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Shelf Life - Dueling Djangos


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Monster in a box



Joined: 05 Sep 2005
Posts: 671
PostPosted: Wed Jan 11, 2012 1:19 pm Reply with quote
hurf durf responding to a post with hurf durf

I've seen plenty of people claim that Madoka is a wonderful character. I can kind of get behind what's-her-name...the black haired one, but Madoka? Nothing. Mami? Nothing. Kyoko? Jumps from 'I'm the bad magical girl' to 'Wait, no I'm not' way too easily. Sayaka? Well, she had some degree of character, but it was a pretty bad character. 'spoiler[I'm like 14, but I love this guy so much that I'm willing to disappear from history just so he can play the violin again!'] Really? Where are the feminists on that. Kyubei is basically an apathy factory.

And if people love it because of the ending, well, spoiler[Persona 3 did it first. Like, all of it.] And for a show with only 12 episodes, I thought it moved at a remarkably slow pace. Episodes 3-8 or so felt like nothing.
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Veers



Joined: 31 Oct 2008
Posts: 1197
Location: Texas
PostPosted: Wed Jan 11, 2012 1:23 pm Reply with quote
Please keep posting, it amuses me.
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Monster in a box



Joined: 05 Sep 2005
Posts: 671
PostPosted: Wed Jan 11, 2012 1:35 pm Reply with quote
An excellent rebuttal. I was a fool to think I could match wits with you.
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Megiddo



Joined: 24 Aug 2005
Posts: 8360
Location: IL
PostPosted: Wed Jan 11, 2012 2:45 pm Reply with quote
Wait, Persona 3 ripped off its ending from Lain?

I knew the SMT games had fallen quite a bit in recent years, but seriously that bad?
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Shenl742



Joined: 11 Feb 2010
Posts: 1524
PostPosted: Wed Jan 11, 2012 3:01 pm Reply with quote
Megiddo wrote:
Wait, Persona 3 ripped off its ending from Lain?

I knew the SMT games had fallen quite a bit in recent years, but seriously that bad?


Um, not really, no.

Unless Lain has some kind of an alternate ending where she spoiler[fights a demonic moon using the power of friendship] which I never heard about.
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bravetailor



Joined: 30 May 2009
Posts: 817
PostPosted: Wed Jan 11, 2012 3:51 pm Reply with quote
Veers wrote:
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.
.


Well, these episodes kinda show Nanami as a pretty naive kid growing into womanhood. They may be absurd, but read between the lines and you'll see it's all about her growing up.

Nanami's Egg, for instance, is obviously a not-so-subtle metaphor for a girl's first period. The show takes it to comedic extremes, of course, but the story encompasses all the anxieties and insecurities of a young girl going through a time of physical and emotional change.

The Nanami cow episode obviously plays off the absurdity of teenagers valuing a brand name more than the actual product itself. Naturally, magic and weird stuff is thrown in to make it a Nanami episode, but there's a sort of message behind the hocus pocus.

As for pacing, I originally felt the Black Rose Arc to be a little bit filler-ish, but on the other hand it holds some of the best individual episodes in the series. The "Wakaba Flourishing" episode is the single most heartbreaking episode of the series, in my opinion. And the overall arc's thematic thrust of featuring the "minor" characters in the show help build on the show's themes of "special" people shining brighter than "ordinary" people and how this creates a source of tension between characters. The Black Rose Arc was also necessary to buff Utena up as being an unbeatable opponent, so that when the Apocalypse Saga came about, her fall from grace would be all the more suspenseful.
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Veers



Joined: 31 Oct 2008
Posts: 1197
Location: Texas
PostPosted: Wed Jan 11, 2012 4:06 pm Reply with quote
Yeah, bravetailor, that's why I liked those episodes. They were silly but still engaging and had a message.
Quote:
The Nanami cow episode obviously plays off the absurdity of teenagers valuing a brand name more than the actual product itself. Naturally, magic and weird stuff is thrown in to make it a Nanami episode, but there's a sort of message behind the hocus pocus.
Well, yeah, but it doesn't just apply to teenagers. The King's New Clothes, anyone? A message about obsession for everyone, not just girls who laid their first egg. :)
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bravetailor



Joined: 30 May 2009
Posts: 817
PostPosted: Wed Jan 11, 2012 4:09 pm Reply with quote
Veers wrote:

Quote:
The Nanami cow episode obviously plays off the absurdity of teenagers valuing a brand name more than the actual product itself. Naturally, magic and weird stuff is thrown in to make it a Nanami episode, but there's a sort of message behind the hocus pocus.
Well, yeah, but it doesn't just apply to teenagers. The King's New Clothes, anyone? A message about obsession for everyone, not just girls who laid their first egg. Smile


Oh yeah, everyone who's bought anything from Apple can put their heads down in shame as well. Wink
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erinfinnegan
ANN Columnist


Joined: 31 Jan 2005
Posts: 598
PostPosted: Wed Jan 11, 2012 4:58 pm Reply with quote
Veers wrote:
...cue uninteresting duel with Utena with lots of slowpans and repeated frames) were just such a chore to get through.

