I've always wanted a decent mystery that isn't Detective Conan. Gosick was not it. I appreciated the sentiment though. It wasn't a complete disappointment that Umineko was.
Well, I encourage you to read my dissertation first for answers to this and more, but as a teaser, basically you just need to instigate to move beyond brushing and expand your relationship.
I think that "Evangelion of mahou shoujo" is at least a partially apt comparison. I think it refers in part to the massive swell in popularity of Madoka, not necessarily just that it's a dark subversion of its genre like Eva.
Yeah, it certainly hogged a lot of popularity like Eva. Don't think it'll be influential to anime like Eva was, but that's what makes the comparison partially apt.
It's okay to hate SHAFT/Shinbo, it's just a better course of action to focus your criticisms on the studio than to attack the fans or imply that liking their works is automatically akin to "sucking SHAFT's dick".
You wouldn't believe the people who try to castrate me over that opinion. I haven't watched all of SHAFT's shows but more than enough to say they suck. I really don't get why Shinbo's shows are put on a pedestal while people diss Penguindrum.
It's okay to hate SHAFT/Shinbo, it's just a better course of action to focus your criticisms on the studio than to attack the fans or imply that liking their works is automatically akin to "sucking SHAFT's dick".
Sorry if I came off overly strong. I've just seen way too many cases of "SHAFT is god, look at those tilting heads and abstract shots. SHINBO IS A CREATIVE FORCE IN THIS INDUSTRY!"
It's okay to hate SHAFT/Shinbo, it's just a better course of action to focus your criticisms on the studio than to attack the fans or imply that liking their works is automatically akin to "sucking SHAFT's [shaft]".
You wouldn't believe the people who try to castrate me over that opinion. I haven't watched all of SHAFT's shows but more than enough to say they suck. I really don't get why Shinbo's shows are put on a pedestal while people diss Penguindrum.
Well, I encourage you to read my dissertation first for answers to this and more, but as a teaser, basically you just need to instigate to move beyond brushing and expand your relationship.
You wouldn't believe the people who try to castrate me over that opinion. I haven't watched all of SHAFT's shows but more than enough to say they suck. I really don't get why Shinbo's shows are put on a pedestal while people diss Penguindrum."
Well that was a whole lot of boring, and then what the FUCK was that near the end, at least explain shit before you shove action scenes down my throat...
Hold on I can copy and paste this impression for BRS.
I'm not biased towards Shaft for any particular reason. I justl ooked back at my collection and realized I collected almost every one of their shows before even knowing who they were!
Now that I know, I guesS I agree with some of you that going by preferred directors/studios may not be such a bad idea. I like Bee Train and Xebec a lot too apparently.
Well SHAFT fans tend to be hostile when you try to tell them that everything they think is unique has been done decade(s)+ before and better by other people. Maybe he's just fed up is all.
Well SHAFT fans tend to be hostile when you try to tell them that everything they think is unique has been done decade(s)+ before and better by other people. Maybe he's just fed up is all.
It's okay to hate SHAFT/Shinbo, it's just a better course of action to focus your criticisms on the studio than to attack the fans or imply that liking their works is automatically akin to "sucking SHAFT's dick".
Well it can't be denied that Shinbo, when he does actually direct something (when does that ever happen) has a very particular visual style, reminiscent of Dezaki/Ikuhara. Simply having a visual style is something that you don't see that often in anime, so it's not surprising that people pay attention to those particular traits, which appear in a wide variety of SHAFT works (regardless of how much Shinbo is involved in them) and so the whole chain is created.
But yeah I dunno with Madoka I was just thoroughly engaged with each episode. All the characters were interesting, the art direction was great, the OST was amazing, and I honest to god feel that it did a lot of things very well. Were they done before? Yeah sure, and while it wasn't as unique as some fans make it out to be, I feel like it was done very competently. There were definitely some low points in the animation but not enough to lower my thoughts on the quality of the show.
That's my opinion.
