Watched the 2001 Sakura Wars movie by production IG. The 2D character animation was absolutely and utterly gorgeous. Absolute treat. The TV anime rocked but this blew it out of the water. But then like 15 min into the movie... they sortied to fight monsters... and the 2001 CG... bruh... i almost cried. Oh no. Ohnononononononono. the stiff monster movements. The ugly CG smoke explosions. The goofy way the mechas kept puonding these stiff plastic toys. In the TV anime the creepy zombie like movements of the monsters, the way the flinched when shot, the way the were torn to shreds and splurted goo when cut was so satisfying but now theyre stiffly falling over. The mechas didnt look that bad because Sakura wars mechas are ugly-cute and weak looking steam powered trashcans, but damn the monsters were terrible. But then in the late movie climactic battle scene they were fighting mechanical enemies so the CG didnt pop out too bad and the high speed action and brilliant choreography overshadowed it. And the explosions that were CG earlier were now 2D. Wtf. Great stuff. All in all really good cash-in movie, if you forget that one awful battle scene at the start of the movie, dunno what kinda intern came up with that shit. But i will have to say that even though IG had even better 2D animation, i prefer Madhouse's more old school take on the chara designs. thats just my boomer taste speaking though.
and of course Ohgami had to fly in to have a big hero "sorry I kept you waiting" chad moment despite being stationed in freakin France.