foxuzamaki
Doesn't read OPs, especially not his own
More like more JYB
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Toonami |Mar14| No Time for Sissy Pig
- Thread starter Seda
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I'm pretty sure there was no mistake.
EDIT: She doesn't call him Chopper in my copy of the Viz manga, but it's Viz, so take that how you will. Also last nights episode covered two chapters of the manga.
BassForever
Member
Nah man did you see that action it was so good who cares if it has no plot consistency and ends up being pointless it looked cool man!
You kvetch a lot about other people's opinions. It's kinda weird.
I wondered if I could pull off O's dace in one of his "Ugly" moments and have it... recognizable, ha. Thanks for putting that question to rest early! (Especially with such small lines).
Sab good stuff as always thought it feels like forever since you've done a traditional miiverse sketch dump
Best picture is by far the FMA:B one, feels perfectly captured
I'll probably do a traditional dump the night of completing this DANDY megapic. But the ease of reposting online in this style, and the desire to add some color to Blue Exorcist & Jack pics (normally) has swayed me to this style lately. I do try to toss in some classics every once in a while, but this one did for the group-watch of PRINCESS ESCARGOT PUDDING was kinda steamrolled over on it's offday, so that might have put a small mental block against them ;-)
Kagerosa is infinitely fun to draw. And Cam Clarke going for that old Max Sterling / Leonardo voice with his "young" self had to make me smile while sketching, heh.
Blueno trying his best Trollface I see. And Best Ninja Girl not afraid to show some skin
Poor chibi Nina D:
Temari's collapse to the ground instantly brought up that scene in mind, ha. "But her skirt-thing isn't that short!" Hmm, what?
I waw afraid I made Nina look TOO small, but I guess it worked, haha. "Hey, honey, remember how you said you and Alexander were Inseparable...?"
I looked at that first, and thought "Ahago? WHERE'S THE STUPID HAIR?!" ha. Just pair the Kageroza pic and that one together, and... well... it was a messed up night for faces in ye ol dump.
Thanks!
Blueno's impression of a Long Wavy Arm man was fun. I can't get past Iceburg "Blueno.. FROM THE BAR?!?" line in my head, so I'll see him Trollface as the evil Bartender for this entire arc...
Legz.
Hurt me worse because it's totally off! ;-) Pulling off a Crona "Y'KnowwwWWWWW~?" pic as the main Villan was kinda just... OK!
More Crispy Free would always be welcomed. IIEEE-ZAI-YAAAA~~~!
So that means they can toss Chobits onto Toonami while they're at it too. I'd be oddly ok with that as a 5:30 show. (It'll never happen!)
Slamtastic
Member
Am I the only one who found the storytelling in OP last night really contrived?
It felt really artificial how the villains stood there and demonstrated/explained every one of their powers one after the other, culminating with the random "And I also have THIS power!" ending.
A lot of people probably find it "refreshing" that there isn't the standard "not even my final form" thing because it gets shown early so it's not a surprise during the final fight, but I say that it's simple common sense to hide your full strength which is why it's used so often in stories.
But then again I also don't get the hate the thread has for Exorcist including comments about it being "generic", especially if OP and Soul Eater are what's considered good for being "unique" compared to other shonen,
It felt really artificial how the villains stood there and demonstrated/explained every one of their powers one after the other, culminating with the random "And I also have THIS power!" ending.
A lot of people probably find it "refreshing" that there isn't the standard "not even my final form" thing because it gets shown early so it's not a surprise during the final fight, but I say that it's simple common sense to hide your full strength which is why it's used so often in stories.
But then again I also don't get the hate the thread has for Exorcist including comments about it being "generic", especially if OP and Soul Eater are what's considered good for being "unique" compared to other shonen,
Well, they can afford to give away their powers because they're so much stronger. These guys don't care if the Straw Hats know their powers because it doesn't matter, in their minds anyway. They don't expect to be chased at all because there is no reason for them to be chased, they'll plan for it but it's not something they think will actually happen. The CP9 are the elite of the elite as far as spies and assassins go, they've never been outclassed by any pirates they've come across and they don't expect to be.
