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Shelf Life - Dueling Djangos


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Juno016



Joined: 09 Jan 2012
Posts: 2377
PostPosted: Tue Jan 10, 2012 3:53 am Reply with quote
dragon695 wrote:
Juno016 wrote:
--Main character #2 (male): Protagonist who is really smart and works for his dreams.
--Main character #2's girlfriend (female): Side-character who is/can be extremely pushy and annoying, but is completely supportive of her boyfriend's dreams. Though she sometimes comes off as a character whose only purpose is to cause drama...


The thing is, she really is annoying. And said boyfriend really wasn't interested in her to begin with. She just sort of "made" herself the girlfriend. So I am not exactly sure why she is complaining. Quite frankly, it feels like the girls were added because they had to be there to fulfill some WSJ quota. Ironically, this fact seems to be lampshaded to a certain extent in a later episode when that putz Mirua is talking about what needs to be in a series.


I noticed that, too. But even for inserted female characters, they aren't that bad to me. Well, Azumi, at least.

belvadeer wrote:
That's a good idea. I think part of my problem with the manga I still have to continue or finish is that I've spread myself too far out among different series. Plus I have to lighten the load so to speak as my only shelf has been weighed down to the point of bending in my closet. I wish I had more space in my room for bookcases. -_-


That was the issue with my collection, partially. Just my CLAMP manga alone were bending the two small shelves in my room, so I went through all my stuff and got a new bookshelf. Which is how I took the photographs. The two shelves now hold my figma and other figures...

Judge Of Toyama wrote:
If your collection does overload your personal space, build a bigger room like me.


I go to college now, so my uninhabited room has been moved to one half the size it used to be. D:

Faiga_Raisa wrote:
Juno, I must say you are my bro for collecting CLAMP. I'm a huge fan as well though I've only collected all the US-released and re-released titles. I would die if I tried to collected all the different Japanese versions.


Thank you. Well, I got a lot of my Japanese manga while I was in Japan for one summer. There's a chain store there called, "Book Off," which sells used Japanese manga for extremely cheap prices. Excluding the expenses of shipping back to America, getting the entire set of Chobits from Book Off was about 450 yen, or around $4.80 at the time (2008). Talk about cheap! But the shipping charges made up for a good amount of the price.
I believe there's actually a Book Off (same Japanese chain store) in New York City (and possibly elsewhere) that sells used Japanese manga, as well as English manga. It's still cheap, but since it's in America, you usually will see the addition of shipping charges added to the price.

BTW, speaking of CLAMP releases, does anyone know where I can find information on when/if to expect more English omnibus re-releases of older CLAMP series?
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Monster in a box



Joined: 05 Sep 2005
Posts: 671
PostPosted: Tue Jan 10, 2012 6:18 am Reply with quote
GATSU wrote:


Monster: No, Utena really is too friggin' long. I'm guessing it works if you're watching it at one ep per week, but it's a chore to marathon.


Nope. I watched it in like a week, and it usually takes me months to even watch 12 episode shows. Every episode has character, and is enjoyable. If anything, I wish it had been longer.
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bravetailor



Joined: 30 May 2009
Posts: 817
PostPosted: Tue Jan 10, 2012 10:36 am Reply with quote
Monster in a box wrote:


Nope. I watched it in like a week, and it usually takes me months to even watch 12 episode shows. Every episode has character, and is enjoyable. If anything, I wish it had been longer.


Thematically, every episode in Utena adds something to the overall show. Even the seemingly useless comedic episodes featuring Nanami aren't just fluff; they're saying something very specific about adolescence and teen sexuality.

I think it's about the right length.

Oh, one more thing about Erin's review: Ikuhara does go into great detail about why he used luxury cars (at least for the TV series) in the booklets. He basically said it's a status thing--adults with lots of money and freedom buy "toys", and, to Ikuhara's mind, luxury cars symbolize the ultimate "toys" for the adult male.

Of course, we're all in the dark when it comes to the car stuff in the movie. Laughing

It's very interesting stuff, which is why this release is a must-buy for Utena fans, because I am fairly sure you're never going to get this kind of Utena material anywhere else-- or ever again, for that matter.
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sepherest





PostPosted: Tue Jan 10, 2012 11:12 am Reply with quote
I actually liked that the movie was included in the final Utena boxset. I'm not really a big fan of it besides the music and architectural designs in it, so I probably wouldn't have bought it if it were separate. I love that they put all the conceptual artwork for it (and the stuff for the tv series, some I had never even seen before) in the booklet that came along with the set.