EDIT - I can't say the same for a lot of other SHAFT shows though since the only other shows i've watched from them are Bake/Nise and some Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei.
I was mainly referring to how it went for a more plot-driven narrative than a character-driven one. Early on in the series, I was really expecting it to take a more psychological approach.
But yeah I dunno with Madoka I was just thoroughly engaged with each episode. All the characters were interesting, the art direction was great, the OST was amazing, and I honest to god feel that it did a lot of things very well. Were they done before? Yeah sure, and while it wasn't as unique as some fans make it out to be, I feel like it was done very competently. There were definitely some low points in the animation but not enough to lower my thoughts on the quality of the show.
That's my opinion.
EDIT - I can't say the same for a lot of other SHAFT shows though since the only other shows i've watched from them are Bake/Nise and some Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei.
gee, you'd think that constantly being mistaken for a paedophile whenever talking with your friends would have profound psychological consequences on a 11 year old boy but shitty gag 4koma's arent exactly known for exploring such things.
But yeah I dunno with Madoka I was just thoroughly engaged with each episode. All the characters were interesting, the art direction was great, the OST was amazing, and I honest to god feel that it did a lot of things very well. Were they done before? Yeah sure, and while it wasn't as unique as some fans make it out to be, I feel like it was done very competently. There were definitely some low points in the animation but not enough to lower my thoughts on the quality of the show.
EDIT - I can't say the same for a lot of other SHAFT shows though since the only other shows i've watched from them are Bake/Nise and some Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei.
.Hack//Sign is of course a favorite of mine... I absolutely love that series. It's one of my favorite animes from the early '00s, and the best thing in the .hack franchise. The slow, story-focused plot is engaging and well told, and I love the cast and characters as well. It's just a great show.
I personally have a soft spot for .hack/Roots. It's really crappy in general but it was one of the first anime I followed regularly. Too bad CN never finished broadcasting it
I don't know exactly how to properly say this, but watching .hack//sign nowadays has a nice sort of look back into pre World of Warcraft MMOs. For better and worse, it really encapsulates what was good and bad about games like EQ, FFXI, AC, etc.
Those games had such terrible gameplay, but managed to stay afloat with the world they built around you, the community, and atmosphere. Standing around for what at time could be hours while you waited for a party is matched by the crux of .hack//sign being characters not really playing the actual game, but standing around and talking. The series has really excellent visual design, music, and atmosphere, but there's just nothing else there. Just a bunch of people standing around talking for hours about nothing really that interesting. If I had started with World of Warcraft and never played FFXI I would probably have not cared for .hack//sign when I rewatched it earlier this year, but there was just so much similarity to the time I spent in that game and the series (and both came out in the same year) that it was a good watch.
It's also nice that the series contained an actual female character in BT, and even Mimiru was less cut out feeling than the average genki schoolgirl of today.
SA:O's first volume was also originally written around the same time as .hack//sign and it's interesting that while .hack feels very much grounded in what was MMOs in their infancy, SA:O feels far more modern. I doubt the series will be anything that special, but the way the novels are written relies on constant mini-suspense so at the very least it will probably be a slightly entertaining series.
I wonder how they will present the series though.
The original novel takes place later on than the second novel (and the second novel jumps around the timeline), so placing the episodes as the novels come about would be somewhat awkward, but also if they were to present the series chronologically it would be have some seriously weird pacing.
Yeah, the show does feel like an MMO, I agree. You don't just fight people all the time in those games, talking with other people is an important part of it too.
What I find funny is that the .hack GAMES are completely different, and much less like actual MMOs. The Sign anime is so much better than the games, that's for sure... the games have an extremely repetitive design, so though it's not bad at first, it gets old. Also, I don't think I'll ever get over the fact that even though it's supposedly an MMO, the games have action-RPG, button-mashing combat, unlike any actual MMO I know of ever. And none of them let you create a character, or even choose a character or something, either; instead, you're stuck with playing only as a single guy who I don't find very interesting in a class I'd never have chosen had I a choice. Ugh. Sign had a great ensemble cast, a good plot, good art, and of course that incredible soundtrack, but the games are definitely disappointing in comparison. I haven't played the second series, and I've head it's somewhat better, but it certainly repeats some of the first series' mistakes, like sticking you with a character I'd never have chosen in a class I don't like through the whole series. (In games like this I want to be a mage or an archer, not a warrior!)
