KirbYuuYuu
Member
I mean the answer is above you
-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Winter-Spring 2014 Anime |OT3| People incapable of guilt usually do have a good time
- Thread starter Narag
- Start date
- Status
I mean the answer is above you
PshycoNinja
Member
Totally your decision. I am not gonna push you into something you don't want to.
The other challengers just wanted me to watch their shows bad enough that they took my challenge on.
Now that I finished From the New World (Challenged by Branduil) I move on next to The Tatami Galaxy (Challenged by Survivor). From there Branduil challenged me on another that I will also have to get through.
I hope you like the show devolving to Yuu and Haruka kissing and nothing else because that's all it's becoming
If we're going to have an in-depth discussion about From the New World as a series, do you guys think it would be worth doing it in the OT for the show instead? I don't think it really matters to us where the discussion is held, but it might make it easier to reference the discussion in future, or for other people who might not read this thread to see it and maybe take part? Thoughts?
I... honestly didn't know the show had an OT. That's probably a good idea.
KirbYuuYuu
Member
It's more of a I'm not ready yet for Clannad. I'm not entirely sure what it entails though, but considering what I've been watching with my friends, I wanted to break away from the genre for some time.
That and based on your limitations, there's nothing in mind that I'm gunning for you to really watch atm.
Yeah that would make sense.
Should probably link the thread as it might not be easy for other people to find.
Fūun Ishin Dai Shogun PV https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUa264kzU78
PshycoNinja
Member
Well I challenged Branduil in the Winter |OT| thread.
But if you want I can post my (counts paragraphs so far) 12 paragraph review in both threads. The thing is (obviously) I am not the biggest FtNW fan so I don't see myself spending too much time defending my position on it in a thread focused on the show.
I don't want to be the "hater" that enters a fan thread like that and cause a ruckus in there.
FelixOrion
Poet Centuriate
That's already what it's been since day 1.
Set-up-> Jokes -> Cute girls doing cute things -> WACKY misunderstandings -> more jokes -> YuuxHaruka kiss time to end episode - > Rinse and repeat
KirbYuuYuu
Member
ftfy
Well I challenged Branduil in the Winter |OT| thread.
But if you want I can post my (counts paragraphs so far) 12 paragraph review in both threads. The thing is (obviously) I am not the biggest FtNW fan so I don't see myself spending too much time defending my position on it in a thread focused on the show.
I don't want to be the "hater" that enters a fan thread like that and cause a ruckus in there.
This isn't Animesuki. You don't have to love a show to post in its thread, LOL.
FelixOrion
Poet Centuriate
more like half-episodes, but yeah.
The only people who are unwelcome "haters" are people who go into a thread just to take unsubstantiated digs at it. OTs are not intended to be "fan threads" so much as discussion threads about a specific topic.
Which is why I'm glad we had more Yuzu and Kaede time in the last couple episodes.
KirbYuuYuu
Member
Indeed. It's more fun to see them come in and do shit.
It's like how the Hotaru segments in NNB were more front loaded so we wouldn't have to deal with her "antics" as much.
INTERNATIONAL ANIMEGAF POWERS ON THROUGH
I dont think there is much point to anime then is there. Good original anime only come out every couple years
FelixOrion
Poet Centuriate
This is true.
SLEEP IS FOR THE WEAK
DO YOU THINK AMERICA IS WEAK?!
KirbYuuYuu
Member
April for Magical Girl HellFun Month
there's no right answer to this question
That's exactly why I ended up deleting the reply I was writing a couple of hours ago. I get a bit tired of being "that guy".
Anyway, I feel a bit better now, I guess. Thanks. ^_^;
It's just... Well, let's say that, right away, it was a bit baffling to read stuff like this:
... and that:
For the former, episodes 1 and 2 give you more than enough to connect the dots and realize what's going on (even if the "why" is still a mystery at that point, naturally), and for the latter, there was that massive infodump.
Just two examples.
http://mediag.jp/project/project/images/JapaneseAnimationGuide.pdf
The english version of the govourment founded history of robot anime.
Good stuff, people should read it.
The english version of the govourment founded history of robot anime.
Good stuff, people should read it.