As far as Exorcist goes, it's the average of the average of the average. So far all it's done is hit plot points and character development with no regard for earning any of it. It just feels like a story written by committee. It's like a road map with only towns on it, no actual roads.
foxuzamaki
Doesn't read OPs, especially not his own
Yeah he did act very supervilliany just explaining the plan away for the entire episode and then showing off his final form for no other reason other than getting so cocky that he wanted to show it to prove how they cant beat them.
Slamtastic
Member
I wouldn't associate elite spies/assassins with cockiness like that, but I suppose if most villains had common sense, much fewer stories would have happy endings.
It's a power rangers "Lord Zedd is new, overpowered, and HAS AN ABILITY TO BEAT YOU THAT YOU'RE NEVER SEEN BEFORE!" episode. I think it's a bit silly how they ALL have these abilities (or so it seems), but in a series with Devil Fruit users, it actually sets up an interesting possibility.
It makes me think there's another branch of strength out there that hasn't be considered by any of the story up to this point, which is kinda exciting.
Knowing something about future OP thanks to playing the games / watching post-timeskip stuff, I dont' know how well these thoughts gel.
I'm not disliking BE as much as some in here seem to, and I find One Piece in it's dryer moments feels just as blah as the most blah of BE.
I've enjoyed the shows designs to a degree so far, and I could see, much like with SAO, how a bunch of non-jaded watchers could legitimately be really enjoying what we're seeing so far. It's a bit slow to get to what feels like its main mood, but that also gives the allusion of depth behind it's characters and world, rather than needing to depend on one setting for the basis of every plot point.
Knowing nothing about BE, I actually didn't expect Sheimi to stick around... and I feel totally lost on how she's going to develop within these constraints. And that feels kinda good!
Honestly, the CP9 seem to be pretty shitty spies, considering they really had no need to reveal themselves at all, let alone their powers. It seems the past 3 or 4 episodes has just been them dumping exposition on everyone when there was no real need.
You can put it down to cockiness, but that's always a sloppy way to go.
You can put it down to cockiness, but that's always a sloppy way to go.
Well part of the reason they showed off was intimidation. Just beating them may not be enough to dissuade a pursuit, so they show exactly how far outclassed the Straw Hats are. Plus it's serial killer's prerogative, they can't help themselves. If I remember right they explain it a bit in a few episodes.
Also this, it's way better than randomly giving them a new power in the middle of a fight.
Doctor Decimate
Member
Power explanations are so typical of the genre at this point that I really can't call them a problem; at least One Piece explained with actions just as much as words.
Believe it!
OP is in that fantastic zone of build up and reveals, but the hour prior is slow paced Naruto and filler hell Bleach. You almost need to do something else to survive that 1hr block.
At least Bleach comes out of filler soon.
Slamtastic
Member
But it's not really "giving" a "new" power during a fight, it's just "revealing" a "secret" power.
Personal preferences in storytelling and how you look at it, I guess.
I have to agree that Blue Exorcist, to me, just feels so average. I haven't hated it from what I've seen by any means, but it hasn't really left an impact either. So far, it's been "meh". I think B-dubs summed it up best. To some people, being "okay", average, etc. can be worse than being bad because at least with something that's bad, you remember why it's bad due to its impact that it made on you. But with something that's just "eeh", it doesn't stay with you as long and you forget about it sooner.
I heard the movie was rather decent, though. Maybe they'll air that in the future, seeing as they'd have the name recognition/"Hey, a movie based on a show that was on Toonami! I should see that."
I heard the movie was rather decent, though. Maybe they'll air that in the future, seeing as they'd have the name recognition/"Hey, a movie based on a show that was on Toonami! I should see that."
There isn't much difference between the two, they're basically the same thing. Bleach does it all the time and frankly it got really old really fast, especially once you knew it was coming.
Slamtastic
Member
Well that's just a jaded view where you're not immersing into and accepting the story.
They've been in hiding for SO LONG, that they're having a problem keeping quiet now.
They're extraordinarily cocky ATM, and they're really setting themselves up to be hated by the viewer. Even though they should, in most shows, be heroes. I think OP just needs to make "Good" appear "Evil" in some what, and the trick in this arc is to make the villans so full of themselves that it's contemptible.
