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Shelf Life - Vex Machina


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Steel Angel



Joined: 19 Aug 2004
Posts: 274
Location: Texas
PostPosted: Mon May 19, 2008 1:39 pm Reply with quote
Some very nice shelves this week. I like em. Very Happy

As to Hell Girl, it seems she gets so little love. The only thing i find odd is other episodic series get higher marks then this one, yet this one contains episodic and a larger story and I think it was done exceptionally well.

Some of the episodes, like the one you mention Bamboo, were done for a reason. It has to do do with the whole "what if" that this series raises. Not a single person out there hasn't felt the need for vengeance (whether they acted on it or not) for a wrong doing. It's part of human nature and this series explores that. I do think many of the reviews this series has gotten on ANN has not been given the credit it is due. To each their own i suppose.
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belvadeer





PostPosted: Mon May 19, 2008 1:43 pm Reply with quote
Damn, your room looks just like my local Borders minus the plushies and posters :3
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Great Rumbler



Joined: 03 Oct 2006
Posts: 327
Location: Oklahoma
PostPosted: Mon May 19, 2008 1:50 pm Reply with quote
I'm exceedingly jealous of blue8e's enormous amount of shelf space! My own shelves, as seen in the last set of pictures, are almost completely full and I can't figure out a way to cram any more into my room. Sad
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Monster in a box



Joined: 05 Sep 2005
Posts: 671
PostPosted: Mon May 19, 2008 1:56 pm Reply with quote
No Dreamcast, no envy.

...but yeah, I guess I also wish I had more shelf space. Buying shelves just isn't something that I ever think of.
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Shadowrun20XX



Joined: 26 Nov 2007
Posts: 1935
Location: Vegas
PostPosted: Mon May 19, 2008 2:13 pm Reply with quote
I know what you mean about the doppleganger thing,I've seen,heard about and even worked with people who looked like me.Very creepy

I own that latest Appleseed movie and have still,yet to watch it.I impulse buy a lot of things that I'll probably never get around to watching.Same goes for games.

Shelves:Nice shelves Shinoga,my collection was that big at one point.blue8e's room looks like you could rent out manga and make a killing.I would hella chill on a plush dog like that and read the day away,very nice.Jonathan you may have a ton of DVD's in a bloated space,but nothing says hardcore more than the Saturn with the PAR cartridge.I had that Evil Twin poster back in the day,too bad it was canceled for the U.S.Good Job. Very Happy
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Zin5ki



Joined: 06 Jan 2008
Posts: 6680
Location: London, UK
PostPosted: Mon May 19, 2008 2:17 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
I'm always happy to see someone else besides me use the Oxford comma.

Bah to you. Those extra commas will come back to haunt you.
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Mohawk52



Joined: 16 Oct 2003
Posts: 8202
Location: England, UK
PostPosted: Mon May 19, 2008 2:31 pm Reply with quote
Zin5ki wrote:
Quote:
I'm always happy to see someone else besides me use the Oxford comma.

Bah to you. Those extra commas will come back to haunt you.
That's proper Queen's English for you. It's what I was taught. Wink
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malik_chan



Joined: 07 Mar 2008
Posts: 134
PostPosted: Mon May 19, 2008 2:32 pm Reply with quote
Hmmm... Star Trek novels... And Sienfeld... not anime or manga in the least... and not something I care to see in Shelf Obsessed. Seriously, I like to see the amount of anime and manga you people have when I see Shelf Obsessed, not how much of a nerd you are.

But the second person's collection: AWESOME! I don't even like that many series, and if I did... I'd lack the space for them all.
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Murasakisuishou



Joined: 22 Jun 2006
Posts: 1469
Location: NE Ohio
PostPosted: Mon May 19, 2008 2:47 pm Reply with quote
Sometimes I wish I could lay aside my Appleseed manga fandom and actually enjoy the movies; Ex Machina was really a lot of fun, but I absolutely could not get over the fact that Tereus wasn't black.

I'll probably end up checking out Vexille, at least for the animation. To Netflix!
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Keonyn
Subscriber



Joined: 25 May 2005
Posts: 5567
Location: Coon Rapids, MN
PostPosted: Mon May 19, 2008 2:49 pm Reply with quote
The review of Vexille comes as no surprise to me. As much as I love anime when it comes to how they do series', I find anime movies to be lacking the majority of the time. It usually always comes down to the same issues presented in Vexille; a poorly written story that doesn't adequately tie events together and often leaves loose ends and forgotten story. Origin is another recent anime movie that embodies these exact same problems.