How about this one, then: do you think America tends to get more of a good or bad rep in anime in general?
This looks really neat, though at 40+ pages it's also quite the read. Will definitely mark it to check out later.
I dunno either. Its so pretty and colorful and happy and fun.
But Im a bit of a hypocrite because I keep stalling watching more Precure or Sailor moon.
But really its because the shows are so long its kind of daunting .
Same. It turned into a weird war torn anime but it was interesting.
Its kinda ingrained in my head. I also remember some other weird anime names for various reasons.
it wont be gbf s2 but a man can dream
Seraphis Cain
bad gameplay lol
Pshychoninja just needs to go watch more Toradora so I can read more of his episode impressions.
In context Im sure most of those posts make a lot of sense.
Like in my case I was trying to get a list of really cute episodes of animes airing at the time because I had to go back to work soon and I wanted to watch cute episodes while I had time.
Watch Pretear.
Youve survived worse, Ducky!
MikeHattsu
Member
I wish I had a backlog that small.
I watched it last year and I still liked it.
Just found out the Ah! My Goddess manga is finally ending. I havent read it in years but that still makes me sad for a reason
Wow. Holy shit. Hm... Super-important announcement? Wonder what that could be.
Haha
Speculations about Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso getting an anime adaptation in the noitamina slot: http://yaraon.blog109.fc2.com/blog-entry-22636.html
Mostly due to there being an important announcement on the same day of the noitamina conference. Correct me if wrong duck.
Mostly due to there being an important announcement on the same day of the noitamina conference. Correct me if wrong duck.
Yeah thats a pretty manageable backlog.
SEED sequel GOOOOOOO!!!
PdotMichael
Banned
Belldandy
- waifu for several generations of otakus
- pioneer of the NTR genre
RIP
I wish Kosoku Fujishima would do another series where he could do more of his fantastic mechanical illustrations.
- waifu for several generations of otakus
- pioneer of the NTR genre
RIP
I wish Kosoku Fujishima would do another series where he could do more of his fantastic mechanical illustrations.
You're Under Arrest is just the best.
PshycoNinja
Member
Challenge Accepted and Completed!
SPOILER WARNING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!
So I am not sure how to start breaking this down. I am not sure how the format goes for this but I want to try this. I want to write a quick summary of my opinions on each facet of the anime (characters, plot, music and animation). From there I want to break the series into cloisters of episodes and explain what I did and didn't like from each cloister in the episodes. So lets get started!
Main Characters:
Saki - A very strong-willed character that I actually quite liked throughout the series despite how she.... how do I put this delicately... "got around". She's a strong character. Not the "oh shes physically strong", but mentally and emotionally strong character whose survival skills are pretty remarkable to be honest but that might have more to do with how every character in this series protects her.
Shun - The
hero. Early in the show he was a great character but started to be used more as a plot device as the series continued. Even though he can be seen as a tragic character (well everyone here is really a tragedy) his arc kept my interest going in the early episodes. And with how those early episodes went he was a godsend.
Satoru - I was on and off about this character to be honest. There's not really anything that comes to mind really. Early in the series he's extremely rash but they organically make his character more tactful and smart as he progressed.
Maria - I liked this character a lot she felt like the big sister of the group and made sure everyone was always okay. We'll get more into her later.
Mamoru - I hated this character. Like with a passion. Always held the group back. When truths would be happening he would abruptly scream or complain saying he couldn't take it. Which would leave me screaming and complaining because most of the time he was around I would be in the dark early in the show. Also the later half of the show can be directly attributed to his awfulness. We'll get more into this character later too.
==================================================
Story:
The concepts of this story are actually relatively simple although you wouldn't feel that way towards the beginning of the series. The show likes to leave you in the dark or be vague so it can keep you and the main characters in the dark until they decide okay now here's what's going on. The first half is not the draw of this show.
What is the draw of the show is the idea of this new society built from the corpse of the modern day world. Hence the "New World". Within this society of people that have Powers are concepts of power that corrupts. There's two ways this happens. Ogres and Karmic Demons. Out of the two I found Ogres to be the more fascinating of the two probably because I am psychotic. The concept of humans being incapable of killing each other and therefore unable to defend against Ogres is an interesting concept, and easily fixable concept, but an interesting one nonetheless.
