dakkumauji
Member
Gintama 77
S!
All that action. Extremely nice fighting. Kagura and Sougo's fight was extremely amusing.
S!
All that action. Extremely nice fighting. Kagura and Sougo's fight was extremely amusing.
Summer 2012 Anime |OT2| Of Suspended Anime Due To Olympics
- Thread starter dakkumauji
- Start date
- Status
Full Zetsuen no Tempest news update:
Hakaze Kusaribe: Miyuki Sawashiro
Samon Kusaribe: Rikiya Koyama
Evangeline Yamamoto: Nana Mizuki
Junichirou Hoshimura: Hirofumi Nojima
Natsumura Kusaribe: Junichi Suwabe
Tetsuma Kusaribe: Hiroyuki Yoshino
OP: Nothing's Carved In Stone
ED: Kana Hanazawa
Hakaze Kusaribe: Miyuki Sawashiro
Samon Kusaribe: Rikiya Koyama
Evangeline Yamamoto: Nana Mizuki
Junichirou Hoshimura: Hirofumi Nojima
Natsumura Kusaribe: Junichi Suwabe
Tetsuma Kusaribe: Hiroyuki Yoshino
OP: Nothing's Carved In Stone
ED: Kana Hanazawa
Saint Seiya Omega 05-06:
A really dull pair of episodes, both narratively and artistically. This is clearly going to remain babby's first shounen for the time being, so I can only hope for an increase in good animation as this really basic tournament arc progresses to its important matches. It's shocking just how much life is taken out of Umakoshi's art in the presence of really pedestrian direction. The animators are generally on-model with the faces and are good about applying dynamic, thick lines and such, but his style begs to be used in conjunction with smart use of perspective and fast, energetic motion. I just want something else on the level of Aquila Yuna's fight scene in episode three again soon.
A really dull pair of episodes, both narratively and artistically. This is clearly going to remain babby's first shounen for the time being, so I can only hope for an increase in good animation as this really basic tournament arc progresses to its important matches. It's shocking just how much life is taken out of Umakoshi's art in the presence of really pedestrian direction. The animators are generally on-model with the faces and are good about applying dynamic, thick lines and such, but his style begs to be used in conjunction with smart use of perspective and fast, energetic motion. I just want something else on the level of Aquila Yuna's fight scene in episode three again soon.
Dedication Through Light
Member
The song they do for Kingdom, Pride, sounds pretty good, so hopefully whatever they do for this sounds just as good or even better.
hosannainexcelsis
Member
Really, you shouldn't watch every episode of this show unless you've got OCD. Only certain episodes have good animation/art/etc.
I don't think he's watching it for animation/art/etc. This is Mad Pierrot!
"proclick" link
Still airing:
One piece
Hunter x Hunter
Toriko
Hyped for:
Jojo - tense tactical fights doesn't get any better, it's David Motherfucken production, david is stand up name I feel I can trust this man.
Interested
Magi- I was once hyped now am very skeptical about it after the anime team decided to open there mouth.
Something in the back of my head tells me A-1 going to massacre this and turn it into idole master :s
I keep falling in and out of hype with magi, it goes like this, read manga chapter->hype ->someone posts art or pv ->hype decreased -> read another chapter > hype
One piece
Hunter x Hunter
Toriko
Hyped for:
Jojo - tense tactical fights doesn't get any better, it's David Motherfucken production, david is stand up name I feel I can trust this man.
Interested
Magi- I was once hyped now am very skeptical about it after the anime team decided to open there mouth.
Something in the back of my head tells me A-1 going to massacre this and turn it into idole master :s
I keep falling in and out of hype with magi, it goes like this, read manga chapter->hype ->someone posts art or pv ->hype decreased -> read another chapter > hype
Sword Art Online 8
action is still meh, why all the fights are so short? couple slashes and done. 2nd episode had it right. Finally some hints of decent music near the end, not much. more meh fan service, how many more episodes until they do it at last? -_-
and more importantly how many more episodes until we see some signs of plot and the bad guy? finally they talked two sentences about it...
action is still meh, why all the fights are so short? couple slashes and done. 2nd episode had it right. Finally some hints of decent music near the end, not much. more meh fan service, how many more episodes until they do it at last? -_-
and more importantly how many more episodes until we see some signs of plot and the bad guy? finally they talked two sentences about it...
