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Shelf Life - Boys to Men


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dtm42



Joined: 05 Feb 2008
Posts: 14084
Location: currently stalking my waifu
PostPosted: Mon Nov 18, 2013 4:16 pm Reply with quote
Guilty Crown got Rental? Hmm. I dropped it in disgust after eight episodes and heard from heaps of people that it only got worse in the second half.
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jl07045



Joined: 30 Aug 2011
Posts: 1527
Location: Riga, Latvia
PostPosted: Mon Nov 18, 2013 4:26 pm Reply with quote
dtm42 wrote:
Guilty Crown got Rental? Hmm. I dropped it in disgust after eight episodes and heard from heaps of people that it only got worse in the second half.


Aww, you missed Shu the Führer.
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walw6pK4Alo



Joined: 12 Mar 2008
Posts: 9322
PostPosted: Mon Nov 18, 2013 4:27 pm Reply with quote
Guilty Crown was worth watching, once, when it was airing. It's hard not to have fun with that kind of trainwreck, though I imagine it's a lonely and painful experience when you don't have hundreds of others to converse with who are just as confused and amazed as you, watching brand new episodes, sharing the same experience.

I wish we'd get more of Nichibros, but I fear it too might have that occurrence where the second season is never as funny or some reason. Though, it's been long enough since the show aired, so getting burned out probably isn't a concern.

On AKIRA:
Quote:
there are still occasional grains and flecks)


Cleaning up the film for every frame is time consuming. Even after automated processes do a lot for you, there's still going to be dirt and debris, especially in the darker scenes where they stand out more, and AKIRA is mostly a dark anime. Still sounds like this release is actually really worth another dip, for the extra dub and the tiny bit of extra resolution. I like that old cheesy dub, there's just something nostalgic and endearing in its weird choice of line delivery.
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Fronzel



Joined: 11 Sep 2003
Posts: 1906
PostPosted: Mon Nov 18, 2013 4:44 pm Reply with quote
walw6pK4Alo wrote:
I wish we'd get more of Nichibros, but I fear it too might have that occurrence where the second season is never as funny or some reason. Though, it's been long enough since the show aired, so getting burned out probably isn't a concern.

I'm not sure if there's enough manga for it to adapt for that. I think the first season went through most of it, and the manga has already finished its run.

If I don't have to reckon with reality, what I'd like to see is something, maybe an OVA, based on the elementary-school violence that is mentioned a few times as the backstory for a few characters. A completely straight-faced fighting anime about little kids sounds like it would be a campy masterpiece.
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nightjuan



Joined: 22 Jan 2008
Posts: 1473
PostPosted: Mon Nov 18, 2013 4:46 pm Reply with quote
It's literally been a decade since the last time I watched Akira and I didn't pick up the recent Bandai release either, so it should be nice to finally see the film again and especially in high definition. While the movie wasn't part of my introduction to anime, which limits my own sense of personal nostalgia, I've always found it fairly enjoyable and there's no way to deny its historical importance for the medium.

Concerning the Daily Lives of High School Boys, I've never actually watched it but most online comments and reviews seem to be positive. It's something I'll put on the list for later consideration and perhaps try-before-you-buy at the very least.

dtm42 wrote:
Guilty Crown got Rental? Hmm. I dropped it in disgust after eight episodes and heard from heaps of people that it only got worse in the second half.


I stuck around longer, but still had to eventually drop it and just skip to the ending to see if they could turn things around. To nobody's surprise, they didn't. If anything, the finale makes the whole enterprise seem even more pointless.

There are many flaws, but the single biggest problem is that Shu and Inori are both incredibly uninteresting characters and their romantic relationship goes from painfully boring to disgustingly creepy. That's the core element which either makes or breaks this kind of show.

I'm all for enjoying crazy twists and turns, that's perfectly alright in my book, but in order for such attractions to work you need to keep my attention while simultaneously not offending me. Instead, the series essentially did everything it could to undermine its own entertainment value.

To put things in another perspective...I would argue the likes of Eureka 7, Infinite Ryvius, Evangelion, Macross Frontier and even Code Geass did almost every other part of this show either significantly or massively better, depending on each of the specific aspects involved, including but not limited to just having more interesting characters and being generally more fun to watch.

That said...if you can somehow ignore the characters and approach Guilty Crown as just a collection of music videos, with no expectations and little or no regard for the surrounding circumstances, I suppose it's probably worth checking out for those who find the use of great production values to be appealing. But I'm certainly not going to give it much credit.
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kj_4247



Joined: 21 Dec 2007
Posts: 22
PostPosted: Mon Nov 18, 2013 5:11 pm Reply with quote
"in a mind-boggle of pseudoscience and shenaniganry"

now thats a [expletive] sentence right there. I tip my hat to you.
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LavenderMintRose



Joined: 30 Nov 2012
Posts: 168
PostPosted: Mon Nov 18, 2013 5:17 pm Reply with quote
So Guilty Crown...

Code Geass is an amazing show with a lot of problems.
Guilty Crown is more problems, less amazing.
Valvrave is less problems, almost as much amazing, but not quite (yet, at least).