And then we have the concept of the All Love society. This, as most of you know, I had a big problem with. Not because it was bad per se but because I didn't "get it". Yes, I understand is used to dissipate conflict. Yes, I know its there to prevent people from getting murderous thoughts and inadvertently triggering the Death of Shame. What I don't get is why they don't get nasty with the people they actually want to be with. Maybe its my RomCom brain at work but it still never clicked for me. It was clear Saki loved Shun but never did anything with him instead opting for Maria who she liked but it always felt more in a friendzoned kind of way. Same with Shun and Satoru. Maria and Satoru seemed to be the only people invested in the relationships they were in. Its flawed and maybe that's the idea. Maybe its supposed to be a flawed idea but just because its abstract doesn't mean its good.
=================================================
Music:
I am gonna be honest, I only remembered one or two songs from the entire show. It felt like a background thing instead of being at the forefront of the anime. And for what this anime is... that might've been a good call.
======================================================
Animation
====================================================================
Episode/Series Review:
1 - 7 -- This was where my problems began first of all. Blessing spirits? Rituals? I can get behind. In the early episodes they make this seem important but what got me is how these "spirits" gave power and took it away. The thing is this is very suddenly dropped in the second half of the series. These things are never referenced after the time skip. This is also where they introduce the Master Rats. And I got to be honest, early on with everything else that was going on, i didn't give two hoots about the Monster Rats.
These episodes in my opinion set up the story (not the world mind you; it set up the world just fine) poorly. It felt like they wanted to tell and show the viewer so much about the world while letting the characters have their little adventure. Now this could've been easily salvageable had it been paced better. This is a recurring problem for the show.
8 - 10 -- Time skip. Time skip happens about three times in this show. And we skip years here. This is where the relationship portion of the show got weird for me and felt unnatural which apparently was the point. But this is the part of the show I like to call the Shun Arc. Why? Well because it focuses on Shun becoming a Karmic Demon. Which upon explanation was one of the most promising things/concepts told in the show. The concept of power corrupting and the Education Committee getting rid of children added a tension that the show needed. Despite angsty teenage romance or whatever they call it in this show. This I thought added a nice element to the show. But again pacing of the show made every episode so far aggressively mediocre. Saki declaring her love for Shun right before he dies got me.
Why? Why didnt you say so earlier? Why weren't you together in the first place? What happened during the time-skip did Shun and Saki decide not to be together? They both liked each other. They both knew it. So why did both go for the complete opposites of each other with Maria and Satoru? Doesnt matter I guess because after this the show decides to mostly ditch this and go for the more interesting concepts and plot...
11 - 16: I like to call this arc the Chain of Bad Decisions Arc. First we time skip to a point where everybody forgot about Shun. Yup just forgetting about the single best character of the show. Dude was a badass and I am still sour about how he went out. Anyways the Education Committee replaces Shun with someone else and alters the characters memories, except "Oops!" they didnt do a very good job at this. Naturally this makes the party question things and makes us feel like we're getting somewhere. That is until Mamoru decides to be a total panzy and run away because the Education Committee is apparently doing a bad job at killing kids with Impure Cats now too. Man those guys have done a bang up job. So the party naturally tries to bring him back. So Saki says she'll comeback and Maria tells her goodbye. As in goodbye, goodbye. Anyways Saki goes back and gets interrogated by the education committee. And lays down the gauntlet which made stand up and clap. Episode 14 was legitimately the one time so far in the entire series i was on the edge of my seat all giddy.
Satoru's grandmother tells Saki thats shes 267 years old and that Saki has three days to find Maria and Mamoru to bring them back. If she does the Ethics Committee will protect all of them. Of course its never that simple and they find a note from Maria describing the worst decision of any character has made in this show. She was gonna leave with Mamoru (I am guessing this is what he wanted since all he wanted was Maria) and start a life with them and tells Saki to tell everyone else shes dead. After a few yuri images we are treated to Satoru taking advantage of the situation and having his way with Saki. What a nice guy.
Now I'll be honest this was a much better paced and done set of episodes than previous episodes. Episode 14 had me cheering while episode 16 had me going "Yup I agree. Teenagers are dumb."