I would do this, but with only twenty episodes and my slow catch-up pace of 1-2 episodes per day, I don't mind indulging my OCD at least this much. I would certainly find it extraordinarily trying to watch all twenty episodes in rapid marathon fashion.
I've watched plenty of shows just for the animation/art!
Then you only have yourself to blame when the blindness sets in by ep19 or so... You won't be able to enjoy the amazing ep20 when all you can see is darkness.
Then you only have yourself to blame when the blindness sets in by ep19 or so... You won't be able to enjoy the amazing ep20 when all you can see is darkness.
Don't worry, by focusing my Cosmo I'll be able to regain my sight.
Zetsuen no Tempest site update: http://www.zetsuen.net/
- The show will start on Oct 4
- The OP is called "Spirit Inspiration"
- The ED is called "happy endings" (this almost certainly confirms Hanazawa is Aika)
New PV with the OP theme and more animation (including ACTION!): http://www.zetsuen.net/special.html
- The show will start on Oct 4
- The OP is called "Spirit Inspiration"
- The ED is called "happy endings" (this almost certainly confirms Hanazawa is Aika)
New PV with the OP theme and more animation (including ACTION!): http://www.zetsuen.net/special.html
Unknown Soldier
Member
Perfectu Waifu Online 8:
It only took them 8 episodes to get to chapter 2 of the manga. Great work there, A-1 Pictures.
Anyways, it should be fairly obvious how much better the main story is than the side stories we've been force-fed the past 6 episodes. It looks like A-1 Pictures knows it too because suddenly the animation improves in quality and the design of the dungeon actually looks interesting now. Hopefully we'll actually be able to enjoy the main story now without further annoying interruptions.
If there were any doubts as to who the Perfectu Waifu is, they should be pretty thoroughly erased at this point. Silica and Li*beth are cute, but neither of them can kick ass in the highest level dungeon AND cook. And neither of them can be tsun-tsun like Asuna can either. It's time for all of you to face the harsh truth and accept Asuna, the Perfectu Waifu!
The bad guy is supposed to be kind of surprising. You'll see soon enough, but it's foreshadowed in this episode. Spoiler:
It only took them 8 episodes to get to chapter 2 of the manga. Great work there, A-1 Pictures.
Anyways, it should be fairly obvious how much better the main story is than the side stories we've been force-fed the past 6 episodes. It looks like A-1 Pictures knows it too because suddenly the animation improves in quality and the design of the dungeon actually looks interesting now. Hopefully we'll actually be able to enjoy the main story now without further annoying interruptions.
If there were any doubts as to who the Perfectu Waifu is, they should be pretty thoroughly erased at this point. Silica and Li*beth are cute, but neither of them can kick ass in the highest level dungeon AND cook. And neither of them can be tsun-tsun like Asuna can either. It's time for all of you to face the harsh truth and accept Asuna, the Perfectu Waifu!
The bad guy is supposed to be kind of surprising. You'll see soon enough, but it's foreshadowed in this episode. Spoiler:
It's not coincidence that Kirito starts talking about the game's creator again this episode.
Chapter 2 or volume 2?
How can they spend eight episodes on two chapters. Unless those chapters are fairly lengthy I guess.
Gotcha. I keep forgetting this is from a LN. I was thinking manga chapters there.
Absolutely not. Silica already won.
Episode 1 = Chapter 1 of the LN
Episodes 2-7 = Adaptations of short stories that came in later LNs
Episode 8 = Chapter 2 of the LN
I thnk anyhow
In the novels it went straight from the stuff covered in the first episode to the stuff covered in the most recent episode.
dakkumauji
Member
Gintama 78
Mayo vs ketchup. The eternal question of what to drown your food with.
