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DmonHiro





PostPosted: Mon Aug 18, 2014 5:40 pm Reply with quote
Berg was great as a villains. Imagine a troll from 4chan with the power to blow up your planet. That's Berg.
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ChibiKangaroo



Joined: 01 Feb 2010
Posts: 2941
PostPosted: Mon Aug 18, 2014 5:44 pm Reply with quote
Terror in Resonance is a serviceable show, but it has plummeted out of my "must watch" category.

Lisa's character is highly annoying to me for various reasons - perhaps most prominently her deep, deep, deep depression and uselessness, which is constantly emphasized by her being put in situations where she acknowledges that she is useless and cries about it (even at cooking!! That's usually the go-to for anime when it comes to important female characters). I get the fact that they are trying to use her to connect with the audience with a more "human" character, as opposed to the seemingly superhuman Sphinx duo, but she feels more like a waste to me

The other issue is that I am not totally sold on Sphinx. The Death Note comparison you made is on point, as Sphinx appears to be a less corrupt version of Light Yagami. However, they are still causing mass destruction (blowing up skyscrapers, trains, police buildings, etc...) The likelihood of killing innocents is very high. Yet, we are shown that they have a higher purpose and aren't total psychopaths like Light was. Is that supposed to make them heroic? I feel like the story is indicating we should think that way. I don't know, I think I preferred the more black and white approach of Death Note. TiR makes terrorism seem like a legitimate means to an end, which I find distasteful, but maybe it will surprise me at the end and do a total about-face.
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Themaster20000



Joined: 05 Aug 2014
Posts: 863
PostPosted: Mon Aug 18, 2014 5:49 pm Reply with quote
Just recently finished watching the dub of Watamote. Monica absolutely nailed the character which couldn't have been easy to do. The rest of the cast did great job too. Hopefully the sales were good enough that Sentai will think about picking up the upcoming OVA.

I'll probably buy Gatchaman Crowds whenever Deepdisount has one their big Sentai sales.


Last edited by Themaster20000 on Mon Aug 18, 2014 5:59 pm; edited 1 time in total
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thekingsdinner



Joined: 25 Sep 2010
Posts: 1067
Location: Geertruidenberg, Netherlands
PostPosted: Mon Aug 18, 2014 5:56 pm Reply with quote
Oh yeah, Gatchaman Crowds is great! Should probably pick that up... *opens wallet* ... in the future.
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ajr



Joined: 29 Nov 2010
Posts: 465
PostPosted: Mon Aug 18, 2014 6:24 pm Reply with quote
That is a pretty well-composed collection, nice to see someone exercising some taste.
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Angel'sArcanum



Joined: 02 Sep 2010
Posts: 303
Location: Toronto, Ontario
PostPosted: Mon Aug 18, 2014 6:34 pm Reply with quote
I need to get around to ZnT still for some reason, but Gatchaman Crowds is quite awesome, a really good recon (and maybe decon) of sentai and heroism at a primal level. Like Casshern Sins before it, Tatsunoko is making some surprisingly heavy and genuinely well written works (and genre fiction for that matter) to change up and redefine their formula and catalog. Great stuff.
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danilo07



Joined: 25 Dec 2011
Posts: 1580
PostPosted: Mon Aug 18, 2014 6:36 pm Reply with quote
Terror in Resonance was seriously a disappointment, I still find it enjoyable but I was expecting a lot more. At this point it has become clear that the show is just a schlockfest, nothing more. Dialogue is horrible and full of itself, characters are empty ( the fact that they haven't revealed motivations of MCs doesn't help), the plot consists of ridiculous events and cliches from cop movies. There is no serious political theme here.Yes there are some political ideas dropped throughout the show ( the government is incompetent, the issue of ageism in Japan...) but they are essentially snippets . These ideas are just mentioned and never given the treatment they deserve. And lately the plot isn't progressing anywhere.Cinematography is fantastic but soon enough even that aspect will vanish.
I like the show, it's still enjoyable. But I never excepted Watanabe would create something so...anime.
Quote:
TiR makes terrorism seem like a legitimate means to an end, which I find distasteful, but maybe it will surprise me at the end and do a total about-face.

That really depends on a context and what your definition of terrorism is.


Last edited by danilo07 on Mon Aug 18, 2014 6:48 pm; edited 2 times in total
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meiam



Joined: 23 Jun 2013
Posts: 3442
PostPosted: Mon Aug 18, 2014 6:47 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
Those who have been along for the ride so far might describe it as an amalgamation of different story elements


I'd call it a poor man death note with better soundtrack, but then again I'm pretty sure there budget was higher than death note. So I'll just say that it's a show that's less than the sum of it's part, everything that touch presentation is very well done, the character themselves are pretty good, but the plot is just so… they thought they were doing something really smart but there not, so I guess I'd call it pretentious, unless there's some big reveal like episode 11 that make it so everything make sense, but without pulling a BS miracle I don't see that happening.