Literally all the bad shit that happens in these episodes happen because of this decision. But knowing that Maria and Mamoru might be alive was good enough for me...
17-25 -- Until we find out here that 10 years latter (yay time skip) that they are in fact dead and that the Monster Rats killed them. I did not like the outcome of this revelation but that was apparently nothing compared to what they wanted to really show.
And then the show gave me what I wanted soooo bad. An ogre attack. And for a while there I did think it was an Ogre attack. Monster Rats attacking humans was lame in comparison.
Then we had episodes 19-21. Probably the best episodes in the entire series. I said "Oh [expletive]" more times in these three episodes than I did throughout the entire series. The politics and underhandedness of the Monster Rat tribes was at best in episode 17 and 18. This really set the tone.
Now here's something I am gonna need help on. In episode 18 one of the senior people in the village dies in battle and shoots a blue beam into the sky while showing a blue entity of some sort. This is never explained nor does it do anything to describe what it is. It just happens and everyone moves on. You're telling me no one is questioning what the hell that was about because not even the most powerful guy does that when he dies in episode 21.
Speaking of which, episode 21 things got really interesting really fast. At first I thought the Ogre was Maria but as we learn it is actually Maria and Mamoru's child that was raised by the Monster Rats after they killed the child's parents. While I will be the first to admit that it is a fantastic dark twist it actually made me extremely sad and sickened. This was dark even for my tastes. It still kind of upsets me. Not in a good or bad way but just in a sickened way. I am still processing this twist as I type. I will definitely remember this twist but I think I will remain conflicted on it for a long time.
Now we find out in later episodes that the child isn't an ogre but can kill humans freely because it does not view them has her kind. She thinks shes a Monster Rat. This creates a whole buttload of potential in episodes 23 and 24. Now... I know some people liked the ending of this show. I am not one of those people. For starters how they killed the child was so anti-climatic I was actually shocked. They built this moment up for many, many episodes only to be finished and done with it within the first five minutes. It was an all or nothing move and it happened so fast it made me go "that's it?"
What followed was a lot of babble about how Monster Rats are like humans (which if you watched the earlier episodes you understood that concept. This conclusion was very unsatisfactory. It tried to sweep things under the rug and rushed to try and resolve things.
=========================================
Conclusion:
This is by no means a bad anime. For me however, it wasn't very good either. I found it extremely mediocre. On paper this anime sounds fine. It executed it though pretty poorly with bad pacing.
I wish I could say I liked this show because it honestly has a lot of neat concepts. That being said they could've done something more interesting with this world and with these characters and feel it was wasted potential except in the bright moments of brilliance in episodes 14, 19 and 21.
Anyways I hope that clears up things about my opinion and views on the show. If you would like to pick my brain about anything else on the show or my opinion on it dont be afraid to ask
-PshycoNinja
SPOILER WARNING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!
So I am not sure how to start breaking this down. I am not sure how the format goes for this but I want to try this. I want to write a quick summary of my opinions on each facet of the anime (characters, plot, music and animation). From there I want to break the series into cloisters of episodes and explain what I did and didn't like from each cloister in the episodes. So lets get started!
Main Characters:
Saki - A very strong-willed character that I actually quite liked throughout the series despite how she.... how do I put this delicately... "got around". She's a strong character. Not the "oh shes physically strong", but mentally and emotionally strong character whose survival skills are pretty remarkable to be honest but that might have more to do with how every character in this series protects her.
Shun - The
forgotten
Satoru - I was on and off about this character to be honest. There's not really anything that comes to mind really. Early in the series he's extremely rash but they organically make his character more tactful and smart as he progressed.
Maria - I liked this character a lot she felt like the big sister of the group and made sure everyone was always okay. We'll get more into her later.
Mamoru - I hated this character. Like with a passion. Always held the group back. When truths would be happening he would abruptly scream or complain saying he couldn't take it. Which would leave me screaming and complaining because most of the time he was around I would be in the dark early in the show. Also the later half of the show can be directly attributed to his awfulness. We'll get more into this character later too.