They'd feel MUCH more "cruel spy"-like, if they'd just DO what they said, rather than stating and blabbing it. I wanna see bit characters killed off without mention, explanations from the narrator, and not their own mouths, and Straw Hats falling from attacks that actually INTEND to kill them, but only fail due to the skills of Chopper's Medical skills.
Every SHEE-PEE NII-NU member should basically be Frieza ATM, and we should be wondering who's going to be Krilln'd next. But the show manages to almost NEVER got to that kind of fearful tension, and I think it's made weaker for it endlessly.
Well as far as Bleach goes, you could set the battles to a timer. They're formulaic to the extreme, the guy that reveals his big power first is going to lose because the other guy's power will either be exactly what he needs to fuck the first guy or he'll just be that much stronger. That's literally every fight in the series.
So it's not really about accepting and not, it's more about wanting things to be mixed up. It's about wanting to be surprised and you can't be surprised by a secret you know is coming. Once you know it's coming, then it's just all about waiting for it to happen and nothing until then matters because it'll invalidate everything before it.
Dr.Palutena
Member
I don't feel much desire to rank this week, part of it is that this whole week felt kinda weak . outside of a weird Space Dandy episode, and a rage inducing Soul Eater ending we got boring hour, typical "protags get bodied" episode , sorta mundane blue exorcist episode, and reruns I'm not just into. I guess Jack was a cool episode, seeing jack get legit mad about how close he comes to returning home but gets setback is always a nice look at his character.
I think the difference is that the basics of the abilities are covered early on, then are covered more in depth during individual fights later on, but still work within the original abilities put in place.
One makes sense as a natural progression and the other is an out for the author to either prolong a fight or let a character win. Hidden stuff can work, but tends to be a story crutch in several shounen manga.
Edit: I think OP can do this a lot easier as well because almost anything can be a devil's fruit and allows for the reader to see it in action, have it briefly explained, and then expound from there.
I think the thing I'm missing with Blue Exorcist at the moment is an immediate conflict, which even Bleach and Shippuden have at this point despite their many problems. Yeah, I know it's only the 4th episode, but right now it's at the character introduction stage, and Sheimi's little story here was....blah.
I mean, I know characters can change throughout a show, so I don't want to judge Sheimi as a character yet, but what have we learned about her initially? What makes her tick? She was close to her Grandmother with gardening as their shared hobby, she had a hard time dealing with her grandmother's death and blamed herself for it and then her despair led to a demon problem. After that was dealt with, she joined the Exorcist academy....why? Because she wanted to see Yukio as a teacher? Hard to buy her motivations at this point.
While Yukio's and Rin's motivations are definitely more clear, I said this a few weeks back, but "I want to become an Exorcist so I can beat up Satan" just seems a little less than substantial even though there's a revenge angle to it.
I mean, I know characters can change throughout a show, so I don't want to judge Sheimi as a character yet, but what have we learned about her initially? What makes her tick? She was close to her Grandmother with gardening as their shared hobby, she had a hard time dealing with her grandmother's death and blamed herself for it and then her despair led to a demon problem. After that was dealt with, she joined the Exorcist academy....why? Because she wanted to see Yukio as a teacher? Hard to buy her motivations at this point.
While Yukio's and Rin's motivations are definitely more clear, I said this a few weeks back, but "I want to become an Exorcist so I can beat up Satan" just seems a little less than substantial even though there's a revenge angle to it.
Slamtastic
Member
Blue Exorcist would probably be cooler if it didn't have the school aspect and was just Rin traveling from place to place dealing with demons to bait Satan into coming out or trying to catch a demon entering/exiting the world so he could break into Hell.
A lot of the urgency of the father's death and the stakes of Satan being involved are lost with the classroom and homework elements.
I'll admit this. But at this point I'm criticizing the show not for what it is, but for not being something I imagined, which isn't necessarily fair.
A lot of the urgency of the father's death and the stakes of Satan being involved are lost with the classroom and homework elements.