The price for the Apocalypse Saga may have seemed pricey, but I think compared to how much people are paying now for releases by Aniplex it's a great deal for everything that's included. Nozomi really put a lot of love into it.
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erinfinnegan
ANN Columnist


Joined: 31 Jan 2005
Posts: 598
PostPosted: Tue Jan 10, 2012 1:58 pm Reply with quote
Surrender Artist wrote:
I liked Revolution Girl Utena! Can I crash on your couch for a week?

I'll consider it, pending how you rank your top ten favorite Miyazaki movies. Razz

Thunder-Break wrote:
But... aren't the last three minutes of the song just repeating "We still living, living in the nineties/eighties! We still fight, fighting in the nineties/eighties!"? At least, that's what I've heard from a friend who tried to do the same.

Maybe in the full length version of the song that happens, but not in the TV theme. Plus, that's our favorite part at karaoke, where even people who've never heard the song can join in (and presumably weird out people walking by our room).

Chagen46 wrote:
Isn't Bakuman horribly sexist?

I remember some HUGE stink being raised about supposed sexism in it on some other forum.

I think a famous manga blogger or two brought that up, and I agree that volume one of the manga has some pretty sexist comments. These comments are missing from the anime (if I remember correctly). Also, the comments were leveled by junior high boys (our protagonists) who learn more about girls as the story goes on. I think entire gender essays could be written based on some of what's happening in volume nine of the manga. There's certainly more gender equality as the story proceeds.

Veers wrote:
Utena is 20-something episodes of good ideas stretched way too far. I'm enjoying it but it is way, way too long and would be a lot more interesting if it trimmed like 15 episodes worth of fat off.

I don't want to encourage piracy, but I would like to encourage more fan edits of TV series. I love One Piece, but my god, some fat could be trimmed from that show! If Utena were Creative Commons, I'd say you trim that fat!

SpacemanHardy wrote:
Maybe Kevin T Collins sounds a BIT too old for his part, but Michael Sinterniklaas sounds perfect. Not to mention that the acting actually sounds very natural and not forced or wooden.

Lemme guess..... You're one of those people who thinks that the Durarara!! dub is nothing short of excellent and that Darrel Guilbeau sounded "perfectly fine" in his role, aren't you?

Do you work for NYAV? Razz But seriously, I worked with Michael Sinterniklaas on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (he was Leo) and I sometimes see him at anime cons. It makes it kind of weird to have to review him sometimes, since I know him personally, kind of like when I have to write Publishers Weekly reviews for comics by friends of mine.

That said, I think Sinterniklass does a much better job in the Gundam Unicorn dub, and I think that's a much better dub than Bakuman. I think the Durarara!! dub is only OK. I've reviewed a bunch of the volumes and also GU in the last couple of years for Shelf Life.
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Snomaster1
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Joined: 31 Aug 2011
Posts: 2793
PostPosted: Tue Jan 10, 2012 2:51 pm Reply with quote
Well,"Fist of the North Star" is finally showing some creativity! A floating city! Well,at least it's something. For me,"Fist" wasn't the most imaginative of shows. From what few episodes I did see,there wasn't any real imagination to this show. This is a post-apocalyptic show. At least have some imagination. You have villains dressed up like rejects from a "Mad Max" movie running around until Kenshiro shows up and literally destroys them.
The villains on that show were nothing to write home about. In essence,they all basically dressed alike. You couldn't tell the difference between any of them. I liked "Fist's" American equivalent,"Thundarr the Barbarian" a whole lot more. It showed far more imagination than "Fist" did in it's whole running time. For some reason,I seemed to like the guy in the star-spangled outfit on the cover of the most recent collection of this series.

There is a question that I never got answered. Did "Thundarr the Barbarian" ever make it to Japan? And if it did,what did they think of it? If you want to learn more about this,just find "Compare and Contrast:'Thundarr the Barbarian' and 'Fist of the North Star'" on the forums. Replies are welcome.
As for "Bakuman" and "Utena,"well I can't comment on those series. I haven't seen either of them. Also I am hoping that one of these days,they'll give "Fist of the North Star" a dub. I think it needs it.
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CrownKlown



Joined: 05 May 2011
Posts: 1762
PostPosted: Tue Jan 10, 2012 2:51 pm Reply with quote
Im sorry but thats a load of crock. You need Utena in your collection to have it complete.

