Reacting to Sunset! The new Genshin Impact Animated Short

[@TheRoschi]

As I said here, I'll be making another video about this, breaking down the animation and explaining WHY I have my opinion. As far as story stuff goes, this is fine and I'm sure it's super cool for a lot of people. I'm excited to understand the context someday in my playthrough.

[@caseylp7121]

Always cool to see someone react to something with a neutral mindset and doesn't have much bias Also, Tupac as a name comes from the Inca people, which lines up with Natlan's heavy influence from Mesoamerica That being said, yeah it always does remind me of the rapper's name too

[@TheRoschi]

@caseylp7121 Thank you... That's how I approach a lot of this stuff. Apparently, quite a few don't get it. 😅 The meaning of Tupac is really cool and fits the character well. It's just that I haven't heard of it before the rapper, so yeah... whoops.

[@dzintars8034]

To be honest this is my favorite animation from the genshin team, just everything built up to it, the lore, finally seeing characters that we've known for almost a year now from one of our first bits of actual lore from natlan from a battlepass weapon, especially the heroes at the beginning, in animated/living form, just amazing and I'm so excited for the conclusion to this story. It's extremely hard to talk or argue with you without mentioning spoilers, but this is probably one of the coolest shorts they've released, The visuals not being action packed/mind breakingly stunning/near perfectly choreographed isn't the point of it at all, it's purely a story trailer and without prior knowledge it's probably hard to understand/appreciate as it's most likely made mostly for people already following the journey so far. Probably the first time I'm disagreeing with you completely on this one

[@TheRoschi]

That's all fine and good, but I never said I had problems with the story. So there's no point as to why that would need to be argued over at all. :)

[@kristofvaradi1928]

If we compare this animated short to the Arlecchino one they released, it indeed seems less polished, however this one doesn't seem to spoiler that much for us. While the Arlecchino one gave us complete facts and statements of her lore, this animation only gives subtle hints where we can either be right or wrong about certain things, so when we get to play the Natlan Finale it will still harbor surprises to us

[@TheRoschi]

Yeah, I have no issue with the story telling in this, and honestly I'm glad I don't fully know what's happening. I mean, I could speculate, as I do, but I'm excited to learn the context as I play. My gripe is the animation, which I'll talk about in a future video in detail. I feel like they chose quantity over quality with this one and I'm not too thrilled about it.

[@generaltoszur1036]

Yeah ngl for natlan specifically you really do need context since its story is way more lore focused than any other region , If you want some immediate ( not spoilery ) extension of the animation you should read the description of talking stick battlepass weapon

[@TheRoschi]

Ah I see. I will consider it. thanks for the suggestion. :)

[@I.disagree]

I actually think watching this animation before playing through the archon quests might enhance the experience because it showcases the events that took place directly before Mavuika's resurrection and also showed off the tribe heroes

[@techcreators9255]

I do agree animation wise it was on the minimal side on this one but the story and just being able to see all this from the past is great especially if you have the full context and understand who they are and what's going on.

[@TheRoschi]

Yep! No issue with the story. I'm sure it was plenty cool for those who get it and got to see this play out in some form. But as an animated project in general the animation is... oof...

[@cardnacn6704]

I get that the name Tupac might tip you a bit but I think it can also be fun for you to find out the reference where the name is from base on culture that Natlan is inspired by.

[@TheRoschi]

It's definitely more of a me problem.

[@Neutral-q2t]

Personaly liked how they did the video in general. The vibes with the impactful music and so fitting very well here, was not really looking so harsh on the animation, was fine to me. Of course they have better animation from previous videos and such, but for this kind of video this kind of animation / style fits perfectly for me atleast, of course you could do more but yeah. Maybe it hits way different because im very deep in the lore (Also Natlan) from Genshin.

[@dzintars8034]

Yeah using in game music felt more impactful, previous animations did feel a bit more like amv's/music videos but this hits different especially knowing the context. I like the animation, it's sad hearing roschi's critique.