I'm comparing those three specifically because they have the same writers. But really, everything in Guilty Crown was done better in either Valvrave or Code Geass. With two exceptions - Ayase is a somewhat more interesting character than Kallen, and there's no character from Valvrave to pull up as a comparison (probably a good thing), so Ayase wins that one. And Gai, because most of the hot guys in Code Geass and Valvrave have short hair. Unless you count Shin from Akito the Exiled (and maybe Akito as well if that braid ever comes out) but they're not in the series. Plus Gai has the abs.
But Inori reminds me of those awkward parts in Code Geass where really cool female characters lose their memories and act like stupid little waifu things, except without having once been as awesome as spoiler[C.C. or Villetta] and then going back to that awesome. A lot of Guilty Crown can be described as "Like that weird thing in Code Geass, but worse". And Shu is ever bit of the generic hopeless lead character type that Haruto transcends. His reactions to stuff like what happens in episode 15... well, post-season-1 Suzaku looks like the very picture of calm, collected sanity in comparison. Everything that happens after that is, well, the opposite of everything I like about these shows.

I have to check out the Daily Lives of High School Boys, it sounds funny~
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Redcrimson



Joined: 30 Mar 2013
Posts: 160
PostPosted: Mon Nov 18, 2013 6:07 pm Reply with quote
Oh Guilty Crown, I was so hyped for that show when it was announced. It had such a ridiculous pedigree. Sadly, I only made it 11 episodes before a new season started and I dropped it for greener pastures. I revisited it when the dub came out to see if it improved the experience. Nope.

Guilty Crown is like watching Code Geass with Lelouch and CC replaced with Shinji and Rei. Shu and Inori aren't charismatic enough to carry the absurd story, but the story is taking itself way too seriously to be good for a laugh. It looks and sounds great, but it feels more like they're supposed to be a distraction from the atrocious story and characters rather than a genuine artistic effort. And thus GC just wastes away in the purgatory of mediocrity.
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Chagen46



Joined: 27 Jun 2010
Posts: 4377
PostPosted: Mon Nov 18, 2013 6:10 pm Reply with quote
dtm42 wrote:
Guilty Crown got Rental? Hmm. I dropped it in disgust after eight episodes and heard from heaps of people that it only got worse in the second half.


From what I have heard, Guilty Crown is simultaneously terrible and amazing BECAUSE of how incredibly terrible it is.

I think that may be why it got Rental. It's shitty, but impossible to look away from.
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walw6pK4Alo



Joined: 12 Mar 2008
Posts: 9322
PostPosted: Mon Nov 18, 2013 6:40 pm Reply with quote
Dan Eagleman, True American Hero, makes Guilty Crown worth it.
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Stark700



Joined: 30 Jan 2012
Posts: 11762
Location: Earth
PostPosted: Mon Nov 18, 2013 6:48 pm Reply with quote
Akira is probably the oldest movie/anime I've seen. Just looking @ this article brings me nostalgia. Great collection though, love the xxxHolic and Princess Mononoke posters.
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nightjuan



Joined: 22 Jan 2008
Posts: 1473
PostPosted: Mon Nov 18, 2013 7:33 pm Reply with quote
Chagen46 wrote:

I think that may be why it got Rental. It's shitty, but impossible to look away from.


For some, perhaps, but the fact a number of people dropped it (myself included) would tend to speak against any such generalization. It's also too boring too often.

walw6pK4Alo wrote:
Dan Eagleman, True American Hero, makes Guilty Crown worth it.


His initial appearance was a bit amusing, but he didn't do enough. Instead, we got spoiler[the THIRD IMPA-- err, FOURTH APOCALYPSE ] and even more messed up versions of pseudo-Evangelion ideas taking over the plot.
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vashfanatic



Joined: 16 Jun 2005
Posts: 3489
Location: Back stateside
PostPosted: Mon Nov 18, 2013 8:28 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
In particular, there's a multi-part featurette on the music used in Akira, and if you haven't watched it before, it is both educational and riveting (and for those interested, the music collective that performed all the tracks still exists).

I'm not enough of a fan to want the movie for keeps, but I definitely want to see this short. Not only does Geinoh Yamashiro-Gumi still exist, I saw a free music festival of theirs in Tokyo this August; it was amazing. Next year is their 40th anniversary, and apparently they have something huge planned.
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pachy_boy



Joined: 09 Mar 2006
Posts: 1323
PostPosted: Mon Nov 18, 2013 8:32 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
It's a good thing that Guilty Crown is beautiful and full of explosions, or else little would keep viewers' attention from one episode to the next. Throughout the series' 22-episode run, there are moments of brilliance and eye-opening plot twists (mostly in the second half), but for the most part, it's a yawn-inducing soup of clichés...

Specifically otaku-pandering clichés. Because Guilty Crown was broadcast on Noitamina, for mainstream audiences as opposed to the usual otaku viewers, I get the feeling they compiled in every otaku-pandering cliché in the book because they figured mainstream audiences wouldn't know better. That's my personal theory, anyway.
Like Bamboo, I had fun watching it once, but could never watch it again, especially not a series with as little soul as this one. And yet its special-edition release really tempts me to change my mind every now and then.

I remember hating Akira when I first saw it back in the day, because at the time it was nothing but violence-porn to me. I've come around to it since then, and if I had any problems with it at all it's only just how superior the manga is, spoiler[that and how pointless Kaori's death in the movie was].


Last edited by pachy_boy on Mon Nov 18, 2013 8:39 pm; edited 2 times in total
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Thatguy3331



Joined: 18 Feb 2012
Posts: 1790
PostPosted: Mon Nov 18, 2013 8:35 pm Reply with quote
The thing I'm personally most fond of is the daily lives of high school boys, it's definetly one of my favorite slice of life comedies if not for just how much fun it pokes at other slice of life sereis that feature cute girls doing cute things and just lets itself be a series about guys doing the kind of stuff guys would do.

Akira was a film I don't think I really "got". It was an interesting film Visually and I did have fun watching it, but that's all I really got out of it. I'm making it more of a priority to just read the manga later, though that doesn't mean I'm not gonna buy the movie.
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