Yay another nice fight. Nice backstory for Toushi as well.
Mayo vs ketchup. The eternal question of what to drown your food with.
Yay another nice fight. Nice backstory for Toushi as well.
R_thanatos
Member
Because those are regular monsters for the levels .. The only extended fights you'll get like ep2 are unlimited duels , floor bosses and that's it .. you're following 2 overpowered characters ... their fights aren't supposed to last long
I don't know, if somebody posts about watching Horizon, isn't that almost a cry for help?
KuwabaraTheMan
Banned
Thanks for sharing this. There's some really interesting information here and it sheds a lot of light on the process that went into the show. I really need to get a hold of this set and read all of this stuff.
dakkumauji
Member
Not a bad OP. Kinda average sounding, but I guess I should wait til I hear the whole thing.
Nice action though. I'm ok with what they choose for the effects.
Razgriz-Specter
Member
Mobile Suit Gundam 1-10
Like the series so far, art style is growing on me.
Only question is Char, does he take a while to get built up or what?
He is kind of meh so far imo.
Like the series so far, art style is growing on me.
Only question is Char, does he take a while to get built up or what?
He is kind of meh so far imo.
Movies are the way to go unless you're deadset on watching the series.
Razgriz-Specter
Member
lol didn't even know about that, will look into them, thanks.
The fuck? "Chose"?
women are like aliens to dtl
Still stupid as fuck. Why wouldn't you just explain that to your friends? Also when can't you just have your friends get the points for you? This level of stupidity is worthy of being slapped.
KO Traveling Hobo
Member
Sword Art Online 8
It's really simple and totally irrelevant to the plot, but I enjoyed how the episode teaches us something interesting about Asuna by posing a question("Why would a leading game-clearer have maxed cooking skill?") and then slowly leading us to the answer without ever telling us directly:
1. Finding a cook with high enough skill wouldn't have been an issue for Kirito if cooking held some intrinsic use for a combat-focused character. Hell, he'd probably have the skill himself.
2. Her four million dollar house tells us that buying food is unlikely to be prohibitively expensive, which also suggests that the food itself is not important.
3. She implies that she enjoys cooking IRL and takes pride in it, but then she says that in SAO it's boring so it can't be that she does it for fun.
This is enough for us our to formulate a likely answer, but how do we know we aren't just reading too far into things?
4. Asuna voices her concern that she and others are growing distant from the real world. This is clearly something that she's been thinking about a lot.
5. Bingo: the reason that Asuna is so dedicated to cooking is because it's her connection to the real world.
The second half of the episode, however, was a damn travesty. The boob grab amused me because of how many times it showed him squeezing that tit, but the escort dude was cringeworthy as fuck, the duel was awkward, and Kirito going full white knight was only impressive in its willingness to slight Asuna's agency and how blatant the Gary Stu wanking was.
In the dungeon, Kirito finally deciding that he could put his full trust in Asuna was definitely a good thing, but fuck if it wasn't ruined on my first watch by the prior scene.
Mega hyped for next week. Gimme dat epic boss fight.
I loved the first half of the episode. The chemistry between Kirito and Asuna was great as always.
Kirito's swag level is off the charts. Just look at Asuna's expression.
It's really simple and totally irrelevant to the plot, but I enjoyed how the episode teaches us something interesting about Asuna by posing a question("Why would a leading game-clearer have maxed cooking skill?") and then slowly leading us to the answer without ever telling us directly:
1. Finding a cook with high enough skill wouldn't have been an issue for Kirito if cooking held some intrinsic use for a combat-focused character. Hell, he'd probably have the skill himself.
2. Her four million dollar house tells us that buying food is unlikely to be prohibitively expensive, which also suggests that the food itself is not important.
3. She implies that she enjoys cooking IRL and takes pride in it, but then she says that in SAO it's boring so it can't be that she does it for fun.
This is enough for us our to formulate a likely answer, but how do we know we aren't just reading too far into things?
4. Asuna voices her concern that she and others are growing distant from the real world. This is clearly something that she's been thinking about a lot.