==================================================
Story:
The concepts of this story are actually relatively simple although you wouldn't feel that way towards the beginning of the series. The show likes to leave you in the dark or be vague so it can keep you and the main characters in the dark until they decide okay now here's what's going on. The first half is not the draw of this show.
What is the draw of the show is the idea of this new society built from the corpse of the modern day world. Hence the "New World". Within this society of people that have Powers are concepts of power that corrupts. There's two ways this happens. Ogres and Karmic Demons. Out of the two I found Ogres to be the more fascinating of the two probably because I am psychotic. The concept of humans being incapable of killing each other and therefore unable to defend against Ogres is an interesting concept, and easily fixable concept, but an interesting one nonetheless.
And then we have the concept of the All Love society. This, as most of you know, I had a big problem with. Not because it was bad per se but because I didn't "get it". Yes, I understand is used to dissipate conflict. Yes, I know its there to prevent people from getting murderous thoughts and inadvertently triggering the Death of Shame. What I don't get is why they don't get nasty with the people they actually want to be with. Maybe its my RomCom brain at work but it still never clicked for me. It was clear Saki loved Shun but never did anything with him instead opting for Maria who she liked but it always felt more in a friendzoned kind of way. Same with Shun and Satoru. Maria and Satoru seemed to be the only people invested in the relationships they were in. Its flawed and maybe that's the idea. Maybe its supposed to be a flawed idea but just because its abstract doesn't mean its good.
=================================================
Music:
I am gonna be honest, I only remembered one or two songs from the entire show. It felt like a background thing instead of being at the forefront of the anime. And for what this anime is... that might've been a good call.
======================================================
Animation
Here's the thing I am going to admit right now. I didn't like the art style or the animation early on and honestly there was some animation problems in those early episodes. It was hit or miss. As the show progressed it got so much better and consistent. So by the end it wasn't much of a problem. I would actually say the art style when they found their footing had a really great and unique style to it and is honestly one of the highlights of the show at large.
====================================================================
Episode/Series Review:
1 - 7 -- This was where my problems began first of all. Blessing spirits? Rituals? I can get behind. In the early episodes they make this seem important but what got me is how these "spirits" gave power and took it away. The thing is this is very suddenly dropped in the second half of the series. These things are never referenced after the time skip. This is also where they introduce the Master Rats. And I got to be honest, early on with everything else that was going on, i didn't give two hoots about the Monster Rats.
These episodes in my opinion set up the story (not the world mind you; it set up the world just fine) poorly. It felt like they wanted to tell and show the viewer so much about the world while letting the characters have their little adventure. Now this could've been easily salvageable had it been paced better. This is a recurring problem for the show.
8 - 10 -- Time skip. Time skip happens about three times in this show. And we skip years here. This is where the relationship portion of the show got weird for me and felt unnatural which apparently was the point. But this is the part of the show I like to call the Shun Arc. Why? Well because it focuses on Shun becoming a Karmic Demon. Which upon explanation was one of the most promising things/concepts told in the show. The concept of power corrupting and the Education Committee getting rid of children added a tension that the show needed. Despite angsty teenage romance or whatever they call it in this show. This I thought added a nice element to the show. But again pacing of the show made every episode so far aggressively mediocre. Saki declaring her love for Shun right before he dies got me.
Why? Why didnt you say so earlier? Why weren't you together in the first place? What happened during the time-skip did Shun and Saki decide not to be together? They both liked each other. They both knew it. So why did both go for the complete opposites of each other with Maria and Satoru? Doesnt matter I guess because after this the show decides to mostly ditch this and go for the more interesting concepts and plot...
11 - 16: I like to call this arc the Chain of Bad Decisions Arc. First we time skip to a point where everybody forgot about Shun. Yup just forgetting about the single best character of the show. Dude was a badass and I am still sour about how he went out. Anyways the Education Committee replaces Shun with someone else and alters the characters memories, except "Oops!" they didnt do a very good job at this. Naturally this makes the party question things and makes us feel like we're getting somewhere. That is until Mamoru decides to be a total panzy and run away because the Education Committee is apparently doing a bad job at killing kids with Impure Cats now too. Man those guys have done a bang up job. So the party naturally tries to bring him back. So Saki says she'll comeback and Maria tells her goodbye. As in goodbye, goodbye. Anyways Saki goes back and gets interrogated by the education committee. And lays down the gauntlet which made stand up and clap. Episode 14 was legitimately the one time so far in the entire series i was on the edge of my seat all giddy.