As for female characters, that's another problem with the games -- unlike the animes, of which there are three with female leads (Sign, Liminality, Quantum) and three with male leads (Legend of the Twilight, Roots, G.U. anime), every single one of the games is male character only. Female characters may follow you around in your party, but not one is ever playable inn the console games. It's definitely disappointing. (There was an exception to this, the Japan-only online PC game .hack//fragment, but that was only released there and was shut down after only a couple of years.)...
Returning to the animes, of those six series (I know there's a more recent film, but I don't know much of anything about it), the three with female leads are better than the three with male leads. I assume that that's a coincidence, but it is true. And on that note, yes, Quantum was quite good. The story was pretty cliche .hack stuff, but it's a great series. It kind of melds elements of Sign (character focus, good story) with more combat and flashy CGI, and it does it well. It's only too bad it was only three episodes long... oh well, at least it was good while it lasted! Quantum was one of the better animes that year, I thought.
I will say though, Roots may have not been as good as the other three, but at least it's definitely better than that awful Legend of the Twilight series, for sure...
Yeah, I thought //Quantum was pretty enjoyable. I also recall the original OVA set (//Liminality) being good, but it's been a very long time since I watched it...
Back from my trip; so much to catch up on, and I'm going to be gone this weekend, too. Ugh.
Are they more interesting than the original .hack? I don't want to end up with another boring series. Do they just stand around or is there more to the other series, like action/events?
I've just been starting up a book on Mamoru Oshii. It's not quite as interesting as that collection of essays by Miyazaki, but then again, that's a pretty high watermark.
Anyway, time for a choice extract:
Oshii said:
In other words, movies are something evil:You wont become somebody if if you loved movies; you'd skip school, steal your parent's money, you wouldn't get a decent job, get married or ever save money - your life would be a disaster. In my case, if I weren't a movie director, I'd be a homeless or a a professional eater at one of those stand-and-eat noodle places.
Well it can't be denied that Shinbo, when he does actually direct something (when does that ever happen) has a very particular visual style, reminiscent of Dezaki/Ikuhara. Simply having a visual style is something that you don't see that often in anime, so it's not surprising that people pay attention to those particular traits, which appear in a wide variety of SHAFT works (regardless of how much Shinbo is involved in them) and so the whole chain is created.
Of course. There's no denying that Shinbo has a fanbase precisely because he has a signature visual style that is consistently present in all of his works; I was more responding to the rather rudely-phrased implication that his fans are somehow posers, sycophants, or otherwise are fans of his works and SHAFT productions for solely superficial reasons.
Of course. There's no denying that Shinbo has a fanbase precisely because he has a signature visual style that is consistently present in all of his works; I was more responding to the rather rudely-phrased implication that his fans are somehow posers, sycophants, or otherwise are fans of his works and SHAFT productions for solely superficial reasons.
I'm a fan because of the hnnng and the art style.
As Hix posted earlier, now that I know who Shaft actually are, Hazuki in moonphase was definitely the point at which I realized their genius.
Of course. There's no denying that Shinbo has a fanbase precisely because he has a signature visual style that is consistently present in all of his works; I was more responding to the rather rudely-phrased implication that his fans are somehow posers, sycophants, or otherwise are fans of his works and SHAFT productions for solely superficial reasons.
Of course. There's no denying that Shinbo has a fanbase precisely because he has a signature visual style that is consistently present in all of his works; I was more responding to the rather rudely-phrased implication that his fans are somehow posers, sycophants, or otherwise are fans of his works and SHAFT productions for solely superficial reasons.