5. Bingo: the reason that Asuna is so dedicated to cooking is because it's her connection to the real world.
The second half of the episode, however, was a damn travesty. The boob grab amused me because of how many times it showed him squeezing that tit, but the escort dude was cringeworthy as fuck, the duel was awkward, and Kirito going full white knight was only impressive in its willingness to slight Asuna's agency and how blatant the Gary Stu wanking was.
In the dungeon, Kirito finally deciding that he could put his full trust in Asuna was definitely a good thing, but fuck if it wasn't ruined on my first watch by the prior scene.
Mega hyped for next week. Gimme dat epic boss fight.
Char's also a lot more impactful in the Japanese version--urban legend is that Ikeda was thrown out of casting call for Amuro because he was totally sloshed, happened to see Char's lines on the way out the door, came back and nailed it perfectly then and there. It's also a pretty common opinion among people who watched it realtime that hearing him was what sold them on the show.
Not that the English actor is bad, but he has some really, really huge shoes to fill.
glad to see that Gundam Sousei is as accurate and truthy as always.
chickdigger802
Banned
binbo 8
wow shit got dark. Seriously, why does japan love 'highschool' so much for their stuff. Seems like a time of one's life you don't wanna think back to. Heck, highschool in the states sucks balls as well.
wow shit got dark. Seriously, why does japan love 'highschool' so much for their stuff. Seems like a time of one's life you don't wanna think back to. Heck, highschool in the states sucks balls as well.
Crash Station
Member
Started writing this last night while people were being mean to shounen. Might as well finish it to make you guys think I'm even crazier/more pathetic (and hopefully take back my title from DTL). I doubt it will change the rather negative opinion of the genre around here, but whatever.
Why Battle Shounen is an awesome genre
When talking about battle series/shounen, there are 2 keywords to keep in mind; Escalation and Variety. Sometimes they overlap, but their importance can clearly be seen whether separate or combined.
Escalation
Now when I say escalation, I don't just mean in scale. I'm associating the term with virtually everything important to plot advancement. That means character development, relationship growth, bigger conflicts, more significant fights, all coupled with an increase in a sense of scale.
The standard is of course, to focus on a relatively weak character that gets stronger as time goes on. In other words, a kind of coming of age story. Yeah, that sounds overdone and cliche at this point, but there's a reason it's such a popular setup. Old normal Billy Highschooler might not be some crazy hero now, but through his adventure, he will meet tons of people, get super strong, and get tangled up in multiple conflicts that he may or may not look forward to.
In a good battle series, it will actually feel like things progress. The protagonist, regardless of how willing he or she is to go through all this crap, will grow as a person. And it won't be a sudden change. It will be gradual, something you won't notice until looking back at earlier chapters and/or episodes. It's like growing up alongside a friend. Subtle changes happen little at a time.
Then there's the conflicts and growth in abilities. Again, a good shounen will not throw a character into the middle of something beyond their capabilities unless they are destined to lose. That's not to say things can't be crazy at the beginning, but the point is they will get crazier. The protagonist might start out in a small town and have to beat up some powerful douchebag that keeps stealing fences. Later on, that guy alongside a bunch of new allies will end up raiding a government facility staffed with uber-powerful guards or something, with insanity everywhere! You want to be able to say "wow, that guy totally couldn't do this stuff at the beginning of the series" while actually believing the growth. This is something good shounen series can do.
And the escalation doesn't necessarily have to be limited to the main cast either. Learning bits and pieces about the setting and side characters multiple times will let you see the world the series takes place in as a living, breathing entity connected by several stories, big and small.
One Piece is an example of good escalation. Every single arc with the exception of one is vital to the overarching plot and furthering the lore of the world. The character relationships advance, their own specific traumas come to the surface, their abilities increase, etc. You can safely say that Luffy is not the same person he was at the beginning of the series. His overall personality may not have undergone any drastic changes, but his actions and priorities definitely show a sense of growth. And after a certain point, the world becomes absolutely massive with hundreds of connections and well-foreshadowed relationships or events.
