaker, noble women were not deterred in the slightest from joining crusades in full plate. As one scholar put it "They fought like men and were indistinguishable until slain and stripped of their armour" In the end, it all heavily relies on training. If you're at a natural disadvantage you just have to train more. Hera is of noble birth, she'd have gotten plenty of training. Likely even more than the average regular rohirric soldier - she'll be fine c:
As for myself, I agree they should have gone retro instead of the quasi anime art style, but I would have loved to see it done in the Rankin Bass design 😏
Yes, animae is too common, and it's a Japanese style. I would have liked a completely new look that sets the film apart in appearance from other animated films. I remember when drawing the film Sleeping Beauty back in the 50's, Disney's animators referred to tapestries from the Middle Ages for their style. They wanted the film to look distinctly Medieval, and that's exactly what they accomplished. The film is beautiful, but most importantly, it doesn't look like any other film before or after it. That's what I wanted for this film.
@@L1623VP To me, Sleeping Beauty looks like all Disney movies, except with a tint of medieval art. Just like Mulan looks like every Disney movie, except with a hint of traditional Asian art. If you look at the concept art and compare it to the final product, the change is stark. In the same vein, this anime looks pretty neat, but it does derive a lot from other of the same genre. I don't know how to make it look original, but Disney isn't any better in terms of uniqueness.
@@Marcotonio Watch the making of video for Sleeping Beauty. It's probably on RU-vid somewhere. It was an extra on the anniversary DVD I bought years ago. You'll see the striking difference to other Disney films when they put the backgrounds for the scenes of Sleeping Beauty against the Medieval tapestries. The animators did a fantastic job emulating that style. The funny thing is that I've loved the look of that film for decades and never knew exactly why until I saw the reasoning behind the animators' deliberate choice and style. I could tell it was distinctly different even back then without knowing why.
I am so pumped!! These stills are making me so excited, they look so clean and rich and beautiful! Even if it’s below expectations, I know it will still be worthwhile to jump back into this world and I was hesitant about the anime concept but that has officially been put to rest. This is gonna be fun! ❤
I’ll wait and see how it turns out, but I’m nervous about how Hera has been elevated in the story.I thought Helm / Frealaf would helm the show. Almost seems they took the wrong lesson from Eowyn’s role in the War of the Ring
My problem with all the Lord of the Rings projects is they simply can't let go of the events of the Lord of the Rings. From the Hobbit Even to Rings of Power everything is just a "member dis" moment rather than letting the stories be their own thing. Even the Tolkien movie got this wrong where it makes so many connections to Lord of the Rings rather than the SilmarIlion which Tolkiens life and experiences shaped more of than Lord of the Rings. The latter was just a sequel to The Hobbit a story he wrote for his kids.
My only concern is having Hèra as the protagonist. As one of the main characters, this would make sense but if the movie is built around her I think that would be a mistake.
I love anime, that is definitely Theoden's sword, and I started worrying about this when it seemed the main character is going to be Hera. Hope it doesn't go all canon breaking, dei, Tolkien rolling in his grave spinning like a drill bit. I REALLY hope this is good as anime is an ideal form to do great Tolkien stories on screen. You could do any of his stories, Gondolin, Hurin, Beren, creation of the trees, any and all of it to spec, with anime. I've been burned so many times though.
Man I am underwhelmed. They said it was not going to be like anything seen before... but it looks pretty damned generic to me. I hope I'm wrong, I hope it turns out really well... and it had better not end up being woke..but I am getting that vibe from this "Hera" character in the prior interview; I wouldn't be surprised.
I think it will be an amazing movie. ❤The animation seems beautiful and I LOVE the details from the trilogy. The only thing that I think is not good, is Héra's name. I mean, it's a Hellenic name. It's strange to give a Greek name to a Middle-Earth character. They could just create a new name for her. And why her hair is red? Anyway, I am waiting for the movie and I believe it will not disappoint me ❤🙏
I agree that the name "Hera" is a somewhat unfortunate choice. But what's wrong with red hair?? It might have been chosen un order to make the look this character different from Eowyn.
I am so pumped for War of the Rohirrim. When I first heard that it was gonna be animated, I thought its animation would be something similar to Netflix's Castlevania animated series but after seeing the images as well as finding out about the Japanese anime studio doing the animation work for the film, all I could say that this is gonna be good.