[@TheRoschi]

Hey I think it's great that you enjoyed it as much as you did. I'm of course looking at it from a very different perspective, so I don't expect everyone to relate and agree with me. It must have been awesome to see something so meaningful to you. :)

[@TheRoschi]

My apologies if I upset you. I'm just speaking my mind, as I've always done. If you like it then I'm happy for you. :)

[@douglasjrza]

The Road Not Taken was 3 minutes and 25 seconds. Sunset is 10 minutes and 45 seconds. Definitely a quantity over quality situation. Which was honestly a good thing because, this HAD to be drawn out to sell the weight of the Mavuika's story. But since you haven't experienced that part of the story, I can understand that. Mihoyo has over 5k employees, decisions have to go through so many filters it's insane, sometimes that can affect the amount of time artists have to work on a project based on the schedules received, not to defend the multi-billion dollar company but to defend the artists who really work hard and sometimes get walked over by the suits. I bet you it isn't always sunshine and rainbows over at Mihoyo's offices in Shanghai.

[@TheRoschi]

This will be taken into consideration I assure you. :)

[@l1n732]

13:11 I feel you 😂

[@matcha1996]

Genshin’s anime short are not stand alone that’s why they do not make sense. they’re heavily attached to in-game lore so I would suggest look through synopsis of each version (5.0 in this matter) so there is context to make it make sense. And the animation, for me, is pretty much intentional.

[@TheRoschi]

I do not wish for more context at the moment, I went into this knowing that I would not understand everything. That's not what my issue with it is.

[@sosayzarathustra]

I wasn't sure if the short contained any big spoilers, so I waited if Roschi's reaction would come out so I could watch it :D

[@TheRoschi]

Thanks for watching! :D

[@Keiki-kun]

Mihoyo's animation team has always been like this, well except in some cases like the animation for 4.7, but I can't say if other animators were involved in that project, maybe It's the same team that does the Star Rail animations, but it seems like they have another team for the ZZZ ones because they don't have that Mihoyo touch to them They're good at drawing, but they're only ok at animating Anyway this animation is still incredible, especially with context. I cried the first time i watched it

[@TheRoschi]

"Mihoyo's animation team has always been like this" as a person who studied this stuff for years, hard disagree. The animations I've seen this past year were far superior in quality. To me it seems they tried something new (making a longer production) and stretched themselves too thin. It happens. Regardless, I imagine this HAD to have been really emotional for many. I'm glad you enjoyed it. :)

[@Keiki-kun]

@@TheRoschi hmmm not really, I wanted to agree but I've been watching these animations for over 7 years and Mihoyo has always maintained this level most of the time last year with Dan Heng's animation some scenes seemed to have low fps because they were so stiff, most of the animation was very still but in the fight scene everything seemed very stiff what saved Arlecchino's fight scene was the choreography well I shouldn't say "save" because even though these animations are like this they are still beautiful

[@TheRoschi]

@@Keiki-kun To compare this to 'The Road Not Taken' and Arlechinno's short is pretty wild, especially since they were both made by their in-house team which was showing great improvements. ...and you keep referring to things beyond a year ago. When I wasn't. Not talking about those. However, I see what you're trying to say, it seems like this DID revert to what you're used to. I agree with that. Not the case for all prior projects this year though. This thing is a one step forward, two steps back, unfortunately.

[@Keiki-kun]

@@TheRoschi these are some exceptions yes but I mean some Star Rail animations like Dan Heng's and several Honkai Impact animations

[@Keiki-kun]

@@TheRoschi Don't get me wrong I agree with you the animation is stiff in some parts But what I mean is that it's always been like this, no matter the game In the 7 years that I've been watching these animations, the characters have improved (design and expressions), the choreography has improved, the scenarios have improved But the animation has always been like this, I also don't understand why Mihoyo doesn't change this or improve it

[@lonewolfjedi493osswfan]

I actually like this as it shows what Mavuika has been dealing with and struggling through for 500 years

[@TheRoschi]

Yes, the story is good.

[@JustinSchuller]

I can't really critique animation as I don't really know anything about it. I can say that we really didn't need the angle they showed when she got on her bike at the end, a little excessive if you ask me, but oh well. One thing I feel like this animation is missing that the Arlecchino one and the Aether and Lumine one had is an original song with vocals. I feel like that really elevated the other animations quite a bit. Don't get me wrong, the Natlan music they used in this video is really good. And maybe they wanted the feel to be more somber and quiet, so having a hype song wouldn't fit. It was just something I noticed. I don't know how much work it is for them to put these out, but I wish they did them a little more often. They don't need to be ten minutes long. I really enjoy them. Glad you were able to check this out, and I look forward to your more in depth analysis!