Something like Inuyasha on the other hand, is an example of poor escalation. Every new learned technique and the time spent to obtain said technique is invalidated by a bullshit counter the main antagonist comes up with, sometimes on the spot. And that's just the bottom of the complaint barrel. There's also static character growth which extends for several tens of episodes, insignificant conflicts that have little bearing on the actual plot, inconsistent power levels that make every fight an uninteresting crapshoot, and sometimes actual REGRESSION in all of these categories.
A good sense of escalation is generally among the more difficult things to pull off within the genre. Many authors fall into the same pitfalls as Inuyasha, albeit nowhere near as bad. However, when it is pulled off well, you got yourself a large scale adventure akin to a good epic.
Variety
When you have such a long series, you don't want it to be the same thing over and over again. So what do you do? You plan a vast array of different scenarios, characters, abilities, battle strategies, locales, designs, hats, light bulbs, and whatever the hell you can think of!
In terms of areas, long running shounen series can sometimes be like a theme park. Any given area might have some kind of gimmick or theme, whether it be the tried and true ones like ice worlds, haunted houses, etc. or it could be something more unique like a town made entirely of jello that can also time travel. The point is, you're not gonna be bored from the same old environment provided the series doesn't take place in one particular area.
Due to length, there's a good chance any given long running series will have a shitton of characters, many with their own unique abilities, quirks and designs. Now of course the longer a series is, the more chance there is for character overlap, but fortunately, those characters with a ton in common with other characters aren't generally given very much attention. Anyway, such massive casts can lead to really compelling situations depending on their interactions with other characters. It becomes something like chemistry, mixing together certain chemicals to see what happens. With so many chemicals to choose from, you end up with compatible characters, leading to a nice sense of camaraderie where the relationship won't define said characters. And if they aren't compatible, it could lead to some hilarious situations or outright antagonism, bringing about a potentially cool fight.
Since these works are generally aimed at pre-teen/teenage boys, the rule of cool might play a part in determining a character's design, abilities, and sometimes even personality. Maybe you got a guy with a big-ass laser cannon grafted to his shoulder and a chainsaw sword that shoots chainsaws embedded in his left hand. The sheer amount of crazy designs and powers out there is staggering. Admittedly not for everyone, but it shouldn't be too difficult to see why many people might consider these various designs badass. Or maybe they consider them annoying. The fact remains there's just so many to choose from that it just goes back to the point I made about these world being living, breathing entities.
Just like character relations, pitting abilities against each other is also something like chemistry. With fighting being one of the main points of the genre, you want a match up that would make for an interesting battle. What makes many so entertaining are the unknown variables which extend beyond what we know about each character. This applies to the strategies, the choreography itself, and just to what extent an ability can be used to. Sometimes it's conditional and sometimes it's based on power levels, but a good shounen fight will keep you on the edge of your seat with a creative usage of skill sets and wit.
A good example of this is JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. Some of the most creative abilities in fiction coupled with some totally (well, usually) believable strategies that actually turn a shitty situation into a good one without feeling like an asspull. Araki is a master at this kind of stuff because he understands how a fight should be set up and how it should play out from both a strategic and choreographic standpoint. Completely crazy moves like carving a message into your own arm or blinding yourself suddenly become genius, and taking into account the personalities of the characters, you realize it isn't beyond them at all. And since this is almost all conditional rather than based on power levels, the ridiculous amount of unknown factors only make the battles more intense.
Then you take a look at the other side of the coin, where standard abilities can lead to some very interesting results. Variety in application is more important than variety in design. Flame of Recca is an example of this. Standard Captain Planet abilities are very prevalent throughout the series, but the way they are utilized is really creative and strategic enough to say it doesn't feel like it's unoriginal. While not on Araki's level, Anzai is another guy that knows his strategies and how to frame a fight in general. Interestingly enough, Flame of Recca is also among four or so series that have been accused of plagiarism, the plagiarized work in question being Yu Yu Hakusho. What makes this so interesting is the tournament arc is similar in its setup, but the content of the actual battles is quite different. You could almost say it would be believable if they took place in the same universe, but the battle variety makes it hard to accuse of being a straight copy.