Oh wait, this just means you didn't like the music! I could watch those duels all day.

I think Utena's "fat" is some slow pacing. Like we've seen Anthy watering roses once, we've seen it a million times. A super-short fan edit version of Utena would still amuse me, however. I'd like to see Utena told in 3 minutes.
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Veers



Joined: 31 Oct 2008
Posts: 1197
Location: Texas
PostPosted: Wed Jan 11, 2012 5:18 pm Reply with quote
erinfinnegan wrote:
Oh wait, this just means you didn't like the music! I could watch those duels all day.
No, it just means they weren't fun to watch; seen one, seen 'em all (with a few exceptions). There was never any significant visual variation or feeling of tension, so they were boring (which made the few exceptions all the more exciting). I enjoyed the music, but after the first couple duels I just found myself doing other stuff during those scenes that kept me in earshot but didn't involve actually paying close attention to the TV.

As for Utena in three minutes, I haven't looked but I'm sure there are some AMVs or something that do that. Cutting it down to three minutes as a non-AMV fan edit has potential to be hilarious, though.
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GVman



Joined: 14 Jul 2010
Posts: 729
PostPosted: Wed Jan 11, 2012 10:11 pm Reply with quote
Part of me wants to get the Fist 2 box set. Part of me doesn't because Fist 2 was my least favorite story arc of the manga BY FAR. Everything up through the end of part 1 was amazing. I cried numerous times. Then the first time skip arc came along. I still enjoyed it, but not anywhere near as much as the previous stuff. Then the Asura arc happened and it was downhill from there until the series bottomed out with the first third of the Ryu arc (which was never animated) but proceeded to redeem itself a fair bit with the remaining two-thirds of the Ryu arc, and very final story arc was a nice way to close the series (and fix a really stupid plot development that occurred at the end of the Asura arc).

But yeah, Asura arc makes me hesitant to buy this box set.
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mrsatan



Joined: 06 Jul 2005
Posts: 909
Location: Olympia, WA, USA
PostPosted: Thu Jan 12, 2012 1:29 am Reply with quote
Thunder-Break wrote:
Quote:
If nothing else, it's worth sticking around for the awesome theme song alone. "No boy, no cry… We still fight, fighting in the nineties!" I usually skip the theme song after the first few episodes, but with FotNS2 I was determined to learn it for karaoke.


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!"?


The "album version" and "TV Size version" of TOUGH BOY actually have slightly different lyrics. Album version says "eighties" and TV version says "nineties" because that's when the show takes place. Also another lyric was changed for political correctness.
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kamui85



Joined: 02 Oct 2006
Posts: 267
PostPosted: Thu Jan 12, 2012 2:56 am Reply with quote
Shenl742 wrote:
Megiddo wrote:
Wait, Persona 3 ripped off its ending from Lain?

I knew the SMT games had fallen quite a bit in recent years, but seriously that bad?


Um, not really, no.

Unless Lain has some kind of an alternate ending where she spoiler[fights a demonic moon using the power of friendship] which I never heard about.


Well it didn’t literally ripped it, [/spoiler] so don’t expect for the moon part, but Lain and P3 main characters did removed themselves from existent to save their friends etc.
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kamui85



Joined: 02 Oct 2006
Posts: 267
PostPosted: Thu Jan 12, 2012 2:59 am Reply with quote
Shenl742 wrote:
Megiddo wrote:
Wait, Persona 3 ripped off its ending from Lain?

I knew the SMT games had fallen quite a bit in recent years, but seriously that bad?


Um, not really, no.

Unless Lain has some kind of an alternate ending where she spoiler[fights a demonic moon using the power of friendship] which I never heard about.


Well it didn’t literally ripped it, spoiler[so don’t expect for the moon part, but Lain and P3 main characters did removed themselves from existent to save their friends etc.]
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Cryssoberyl



Joined: 17 Jan 2009
Posts: 237
PostPosted: Thu Jan 12, 2012 3:01 am Reply with quote
mrsatan wrote:

The "album version" and "TV Size version" of TOUGH BOY actually have slightly different lyrics. Album version says "eighties" and TV version says "nineties" because that's when the show takes place. Also another lyric was changed for political correctness.


There is a full "nineties" version of the song too, though. It isn't just the TV-size version.
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