[@TheRoschi]

Honestly I don't think I even noticed the angle... I was distracted by my thoughts about the animation in general. I'll have to go back and see in the other video I make. Music, sfx, anything audio in general is at least 60% of making anything great. Even lack there-of if done well enough in the right moment. The music wasn't bad, but it could have been more to really sell it. Animation takes a LONG time but then again it also depends on the size of the team, how good the communication is bewteen different departments, budget, etc. A lot of factors to consider. I will say this though, I honestly think they focused on quantity over quality here, which is why this is 10 minutes long and so far below Arlecchino's animated short quality wise that it's not even funny. I'll get into this more later. :)

[@TheLastPhoen1x]

Yea, they were more tasteful with angles up until this point.

[@generaltoszur1036]

I guess in anime animation you gotta have " anime stuff " i also wasnt a big fan of how in arlecchino animation they gave clervie " cute anime face " when she was eating the cake or her mouth watering when she was looking at the other cake , its anime so they gotta include stuff like this although i know that this shot of mavuika getting on bike was something they couldnt pass on considering her design , thats why i love travail and winters night lazzo above all other trailers they are all about story , na fanservice , no anime gimmicks . And you can see how winter night lazzo as a harbingers teaser had no fanservice while teasers for fontaine and natlan characters did have it

[@JustinSchuller]

@@generaltoszur1036 I'm probably the very rare person who plays Genshin and HSR and has watched almost no anime in my life.

[@sosayzarathustra]

​@@generaltoszur1036 I didn't care about the cute face, but what I hate about "anime stuff": unrealistically long and high jumps, too big explosions, and the like. Tha's what I like about this short in comparison to the Arlecchino one.

[@NiramBG]

It's funny because as someone who hasn't gone through the Natlan story so far you're getting the worst deal out of this :D You're both missing context to appreciate all the details that have been put in it and getting spoiled on some stuff that only gets revealed half way through. Hopefully you forget most of this by the time you get to Natlan. Also yeas compared to Arlecchino's animation this isn't as high quality, but that one I feel was meant as a standalone piece of media, while this one I think is more so meant to fill in some gaps that they're probably not gonna go over in the story.

[@TheRoschi]

I beg to differ. If anything this could potentially give me context for future events as people have also told me. It's no different to me as of right now from watching a version trailer, and the more I'm in the dark the more I get to go "OH YEAH That's what this meant." That is if I even remember it. 30 years from now lol I mainly focused on the animation anyway. :)

[@mulraf]

Definitely interested in your take on the animation. I do agree that some previous animations have looked better. But i really like the way they told the story - the imagery too. And i - might sound weird but - liked the .. dialogue. There definitely are some cool details. The OSTs (except the first one) fit really really well. Maybe what i want to say is i feel like it is just well directed?

[@TheRoschi]

The story direction is great and I believe I can see their vision. My issue is with more technical things, that if were improved, would make this 100x better. It's not bad at all.

[@mulraf]

@@TheRoschi I feel like i can relate to what you mean. When i see stuff in fields i am knowledgeable about, i also feel like that :D Probably comes with knowing much about animation and if you don't, you look past it.

[@TheLastPhoen1x]

I think I would even prefer to have watched this animation myself before going through the quest line as it gives background to some events. But it, obviously, was not available at that time.

[@TheRoschi]

ooohh fair! I can see that. Knowing myself though, there's a 50/50 if I'll remember this by the time I get there. XD;

[@stevieveringus3857]

As someone who follows the in-game lore, I didn't mind the lack of animation flex. But the fact that I didn't really get much of anything new here. Like it was cool seeing the 6 heroes special moves, Tupac being a badass as I expected him to be, or get more confirmation of Mavuika's mental turmoil. The annoyance comes from the fact that this was teased as a story about the Mavuika of 500 years ago and I didn't really get much of that. Except for that outfit.