Poor variety is generally just using the same attack over and over again with the same result. Interestingly enough, something like Fairy Tail is both good and bad at this. With the main character Natsu, his moves are all fairy similar and remain so throughout what we've seen. However, the rest of the cast actually utilizes different techniques as well as the same ones in different ways. Gray's fight with Ultear is probably the best example, making good use of his knowledge of the enemy's abilities and using the environment itself to his advantage.
Variety is usually pretty easy to pull off in the most basic sense. Anyone can slap together the most oddball design they can think of and couple it with the most oddball ability they can think of. Hell, you can probably just combine a lot of stuff you consider "cool". Boom, there's your character! But the execution is what matters most, and this is where escalation comes in once again. In battles, escalation is just another part of variety. The general progression of a fight will have each character using bigger moves as it goes on, switching things up, sometimes even growing stronger (which would hopefully be foreshadowed and not an asspull). A sound strategy and solid choreography with good variety can make even the stupidest characters and powers look good.
While we're on the subject of variety, judging the genre by any one measure is doing it a big disservice. What do you want out of the genre? Want to ignore the plot and just experience some glorious fights? Read something like Gamaran or Kongou Banchou. Want the opposite where the plot takes priority while the fights are secondary? Read Alive: The Final Evolution. Want the complete package? Read/watch One Piece.
It's a big genre, so no need to generalize. I mean there's enough people excited for Magi and Jojo to say it has its place.
I kind of see the genre as complimentary to JRPGs. Sometimes you got your Persona 4s, with their slow starts that eventually lead to you seeing the characters as actual friends and going through withdrawal upon completing it. Sometimes you got your Dragon Quest 7s, which take too damn long to go nowhere. Sometimes you got your Xenosagas that bring about a whole bunch of convolution, yet still remain entertaining. In other words, it can be a commitment that isn't for everyone, but can also be very rewarding if you keep an open mind.
Why Battle Shounen is an awesome genre
When talking about battle series/shounen, there are 2 keywords to keep in mind; Escalation and Variety. Sometimes they overlap, but their importance can clearly be seen whether separate or combined.
Escalation
Now when I say escalation, I don't just mean in scale. I'm associating the term with virtually everything important to plot advancement. That means character development, relationship growth, bigger conflicts, more significant fights, all coupled with an increase in a sense of scale.
The standard is of course, to focus on a relatively weak character that gets stronger as time goes on. In other words, a kind of coming of age story. Yeah, that sounds overdone and cliche at this point, but there's a reason it's such a popular setup. Old normal Billy Highschooler might not be some crazy hero now, but through his adventure, he will meet tons of people, get super strong, and get tangled up in multiple conflicts that he may or may not look forward to.
In a good battle series, it will actually feel like things progress. The protagonist, regardless of how willing he or she is to go through all this crap, will grow as a person. And it won't be a sudden change. It will be gradual, something you won't notice until looking back at earlier chapters and/or episodes. It's like growing up alongside a friend. Subtle changes happen little at a time.
Then there's the conflicts and growth in abilities. Again, a good shounen will not throw a character into the middle of something beyond their capabilities unless they are destined to lose. That's not to say things can't be crazy at the beginning, but the point is they will get crazier. The protagonist might start out in a small town and have to beat up some powerful douchebag that keeps stealing fences. Later on, that guy alongside a bunch of new allies will end up raiding a government facility staffed with uber-powerful guards or something, with insanity everywhere! You want to be able to say "wow, that guy totally couldn't do this stuff at the beginning of the series" while actually believing the growth. This is something good shounen series can do.
In One Piece, the battle of Marineford is far and away the largest scale battle in the entire series which is a far cry from its comparatively low-key introductory arcs.
And the escalation doesn't necessarily have to be limited to the main cast either. Learning bits and pieces about the setting and side characters multiple times will let you see the world the series takes place in as a living, breathing entity connected by several stories, big and small.
