I finally got my download, so now I can take frame grabs.

Hmmm... Five girls, four beds. Hmmm....

Think Lilly and Maki (both standing) will share one? There have already been hints that there's something between them. (Lilly stole Maki's bra in ep 3, for instance.)

More likely one of them is just visiting. (Rats.)

Actually, this post is about the layout of the bridge, and I've got some pictures and discussion of it below the fold.

So that's the bridge. It's in two decks, and there's no obvious way to get from one level to the other. We know they do it; in ep 12 when Gruier and Grunhilde talk for the first time, Marika is down on the lower deck standing behind Courier. But how do they get between them?

Here's how they aren't doing it. There's an entrance to the upper level in the center rear. It's that part which has the Bentenmaru logo on it, and it has doors on the sides (though they usually use the port side door). And on the first deck there's an entrance just below the captain's station, with a stairway heading downwards.

The two exits don't connect to the same deck behind the bridge. So, you say, there's a stairway just outside, right? Well, no, there isn't.

That's what's behind the upper entrance. It's a long straight hallway.

And looking the other way, it goes quite a ways back, and ends in a T. (Waah, look at that smile! I think Chiaki is loosening up.)

Any stairway has to be past that T, and I don't believe it. To get from one level to the other you'd have to exit, run (or float) at least 20 meters, get to the stairway and change decks, and float back again. No one would design a ship's bridge that way.

My answer is that the animators don't care. Here's proof:

What is Chiaki standing on? Compare this to the long shot of the bridge above. She's floating at least a meter above the deck.

No, she isn't standing on the computer console; she's shown walking up to this point, as if on a floor. But the floor isn't that high, unless her legs just became 8 feet long.

As I've written before, this is a series to experience, not one to really think deeply about. It's to the credit of the original author that the story entrances and invites us to think deeply; it's an indication of the richness and attractiveness of the scenario and the characters. But it's evident that the animation team didn't really spend a huge amount of time thinking about this kind of stuff.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Engineer's Disease at 10:05 AM | Comments (16) | Add Comment
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