Utena is a shoujo, with heavy yuri overtones, that alone makes it unappealing to a large portion of anime fans. I have the original release and have watched it, but I would say its more cult than hit; ie a group of people like it to a large degree, but I dont necessarily think because its some masterpiece or great work. I just think its ridiculous criticize someone because they dont like that one show you like.

I dont go around saying, if you dont have last exile, crest of the stars, and Record of lodoss war in your collection I cant associate with you. And at least those are shows that have a more broad appeal.
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angieness



Joined: 08 Aug 2004
Posts: 162
Location: Columbus, OH
PostPosted: Tue Jan 10, 2012 4:47 pm Reply with quote
vashfanatic wrote:
Julia-the-Great wrote:
I made the mistake of trying on the ring that came with my Utena set... I had an absolutely terrifying moment where I thought "This is not going to come off my finger. They're going to have to cut it off me and it's going to be ruined."

It eventually came off with enough panicked twisting and turning, but I doubt I'm ever going to try it on again. I guess I'm not going to be cosplaying as Utena any time soon. Sad

How big is it? I had my parents ship me my box sets for Christmas, but they nearly threw out the ring because it was wrapped in packaging, so I'm getting it in the next package. I mean, have really, really skinny gingers (as in, I had trouble playing the violin because my fingers fit between the strings when I had to do chords), so will it be a problem for me?

There's always wearing it on a chain around your neck, ala Frodo.


I have little bitty tiny artist hands and I was concerned it would be like an XXL sized thing (as the damn shirts always are in boxsets and such) but it's a fairly reasonable size. It's too large for my ring finger but it fits on my index finger.
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Lord Geo



Joined: 18 Sep 2005
Posts: 2532
Location: North Brunswick, New Jersey
PostPosted: Tue Jan 10, 2012 5:36 pm Reply with quote
Snomaster1 wrote:
For me,"Fist" wasn't the most imaginative of shows. From what few episodes I did see,there wasn't any real imagination to this show. This is a post-apocalyptic show. At least have some imagination.


Just because it's a post-apocalyptic world doesn't mean that it has to be "imaginative". Also, Fist 2 takes place years after the original TV series, which itself took place not too long after the nuclear apocalypse. There wasn't enough time in the original TV series for outlandish and unrealistic things to happen, while Fist 2 had enough of a time skip to allow something like a floating city to come about. Still, the idea of Fist was to have a semi-realistic world and have the characters themselves be outlandish.

Quote:
The villains on that show were nothing to write home about. In essence,they all basically dressed alike. You couldn't tell the difference between any of them. I liked "Fist's" American equivalent,"Thundarr the Barbarian" a whole lot more. It showed far more imagination than "Fist" did in it's whole running time. For some reason,I seemed to like the guy in the star-spangled outfit on the cover of the most recent collection of this series.


Though I never saw Thundarr, your feeling that "every villian looked alike" really shows how little you watched. Yeah, the nameless grunts looked mostly the same, which was the idea (it's like complaining that Putties in Power Rangers looked mostly alike), and even the named major grunts could look alike, but the major villians all looked different from each other. You'd have to be blind to that say Yuda looked like Souther or that Shin looked like Raoh. Or, hell, saying that Heart and Uighur looked alike is ridiculous. In fact, the only real case of downright similar looks, between that of females Yuria and Mamiya, was done on purpose. Same with Raoh and Fist 2 villian Kaioh.

Quote:
There is a question that I never got answered. Did "Thundarr the Barbarian" ever make it to Japan? And if it did,what did they think of it? If you want to learn more about this,just find "Compare and Contrast:'Thundarr the Barbarian' and 'Fist of the North Star'" on the forums. Replies are welcome.


I would guess that Thundarr probably aired in Japan at some point, but it probably made little to no splash over there. And, really, it's kind of silly to compare Fist to Thundarr in the first place. Wasn't Thundarr meant to be a more like Conan the Barbarian or Flash Gordon?
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Julia-the-Great



Joined: 14 May 2005
Posts: 328
PostPosted: Tue Jan 10, 2012 9:16 pm Reply with quote
angieness wrote:
vashfanatic wrote:

How big is it? I had my parents ship me my box sets for Christmas, but they nearly threw out the ring because it was wrapped in packaging, so I'm getting it in the next package. I mean, have really, really skinny gingers (as in, I had trouble playing the violin because my fingers fit between the strings when I had to do chords), so will it be a problem for me?