I'll admit this. But at this point I'm criticizing the show not for what it is, but for not being something I imagined, which isn't necessarily fair.
foxuzamaki
Doesn't read OPs, especially not his own
She joined the school because shemi doesnt go to alot of places outside her house and the garden, and her grandmother(and we found out her mom aswell) want to go to this sacred garden, she joins the school because it allows her to go to places she otherwise wouldnt have the opportunity to and to maybe one day go to that sacred garden, which in this world is basically a real thing and not some metaphorical journey
slightconfuse
Banned
Blue exorcist seems like someone checking of a buch of boxes on what a shonens Gould have.
Also CP9 reviled there piers as a scare tactic . They are hoping the star hats doesn't follow
Also CP9 reviled there piers as a scare tactic . They are hoping the star hats doesn't follow
To be fair, it's not so much what you imagined but what it sold itself as. If you gave anyone the first two episodes they'd figure that it's going to be a revenge story, sort of like an anime-supernatural Django. He was going to beat the shit out of Satan, but now he's at school and nowhere near his ultimate goal.
So I'd say your criticism is fair. The show sold itself as a revenge drama in the first two episodes then a huge swerve and here we are in school, doing all of jack shit.
Training to become an Exorcist seems like a round-about way to achieve such a goal.
I agree with the perspective of it not having a strong central, rooting theme, but I actually think Sheimi joining the school helped hint towards the theme being less central (I.E, main character has a purpose, does stuff), and more global, such as character who are wronged by demons getting to set their lives back on track while seeking new unexplored power.
It is weird that many would say this "generic" anime would be better if it'd follow a more obvious, well-worn plot development path. It's like it's getting no credit for what it IS doing differently, and only getting notoriety for the things it mimics from other similar stories.
"This isn't generic enough!"
Like, 20-ish? The anime was announced about a year & 1/2 after the manga started in 2009. So I assume monthly magazine from April 2009 to Nov. 2010, when the anime was announced, was 19 months/chapters.
It's not really doing anything differently though. It went from the standard revenge plot to the standard school action/comedy plot, a plot which was done MUCH MUCH better in Full Metal Panic.
So it jumped from generic to generic, it's not the first anime/manga to do something like that and so far there's really nothing to set it apart from the other similar stories.
As far as character and plot growth goes, all it's been doing is checking off points on a list with no regard for earning any of it.
What I'm trying to say is I have no problem with cliche, so long as the cliche is earned. The ending to Eureka Seven was extremely cliche, but it was earned. The entire series built up to that cliche, BE on the other hand has done nothing to earn to use of it's cliches so far.
I think this is a fair look of the situation. The show lost a LOT of agency and urgency very quickly. Compare this to something like AoT which maintained its urgency for like 8 episodes straight.
Except within the context of anime/manga, there is almost nothing more generic than the high school setting. Even as a "revenge story", a Supernatural-esque narrative is the more unique form within the Japanese entertainment industry.
So, so far, the show says "These characters have big, potentially life-long dreams, and instead of shonen-rushing into them, they're preparing themselves properly for undertaking such a huge task."
That;s not very shonen, really, since most shonen characters live simply in the moment. They think everything can be solved by hot blood and a training montage. I actually hope the show makes a trend of this... (again, knowing nothing about the show other than what I've seen, I can't say.)
I haven't seen enough FMP to judge that, heh. Really should...
I couldn't really call this a generic school plot yet, from what I've seen also. If anything, I feel school hasn't been used enough yet. Before the ending last night, I'd think it just works as a way to give Rin a place to call home, but with Sheimi joining class, I now think it might be an excuse to "recruit" people to a growing combat group.
I mean, my idea of a generic school setting is more like the setup of Onizuka, or Negima, where the class suddenly becomes the ONLY place you can draw new cast members from, and the show focuses solely on "school" life between students.
So far, a boy I expected to be a student is now a teacher, the first extra introduced was an outsider that I didn't expect to hear anything more from, and we haven't fallen on the mainstays of school plots yet, such as bullying, cliques, or forcing the main character into joining a group of academic misfits (Yukio's class kinda counts, but the reasoning is much different.)
I just don't feel like it's GENERIC so far. It might be a bit plain, and it might not push it's strengths particularly well, but I don't find it a by-the-numbers plot so far.
foxuzamaki
Doesn't read OPs, especially not his own
She doesnt get any money from where she was there, being a exorcist means you get to travel around the world and visit places, most of which will have problems with demons
Having watched all of Blue Exorcist over the past two weeks, mediocre is about what I'd give it. I still enjoyed it enough to where I still want to watch it on Toonami as it airs.