I am also puzzled by the choice to name the female protagonist Hera, because most people associate this Name with the Greek goddess! Even if Tolkien used that name in connection with the Rohirrim, the scriptwriters should have chosen another name.
I'm more puzzled about the fact that they made her the main character. She didn't have a name in original LOTR lore due to her being so insignificant, so why make her someone so important now. It would be way better to make it about Helm
One thing I want to point out, I think the person standing behind Hera isn't wearing blue and white, rather it's just white and the bluish hues come from the shadows.
We know the name of Helm's successor: Fréaláf Hildeson. Hild was Helm's sister and Fréaláf was her son. When Helm's sons Haleth and Háma perished, Fréaláf Hildeson became the new heir of the House of Eorl and thus the lawful King of the Mark after Helm's death. Helm was succeeded by his sister's son and not by his daughter's son. But his unnamed daughter was mentioned in Appendix A to "The Lord of the Rings". "The War of the Rohirrim" creates a film mix of Helm's sister Hild and Helm's unnamed daughter as a newly invented daughter named Hera, Héra or Hēra. But these forms are not entirely consistent with Old English as used in "The Lord of the Rings" while all other Rohanese names are. Tolkien wouldn't have named a female character of Rohan "Hera". It's rather a Greek than an Anglo-Saxon name. Still, it's possible for this film character Hera to take the functions not just of Helm's sister and daughter but also of Helm's nephew and successor, Fréaláf Hildeson. Hera could become the hero, so to say. As later King Théoden's sword was named Herugrim, it would make some sense for a Hera to be its first owner.
Unfortunately, I think it's going to be bad, after all it's 2024 and everything is bad nowdays. But I hope I'm wrong and have a pleasant surprise. Judging by the entertainment media of today's, I'd say it has a 95% chance of being horrible.
@@callnight1441 nope, dune was fine, i still prefer the 1984 but this year's dune was pretty good even with some strange decisions that differs from the books for no reason.
Speaking on Anime, the art is good and quite detailed when it comes to the clothing. The real benchmark however will be how it looks while animated. On another note, I'm not seeing much similarity between Hera's and Theoden's swords. The guard on Theoden's sword is circular, while Hera's looks more like a capitol B and you can see it flattens out by the placement of her thumb.
If it has amazing animation like Vinland Saga I can see it definitely working. Also hoping the writing is good because we definitely need some good LOTR content. Hera being the protagonist could work with again….good writing.
I'm very much looking forward to this, not least because my kids love the anime style of animation and, while they've shown little interest in Tolkien stories up to now, they're intrigued by this one and want to see it in the theater. Fingers crossed we'll be a whole family of fans by the end of it!
Definitely a safer bet compared to ROP. Im sure I’ll like it but I’m worried there won’t be enough wizards and orcs in it for more causal crowd, and thus won’t be as monetarily successful. If this does well I would love to see more anime/animation films or even TV series depicting a lot of stories in the appendices. Live action is great but as you said you can do things in animation that can’t be replicated elsewhere. Additionally, it would allow the studios to shell out less money and commitment if their stand alone animated films, so they’d be more willing to risk producing them. Excited, animation looks phenomenal
I mean that would take ages to make. People often dont realize how time consuming detailed animation like this is. For example the average animated movie from studio ghibli take 2-3 years to produce, and those usually have a runtime of 2 hours. Now imagine how long even a shortend and simplified Lord of the Rings would take to make, even at "only" 6 hours long you look at 6-9 years, not to mention if they would got for the full 12 hours :D. So long story short, i highly doubt it will happen.
@@bloodieown ok you’re taking my statement out of context. I’m not debating whether ai would be used in a project like that. I’m debating whether they will make an animated version of the movies. And I highly doubt they will
I don't know how I feel about calling Wolf a villain. I never saw him as a "bad" guy seeing as how Helm killed his father just because he wanted their kids to get married.
I think I'm in the minority in not looking forward to an animated film. I might be excited to watch it on a Saturday morning (reference to old school Saturday morning cartoons) but not excited to pay to see it in theaters. But to all those that appreciate and enjoy animation I hope you love it and I hope they do the story justice!
I think this could be the only way of doing the Silmarillion as a New Line animated series (or at least the only way I would want to see it done). Animation frees the creators from some of the difficulties a live action Silmarillion would undoubtably present. A series approach could negate the wide-ranging scope of the Silmarillion, being able to break it down into smaller arcs of episodes telling certain tales in the broader series story . Anime would also be a great way to present Tolkien's mythology as I find it has always had the ability to provide a very fantastical and mystical beauty.