[@nopon887]

A good number of streamers ive seen (and me) went "the rapper?" when first they heard Tupac's name. It's definitely not a you thing lol.

[@TheRoschi]

Honestly it felt bad to even bring it up because I KNOW there is most likely more to it than that. I just had to be honest in the moment.

[@frankstolz]

@@TheRoschi I had the reverse reaction when I first heard about the rapper with the name of the last Inca king. I thought he was related to (or referencing) the MRTA, but later found out that it was his actual name.

[@AustralisKaus]

I think the girl on the road is Astaroth, who took the form of Mavuika's younger sister, and who helped her remember the purpose of time travel. Or it's all her imagination, and her sister represents her willpower, which after 499 years (The Number on the last Bus Stop) did not let her forget about the final goal. I liked this Animated Short, but objectively it is weaker than Arlecchino's, and it's a pity they didn't show the other two heroes and Tenoch. I'm also glad that I don't know who the rapper Tupac is, which, as I understand, saved me from awkward analogies. =)

[@CC_Seig]

I do really like Mavuikas previous outfit. For me personally it fitted more into the whole Natlan theme (Tribe/Rites, etc.). I Guess her biker outfits makes more sense, well because of her bike. Not saying it´s bad or anything. I don´t like it but i also don´t hate it; It suits her somewhat but it´s not something iam overly stoked of about her Character. I mean, i love her as a Character and what place she is in and how she presents herself in Natlan, but it´s just a "meh" for her outfit. :D Thanks for the video! Really interested in the animation Breakdown.

[@karst1559]

I agree. The longest animation but the most pointless and the least meaningful.

[@netamin2617]

"the most pointless and the least meaningful." I'm not even going to disagree with you because that's just an objective fallacy. This helps further contextualize Teyvat's cyclical nature of civilization rising and falling, Mauvika's determination to free her nation from that cycle as perpetrated by the Abyss, her battle against erosion over the 500 year span, the strength of her familial bond giving her the final push to carry on, the importance of the ancient names, the people behind them and how Mauvika has carried their sacrifice and faith across time to bolster the heroes of today, and the enormity of what has been entrusted to the Traveler for this final battle. This 500 year plan has countless facets driving its execution. All the sacrifices, choices, ambitions, etc. that have been carried by Mauvika like a torch across time have now been entrusted to the Traveler to stand by her in the coming battle against the Abyss for a flicker of hope that Natlan's cycle of war can be broken. There is a reason the final line of dialogue here is, "For Natlan!"

[@karst1559]

@netamin2617 *spoilers* a 10 minutes animation without offering any new information is pointless. Everything seen there is already known to those who played Natlan's archon quest. Unless you consider it relevant knowing that one of the heroes from 500 years before was an alcoholic. This is made only to steal some tears from spectators, but once again is pointless, because we already had Furina, someone who endured 500 years instead of just jumping 500 years in the future... Furina is human as well, she definitely has seen generations of people getting old and die.

[@netamin2617]

@@karst1559 "instead of just jumping 500 years in the future..." Saying that proves your ignorance and complete lack of comprehension in regards to this short. Mauvika did not "just jump" 500 years forward. She spent those centuries in the Eternal Flame alone, with nothing but her own thoughts for company. Even her own memories were under the incessant assault of erosion. This is symbolized by the way station shown in a cycle of falling to ruin and being rebuilt. In the last year of her journey through time she couldn't even recognize Hine as her own sister until Hine called her "sis" and reminded Mauvika of her mission. Furina went through hell but was at least grounded in an awareness of the world around her (Even if that at times contributed to her pain and helplessness). Mauvika sat in complete mental isolation unaware of the state of the world outside with nothing but hope that her nation could hold out against the Abyss as she made her trip. Btw, You are also being completely facetious about how much of the information present in the short can be found within the archon quest alone. Most of the information on the heroes of the past as well as the nature of how Mauvika's trip actually affected her is only in this short or in ancillary text/other sources OUTSIDE of the main quests.

[@gargoyle2423]

Without actually playing the Natlan Archon quest, none of this is gonna make much sense.

[@TheRoschi]

And that is fine, it doesn't need to right now. It'll be awesome when it does. :D