There's always wearing it on a chain around your neck, ala Frodo.


I have little bitty tiny artist hands and I was concerned it would be like an XXL sized thing (as the damn shirts always are in boxsets and such) but it's a fairly reasonable size. It's too large for my ring finger but it fits on my index finger.


Pretty sure it's one size too small for my ring finger. I don't normally wear rings, so I'm not really sure what size I'm supposed to wear. I just know that I CAN get it on, but it's the getting it off again part that's the problem. I never considered myself as having fat fingers. They're just not dainty enough, I guess.

Ah, nothing gives you a Finger Complex faster than getting a ring stuck on one. Razz
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Sailor S





PostPosted: Tue Jan 10, 2012 10:11 pm Reply with quote
angieness wrote:

I have little bitty tiny artist hands and I was concerned it would be like an XXL sized thing (as the damn shirts always are in boxsets and such) but it's a fairly reasonable size. It's too large for my ring finger but it fits on my index finger.


I have never seen an XXL shirt in a box set. They're always XL's much to my disappointed XXL self. Anyways, the ring's pretty small, but it's not like I'd be wearing it anyways. Not really something that a guy would normally sport.
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Veers



Joined: 31 Oct 2008
Posts: 1197
Location: Texas
PostPosted: Tue Jan 10, 2012 10:23 pm Reply with quote
bravetailor wrote:
Even the seemingly useless comedic episodes featuring Nanami aren't just fluff; they're saying something very specific about adolescence and teen sexuality.
Personally, I thought those episodes were some of the best the series had to offer. Nanami is a nutcase but she's an endearing one because she's so passionate, and said silly episodes were really interesting to look at as sort of like Aesop's fable stories or something. Like, kids, don't be like Nanami! Kids, be careful what you wish for! Or something.

erinfinnegan wrote:
I don't want to encourage piracy, but I would like to encourage more fan edits of TV series. I love One Piece, but my god, some fat could be trimmed from that show! If Utena were Creative Commons, I'd say you trim that fat!
Seriously, I don't mean to be too harsh but damn those first two arcs (or whatever) where it's like half a dozen (x2) episodes in a row of the same thing, every episode (dive into psyche of a character I haven't had time to develop any attachment for, cue uninteresting duel with Utena with lots of slowpans and repeated frames) were just such a chore to get through. I actually just finished the show tonight and really liked the ending, but it took way too long to get there and I feel like some (definitely not all, but too much) of the journey added absolutely no value to the experience.
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Judge Of Toyama



Joined: 30 Aug 2011
Posts: 120
PostPosted: Tue Jan 10, 2012 11:56 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
Judge Of Toyama wrote:
If your collection does overload your personal space, build a bigger room like me.


I go to college now, so my uninhabited room has been moved to one half the size it used to be. D:


I can understand that. I went to college a few years ago and I didn't have the time or the money to worry about collecting anime let alone where to put it.



As for Revolutionary Girl Utena, it didn't really start to pick up for me until the Apocalypse Saga but, I liked it overall. I don't think it will go down as one of my top favorites. I would be very interested in seeing a sequel. That would probably move it up a few notches on my favorites list.
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Monster in a box



Joined: 05 Sep 2005
Posts: 671
PostPosted: Wed Jan 11, 2012 12:24 pm Reply with quote
I don't know what show you people were watching. Utena has no 'fat', aside from maybe the Tsuwabuki recap episode. In this age of 12 episode shows, you want less from shows that actually give you time to care about the characters? I guess I should expect no less from a community that thinks Madoka is THE BEST ANIME OF ALL TIME, but acts like Wandering Son doesn't exist. I don't know if you were paying attention, but the Madoka's entire personality basically consists of 'I want to help my friends / do the right thing'. Even by anime lead standards she's pretty boring.
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Veers



Joined: 31 Oct 2008
Posts: 1197
Location: Texas
PostPosted: Wed Jan 11, 2012 12:44 pm Reply with quote
hurf durf implying Madoka herself is why people like the show

Laughing
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