So if someone is wondering if they should watch it now, well if your in for brainless action show with little but nice action go for it, otherwise wait for the word when it's done, and think about maybe buying the soundtrack.
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walw6pK4Alo



Joined: 12 Mar 2008
Posts: 9322
PostPosted: Mon Aug 18, 2014 7:02 pm Reply with quote
For Watamote (manga spoilers?) spoiler[I would have continued to empathize with some of her experiences and give my sympathies to others, until it's revealed in the prequel manga and once Komi-something appears that's she's actually a real awful person at her core. She's a huge prick at heart, and that runs deeper than her social anxieties. Anyway, the crippling social isolation stuff has kind of run dry once Komi-something appears, now it's more of just a rivalry of who can out-dick who.] Not like it matters where that goes, the anime didn't do very hot in Japan.
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Ashen Phoenix



Joined: 21 Jun 2006
Posts: 2904
PostPosted: Mon Aug 18, 2014 7:42 pm Reply with quote
Largely at the behest of the internet I gave Terror in Resonance a try and I have to say the first episode intrigued me with its premise, visual pizzazz, and subtly unnerving undertones. Only time will tell if those impressions last.

As for Gachaman Crowds, I tried to give it a go a while back for similar reasons but found the main girl to be nothing short of unbearably annoying.
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gedata



Joined: 04 May 2013
Posts: 615
PostPosted: Mon Aug 18, 2014 8:33 pm Reply with quote
It's worth noting that the Sentai release of Gatchaman Crowds doesn't include the Japanese Bluray director's cut of the last episode and instead has the more nonsensical TV finale. It's pretty unfortunate. Still a good show. Kinda bummed they didn't keep Hajime's bizarre speech pattern in the dub
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Animegomaniac



Joined: 16 Feb 2012
Posts: 4070
PostPosted: Mon Aug 18, 2014 9:31 pm Reply with quote
walw6pK4Alo wrote:
For Watamote (manga spoilers?) spoiler[I would have continued to empathize with some of her experiences and give my sympathies to others, until it's revealed in the prequel manga and once Komi-something appears that's she's actually a real awful person at her core. She's a huge prick at heart, and that runs deeper than her social anxieties. Anyway, the crippling social isolation stuff has kind of run dry once Komi-something appears, now it's more of just a rivalry of who can out-dick who.] Not like it matters where that goes, the anime didn't do very hot in Japan.


I've yet to hear anyone familiar with the manga critically gush over the show but every review starts with Tomoko's "crippling social disorder".

Middle school Tomoko was shy and awkward but had a friend and a friend's friend; High school Tomoko had" High School" delusions and waited a month or so for, no other way to put it, "TVtropes" to happen to her by which point she got the position of "quiet weird girl"... which she is. The manga is an uphill battle as she tries to gain that mythical high school life by using the same tropes she knows from anime and video games. Resulting in:

"No matter how I look at it, it's you guys' fault I'm not popular!"

The TV show? I never watched past the first episode. "Welcome to the NHK" is about crippling social disorders, Watamote is about the quest for the perfect High School life, creating the illusion through delusions. And failing, failing, failing, and failing again for obvious reasons. Why I didn't watch it wasn't the foregone conclusion but the belief she has in "tropes" as a goal and the means.

To trope it up, Tomoko is trying to delude herself into the Ordinary High School Student life through the process of chuunibyo/"middle school syndrome". And she can't figure out why that doesn't work.

She's unlikable, mean and more than a little creepy; If the show presents her as "huggable" then something got lost in the adaptation.
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Shay Guy



Joined: 03 Jul 2009
Posts: 2092
PostPosted: Mon Aug 18, 2014 9:34 pm Reply with quote
I actually liked Hajime at first. I liked her less and less the more the show went on, especially since the writers are clearly in love with her. (Or maybe just Toshiya Ono. Or for all I know, it could be Nakamura that it comes from.)

After she spoiler[blows her cover and forces Gatchaman to go public], she spoiler[gives out her teammate's cell phone as the group's public contact number]. Seriously. And that's far from the only dick move she pulls. The show continues to go out of her way to sing her praises, including "switch[ing] viewpoints just so one of [its] characters can talk about how wonderful... [Hajime] is." (Guess what I'm quoting?)

The show has neat ideas, gorgeous art design, a great soundtrack, the very compelling characters of Rui and Katse... but by God, these people should never have been let near a sentai series. It reminds me of some of what I've read of the Nanoha/Sailor Moon crossover fic "White Devil of the Moon".
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Covnam



Joined: 31 May 2005
Posts: 3627
PostPosted: Mon Aug 18, 2014 10:00 pm Reply with quote
I stopped watching Watamote mid way through episode 7. Paused it to watch it later and didn't feel like continuing. I can watch a character be self destructive for only so long with that kind of exaggeration. Opening was good though.

Gatchaman Crowds was fun to watch, though I'm glad that the directors cut was available after I finished watching it on the anime network. Best part of the show though was the track 'gotchaman~in the name of love' that played during the transformation and some action scenes.

I didn't know Terror in Resonance was by Shinichiro Watanabe, I'll definitely have to check it out now Very Happy

Awesome shelves this week btw.
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here-and-faraway



Joined: 21 Jun 2007
Posts: 1528
Location: Sunny California
PostPosted: Mon Aug 18, 2014 10:11 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
Monica Rial turns in an incredible performance as Tomoko, perfectly navigating her many vocal quirks, from her raspy, warbling voice, to her barely audible mumbles—and my personal favorite, her mockery of the popular kids at school.


I was so happy to hear that Rial got the part - she is one of the best. There is an Anime Network preview with another voice actress (I think Brittney Karbowski?), who is very talented but DID NOT fit Tomoko whatsoever. I'm glad it was a false alarm.

Link to Scary Dub Preview...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lf1kg2iDyAY
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