But yeah that 3rd episode school anime swerve was a little disappointing at first.
Overall I can see why Toonami picked it and it should connect well with the audience.
But yeah that 3rd episode school anime swerve was a little disappointing at first.
Overall I can see why Toonami picked it and it should connect well with the audience.
foxuzamaki
Doesn't read OPs, especially not his own
That sucks D:
Sure there is, the middle school setting! *ahem* Seriously though, I just wanna see what the characters do within the setting. A high school, a Shrine, an alternate world, or anytown, Japan... the biggest purpose of a background is to give a world for the characters to extend from within.
I don't care as much where that is, as long as the characters turn out good. And... I've no idea how I'm going to feel about these guys yet, but as stated above, they betrayed my initial expectations within the setting so far, and I hope it continues in that way. (I had no idea the story had anything to DO with a school just by looking at the art on the internet and in bookstores, even,)
DVD buyers law states that a show gets 5 episodes to try and hook me, before I decide if you want to by Volume 2. Considering my younger self didn't really fall for Bebop until Ep 11: Toys in the Attic, I find it kinda hard to get too judgmental over Aoi no Exorcist here until it gets a bit further in. School setting hasn't hurt much about it for me... yet.
You can do this without giving up 90% of the urgency the story or agency the characters had. Look at Hajime no Ippo as an example. The entire story is about the main character slowly growing and getting stronger, all while travelling down a road with a set goal. It never loses sight of said goal even when it diverges into training or other plot lines. Every step the story takes is about achieving that final goal for either the main character or the side characters.
Full Metal Panic is actually a great comparison for Blue Exorcist. They both deal with dual plots. BE has the school plot and the supernatural revenge plot and FMP has the school plot along with a military/spy thriller.
FMP manages to interlace both of it's plots expertly, every action taken in either plot progresses the story in both. Sometimes in ways you wouldn't expect. BE on the other hand hasn't managed to do this. It lost all of it's agency and urgency the second they hit the school, while in FMP the agency and urgency remained. Even in moments when you'd think it wouldn't. They hit similar character points as well: the identity confusion, the idea of belonging, and so on. The difference is that FMP does them over entire seasons, not single episodes. Thereby earning the progression.
FMP:TSR was entirely about the idea of "where do I belong," a point that BE seemed to finish with after an episode. Everything in the entire season, in both plots, was built around answering that question for it's two main characters. It hit similar points as the single BE episode, but because they earned the cliches it hit much much harder and left a better memory.
My problem with BE isn't it's generic-ness, which it sort of is, but the fact it hasn't gone out of it's way to earn any of it's character progression. It dispatches what should be an over-arching plot line for the series in a single episode.
Imperial Bishop
Banned
Alright, what the heck is with awesome series featuring giant robots/titans being canceled by CN?
Megas and SBT.
It hurts...
I would sacrifice Adventure Time, Regular Show, Uncle Grandpa, Gumball, Steven Universe, and every other current CN show for a renewal of SBT, Megas, and Samurai Jack.
No regrets.
They knew revealing their identities would shake Iceburg and get them the information more easily. It was a psychological attack. Note they DIDN'T reveal themselves to Paulie initially, because it would provide no advantage to them.
Then everybody else burst in unexpectedly and the cat was out of the bag, so it's just kinda "well, fuck it."
foxuzamaki
Doesn't read OPs, especially not his own
high school is in so many stories because while us westerners consider college and our early 20s to be the best time in our lives, the japanese considers highschool to be the best time in their lives, thats where most of your adventures and things take place before your thrust into the workforce as is japanese culture.
BassForever
Member
That is the one thing BE manga does, it states upfront this is going to be a magic school series and the first chapter (which the anime split in 2 for some bizarre reason) is simply set up for why he goes to exorcist school. All the filler fighting in the second episode while sweet gives the illusion this series is going to be something different from what it turns out to be. I imagine the next few episodes/manga chapters are going to be introducing the support characters we see in the op before we get to an actual story arc
Yeah probably, I just hope their placement into the cast is more believable than Sheimi which just doesn't feel cohesive to me.
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