One Piece is an example of good escalation. Every single arc with the exception of one is vital to the overarching plot and furthering the lore of the world. The character relationships advance, their own specific traumas come to the surface, their abilities increase, etc. You can safely say that Luffy is not the same person he was at the beginning of the series. His overall personality may not have undergone any drastic changes, but his actions and priorities definitely show a sense of growth. And after a certain point, the world becomes absolutely massive with hundreds of connections and well-foreshadowed relationships or events.
Something like Inuyasha on the other hand, is an example of poor escalation. Every new learned technique and the time spent to obtain said technique is invalidated by a bullshit counter the main antagonist comes up with, sometimes on the spot. And that's just the bottom of the complaint barrel. There's also static character growth which extends for several tens of episodes, insignificant conflicts that have little bearing on the actual plot, inconsistent power levels that make every fight an uninteresting crapshoot, and sometimes actual REGRESSION in all of these categories.
A good sense of escalation is generally among the more difficult things to pull off within the genre. Many authors fall into the same pitfalls as Inuyasha, albeit nowhere near as bad. However, when it is pulled off well, you got yourself a large scale adventure akin to a good epic.
Variety
When you have such a long series, you don't want it to be the same thing over and over again. So what do you do? You plan a vast array of different scenarios, characters, abilities, battle strategies, locales, designs, hats, light bulbs, and whatever the hell you can think of!
In terms of areas, long running shounen series can sometimes be like a theme park. Any given area might have some kind of gimmick or theme, whether it be the tried and true ones like ice worlds, haunted houses, etc. or it could be something more unique like a town made entirely of jello that can also time travel. The point is, you're not gonna be bored from the same old environment provided the series doesn't take place in one particular area.
The country known as "Life" in Toriko is among the more unique locales in the series.
Due to length, there's a good chance any given long running series will have a shitton of characters, many with their own unique abilities, quirks and designs. Now of course the longer a series is, the more chance there is for character overlap, but fortunately, those characters with a ton in common with other characters aren't generally given very much attention. Anyway, such massive casts can lead to really compelling situations depending on their interactions with other characters. It becomes something like chemistry, mixing together certain chemicals to see what happens. With so many chemicals to choose from, you end up with compatible characters, leading to a nice sense of camaraderie where the relationship won't define said characters. And if they aren't compatible, it could lead to some hilarious situations or outright antagonism, bringing about a potentially cool fight.
Since these works are generally aimed at pre-teen/teenage boys, the rule of cool might play a part in determining a character's design, abilities, and sometimes even personality. Maybe you got a guy with a big-ass laser cannon grafted to his shoulder and a chainsaw sword that shoots chainsaws embedded in his left hand. The sheer amount of crazy designs and powers out there is staggering. Admittedly not for everyone, but it shouldn't be too difficult to see why many people might consider these various designs badass. Or maybe they consider them annoying. The fact remains there's just so many to choose from that it just goes back to the point I made about these world being living, breathing entities.
Just like character relations, pitting abilities against each other is also something like chemistry. With fighting being one of the main points of the genre, you want a match up that would make for an interesting battle. What makes many so entertaining are the unknown variables which extend beyond what we know about each character. This applies to the strategies, the choreography itself, and just to what extent an ability can be used to. Sometimes it's conditional and sometimes it's based on power levels, but a good shounen fight will keep you on the edge of your seat with a creative usage of skill sets and wit.
A good example of this is JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. Some of the most creative abilities in fiction coupled with some totally (well, usually) believable strategies that actually turn a shitty situation into a good one without feeling like an asspull. Araki is a master at this kind of stuff because he understands how a fight should be set up and how it should play out from both a strategic and choreographic standpoint. Completely crazy moves like carving a message into your own arm or blinding yourself suddenly become genius, and taking into account the personalities of the characters, you realize it isn't beyond them at all. And since this is almost all conditional rather than based on power levels, the ridiculous amount of unknown factors only make the battles more intense.