Satoru's grandmother tells Saki thats shes 267 years old and that Saki has three days to find Maria and Mamoru to bring them back. If she does the Ethics Committee will protect all of them. Of course its never that simple and they find a note from Maria describing the worst decision of any character has made in this show. She was gonna leave with Mamoru (I am guessing this is what he wanted since all he wanted was Maria) and start a life with them and tells Saki to tell everyone else shes dead. After a few yuri images we are treated to Satoru taking advantage of the situation and having his way with Saki. What a nice guy.
Now I'll be honest this was a much better paced and done set of episodes than previous episodes. Episode 14 had me cheering while episode 16 had me going "Yup I agree. Teenagers are dumb."
Literally all the bad shit that happens in these episodes happen because of this decision. But knowing that Maria and Mamoru might be alive was good enough for me...
17-25 -- Until we find out here that 10 years latter (yay time skip) that they are in fact dead and that the Monster Rats killed them. I did not like the outcome of this revelation but that was apparently nothing compared to what they wanted to really show.
And then the show gave me what I wanted soooo bad. An ogre attack. And for a while there I did think it was an Ogre attack. Monster Rats attacking humans was lame in comparison.
Then we had episodes 19-21. Probably the best episodes in the entire series. I said "Oh [expletive]" more times in these three episodes than I did throughout the entire series. The politics and underhandedness of the Monster Rat tribes was at best in episode 17 and 18. This really set the tone.
Now here's something I am gonna need help on. In episode 18 one of the senior people in the village dies in battle and shoots a blue beam into the sky while showing a blue entity of some sort. This is never explained nor does it do anything to describe what it is. It just happens and everyone moves on. You're telling me no one is questioning what the hell that was about because not even the most powerful guy does that when he dies in episode 21.
Speaking of which, episode 21 things got really interesting really fast. At first I thought the Ogre was Maria but as we learn it is actually Maria and Mamoru's child that was raised by the Monster Rats after they killed the child's parents. While I will be the first to admit that it is a fantastic dark twist it actually made me extremely sad and sickened. This was dark even for my tastes. It still kind of upsets me. Not in a good or bad way but just in a sickened way. I am still processing this twist as I type. I will definitely remember this twist but I think I will remain conflicted on it for a long time.
Now we find out in later episodes that the child isn't an ogre but can kill humans freely because it does not view them has her kind. She thinks shes a Monster Rat. This creates a whole buttload of potential in episodes 23 and 24. Now... I know some people liked the ending of this show. I am not one of those people. For starters how they killed the child was so anti-climatic I was actually shocked. They built this moment up for many, many episodes only to be finished and done with it within the first five minutes. It was an all or nothing move and it happened so fast it made me go "that's it?"
What followed was a lot of babble about how Monster Rats are like humans (which if you watched the earlier episodes you understood that concept. This conclusion was very unsatisfactory. It tried to sweep things under the rug and rushed to try and resolve things.
=========================================
Conclusion:
This is by no means a bad anime. For me however, it wasn't very good either. I found it extremely mediocre. On paper this anime sounds fine. It executed it though pretty poorly with bad pacing.
I wish I could say I liked this show because it honestly has a lot of neat concepts. That being said they could've done something more interesting with this world and with these characters and feel it was wasted potential except in the bright moments of brilliance in episodes 14, 19 and 21.
Anyways I hope that clears up things about my opinion and views on the show. If you would like to pick my brain about anything else on the show or my opinion on it dont be afraid to ask
-PshycoNinja
He's the man that gave us "Versus has the best jRPG cast". You should!
This is animeGAF- arguments never end, they merely rest.
So OG FMA > Brotherhood because I've only seen the former.
PshycoNinja
Member
You're confusing me with someone else. I did not say that.
I really have no idea which is better. Ive never seen even episode 1 which is weird for how popular the series was.
gashikunFLCL
Member
Smh.
You think it might be G's Reconquista or Gundam The Origin? or something else entirely?
- Status