The animation studio is Sola Digital arts. It's a newer studio with a few projects. If it's working with Production I.G (lots of sports and action experience) then it'll be really good. Will depend on whose doing the directing.
I'm not really hyped for the movie (yet) and I don't think it'll be as good as the original movies, but I think War of the Rohirrim has a lot of potential and with what I've just seen in mind I think it'll be a really good movie. And in my opinion Hera is one of if not the most beautiful animated character I've ever seen.
it gets worse....it sounds like they are getting ready to twist Tolkien's work all over again...this was one of the telling signs...of naming a character from a Greek Goddess...where it doesn't fit.
The first illustrations looks like the work of Lee, but later we get anime i think is ok for new people discover for first time the franchise of Lord of the rings, but without a doubt the other sytle of cartoon look more with realism, the objective is to release more content of LoR only for this is good for see more content for movies & series, one dream if we see in the future the first age or the history of Dol Amroth ❤🔥
this be another nail in the coffin for LOTR legacy after ROP these modern writers just cant help themselves injecting "modern" ideas into another beloved franchise
I am soooo exited for this movie. I’m still a nooby when it comes to anime but I think this will work really well with Tolkien. Also Matt, considering your interests I would totally recommend getting into anime, this is a great opportunity. You put AOT up as an example, and I think you would love that show. No pressure but give it some thought. Love you man!!!❤
I feel a lot of people were put off because, people said although i wouldn’t know this at all, the “nerd” was sponsored by amazon and so the reviews were positive
I think it looks OK but I am getting strong Netflix anime vibes (like Castlevania) which is, as I said, OK, but a tad overdone. I guess it meets my expectations but I'm left underwhelmed as a result. I will wait for more info about it, but I'm sure I'll see it upon release :)
From an animation view of point, the designs and colouring and art generally looks gorgeous and fitting as well. Now it remains to see how fluid the animation is. But I do have high hopes. And I hope the script is good in terms of characters and narration.
I got hire to this project a few year ago to do 3D character modeling (as a reference for MoCap) and then they draw 2D animation, waiting for this the release too. 😊
As a life long anime fan, this looks beautiful. I can't wait to see what they do with actual fight scenes. Or how they animate small details. Either way, I'm beyond stoked!!
I would have very much loved to see the Rohirrim film in the originally pitched style. It seemed to fit in much much better with the vibe and voice of Tolkien and his worlds.
I'm personally nervous about these images. I have not watched much anime, but these images look so much like Japanese anime that I when I imagine them moving I expect to hear Japanese. I just don't think this type of animation style is a good pick for a more "Western European" story. I would have chosen a more western animation style to match.
I love the fact that they are make a movie about the rohirrim it I find anime in general not a great meadow for stories that’s just my personal opinion
I'm tentatively excited about this. However, I'm annoyed the Haradrim are featured in this and concerned that Boyens and Walsh are up to their own tricks/distortions of the text for the sake of drama. The story of Helm Hammerhand could easily be told without bringing in the Mumakil and Haradrim.
I am actually really excited for this. These pictures look really nice and I personally believe the anime style fits well to a LOTR story. what I am definitely not excited for is seeing all the people who are going to be complaining, because it will most likely feature at least one scene of Hera fighting and haters are going to be pooping their pants because of this
I would describe the look similar to Castlevania or The Witcher Nightmare of the Wolf, in both style and quality. The backgrounds look interesting and good for cinema, the chalange being, on a big frame, every corner should have something going on, lest the image become stale. Certainly can be done well, would need to see it in motion to spot any CGI model use as well. And this style fits the world quite good imo.
1:11 not only is Hama the name of that guy who dies by the wargs in the Two Towers movie, but his son is Haleth, who gives Aragorn is sword to try out for a second before the Battle of Helms Deep :)
Cautious optimism. Recent additions to my favorite IPs have been largely horrible, and Amazon's attempt at epic storytelling in Middle Earth is an abomination. The bar is low so if this movie doesn't clear it... I may be crossing LoTR off my anticipation list as well.
The ppl in charge said "there are really interesting male characters, then there's this unnamed daughter barely mentioned and that was interesting to us" and that they felt this story world work well in anime because the story they want to tell relays well in Japanese story telling... Ya know that classic Tolkien Japanese storytelling... I'm not optimistic