Then you take a look at the other side of the coin, where standard abilities can lead to some very interesting results. Variety in application is more important than variety in design. Flame of Recca is an example of this. Standard Captain Planet abilities are very prevalent throughout the series, but the way they are utilized is really creative and strategic enough to say it doesn't feel like it's unoriginal. While not on Araki's level, Anzai is another guy that knows his strategies and how to frame a fight in general. Interestingly enough, Flame of Recca is also among four or so series that have been accused of plagiarism, the plagiarized work in question being Yu Yu Hakusho. What makes this so interesting is the tournament arc is similar in its setup, but the content of the actual battles is quite different. You could almost say it would be believable if they took place in the same universe, but the battle variety makes it hard to accuse of being a straight copy.
Poor variety is generally just using the same attack over and over again with the same result. Interestingly enough, something like Fairy Tail is both good and bad at this. With the main character Natsu, his moves are all fairy similar and remain so throughout what we've seen. However, the rest of the cast actually utilizes different techniques as well as the same ones in different ways. Gray's fight with Ultear is probably the best example, making good use of his knowledge of the enemy's abilities and using the environment itself to his advantage.
Variety is usually pretty easy to pull off in the most basic sense. Anyone can slap together the most oddball design they can think of and couple it with the most oddball ability they can think of. Hell, you can probably just combine a lot of stuff you consider "cool". Boom, there's your character! But the execution is what matters most, and this is where escalation comes in once again. In battles, escalation is just another part of variety. The general progression of a fight will have each character using bigger moves as it goes on, switching things up, sometimes even growing stronger (which would hopefully be foreshadowed and not an asspull). A sound strategy and solid choreography with good variety can make even the stupidest characters and powers look good.
The Espada and the Vizard are two groups in Bleach that display a great deal of variety. However, the series fails in escalation.
While we're on the subject of variety, judging the genre by any one measure is doing it a big disservice. What do you want out of the genre? Want to ignore the plot and just experience some glorious fights? Read something like Gamaran or Kongou Banchou. Want the opposite where the plot takes priority while the fights are secondary? Read Alive: The Final Evolution. Want the complete package? Read/watch One Piece.
It's a big genre, so no need to generalize. I mean there's enough people excited for Magi and Jojo to say it has its place.
I kind of see the genre as complimentary to JRPGs. Sometimes you got your Persona 4s, with their slow starts that eventually lead to you seeing the characters as actual friends and going through withdrawal upon completing it. Sometimes you got your Dragon Quest 7s, which take too damn long to go nowhere. Sometimes you got your Xenosagas that bring about a whole bunch of convolution, yet still remain entertaining. In other words, it can be a commitment that isn't for everyone, but can also be very rewarding if you keep an open mind.
I like that, good catch.
KO Traveling Hobo
Member
That makes me feel much better about my SAO post, cosmic. You are a gentleman and a scholar.
Reading through it now.
The real story isn't much less impressive--he showed up for the last audition slot for Amuro one evening more interested in going out drinking with a buddy, saw Char on the spec sheet, insisted on tossing off a few lines based on the Episode 1 summary, and was offered the role that night.
Femmeworth
Banned
It's like I don't even know you.
Damn training arcs changing people.Crash Station
Member
It's not that high school life isn't shitty. It just happens to be the least shitty point of someone's life over there apparently.
He can't be as bad as Nisioisin, he comprehends the "more paragraphs than pages" rule.
Crash Station
Member
If these are the kinds of responses I'm going to get, I don't know why I bother :/
Thanks for not being a jerk, Dresden and Hobo.
I just think it'd be easier to read that way.
I didn't mean anything bad about it, I just can't read it in that format.
If you added some pictures to break up the text it'd probably be easier to read and they could illustrate your points.
Crash Station
Member
Which format do you want? MLA? ASA? LBT? CNN?
Edit: Ah, I see. Maybe I'll edit some in.
Jex
Member
White Knight Chronicles 8
So there are two white knights now? And one of them is literally in white!
This show has gotten so unbelievably boring. It's not even despicable like it was when it first started.
Accel World is calling, firehawk12. It's still glorious.
- Status
Similar threads
- Locked