Honestly, I found Ex Machina to be disappointing as well. It seemed too much like an excuse to thrust action at the viewer; more so than the last one. There were also glaring discrepancies between the first and the second, like character appearances, and voice changes in the sub and the dub (more so in the dub, but they both have more than they should).
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Murasakisuishou



Joined: 22 Jun 2006
Posts: 1469
Location: NE Ohio
PostPosted: Mon May 19, 2008 3:02 pm Reply with quote
Keonyn wrote:

Honestly, I found Ex Machina to be disappointing as well.... There were also glaring discrepancies between the first and the second, like character appearances, and voice changes in the sub and the dub (more so in the dub, but they both have more than they should).


Ex Machina wasn't supposed to be a sequel; it was supposed to be a "the first film wasn't that great and the animation looked like crap, let's start over and fix some of the things we did wrong" movie, hence why a lot of the characters looked completely different. Also, the total overhaul of voices in the dub is due to the fact that the first one was licensed by Geneon and dubbed by Animaze/the ZRO Limit crew, and Ex Machina was licensed by Warner Bros. and given a vastly inferior ADV dub.
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Teriyaki Terrier



Joined: 26 Mar 2008
Posts: 5689
PostPosted: Mon May 19, 2008 3:03 pm Reply with quote
Interesting review though, none the less.

I don't know if you remember saying this in your column Bamboo, but I took your friends advice and poped about seven halls yesterday. In one of your articles (Maybe when you had reviewed the first volume of xxxholic?) you wrote you had a friend's dad would always say "Pop a halls son".

Lets just say enough of those and food will taste lemony or try out your tongue when you have to do work outside.

Please take care, I look forward to next week's review. Don't work too hard in the heat now please.

Edit: April 21, 2008 that is the article I was talking about. I took your advice whole heartingly, although I am sure some people might have thought I was strange.
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driverstart



Joined: 23 Jul 2007
Posts: 214
Location: America
PostPosted: Mon May 19, 2008 3:26 pm Reply with quote
I'm interested in none of the DVDs reviewed, when are you guys going to get around to Shuffle Vol. 3, the rest of the School Rumble series, and some more Bleach & Death Note?

Wow, those 3 have some great collections. In grand total of everything I have seen from the collections, I have Pretty Face, Castle in the Sky, Cardcaptor Sakura, Mushishi, School Rumble, Banjo-Tootie, Love Hina, Naruto, Negima, The Prince of Tennis, Ranma ½, Tsubasa, Bleach, Case Closed, Chrono Crusade, Death Note, Ghost Hunt, and Hayate the Combat Butler. As you can see, I own a lot of series and DVDs.
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teh*darkness



Joined: 16 Feb 2007
Posts: 901
PostPosted: Mon May 19, 2008 3:26 pm Reply with quote
My major complaint with Ex Machina was the dubtitling. The movie itself was fun to watch and a huge step up from Appleseed (especially on Blu-Ray), but when the subtitles aren't matching what I'm hearing for 15%-20% of the movie, there's something wrong there.
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Big Hed



Joined: 04 May 2006
Posts: 1607
Location: Melbourne, Australia
PostPosted: Mon May 19, 2008 4:06 pm Reply with quote
Some nice shelves this week, to be sure. One thing I found funny was the absence of a PS3 in Shinoga's pictures (are you planning on purchasing one, or is it destined to remain on store shelves?).

Ex Machina: Definitely a lot of fun to watch; I agree, the background art was incredible, and the CG overall was of a very high standard. Unlike Keonyn, though, I wasn't really bothered by the significant character design changes that showed up. After all, people do change (Hitmoi in particular benefitted, I think).

Having said that, the english recasting of Briareos was simply bad. I much preferred James Lyon's performance in the 2004 movie.

Finally, Ex Machina is meant to be able to be interpreted as a sequel to established fans, and as a standalone to new comers. It's been stated in various interviews with Aramaki, and is evident from the reconstruction occurring on Tartarus.

Vexille: In terms of story, I think this actually fared slightly better than Ex Machina. Having said that, the narrative presented here wasn't stellar, to be sure -- I just think the problem lay more in viewers having to make certain connections on their own rather than said connections being implausible. Vexille infiltrated Japan as per her original orders, and found that her mission needed to change once she was inside. The technological aspects of the movie were played out well, I think though, as was the setting. spoiler[the unveiling of an utterly ravaged Japan was a pretty effective twist, I thought] -- it certainly looked good.

However, I may be biased by the fact that I initially saw Vexille on the big screen back in December, so I'll have to re-watch the movie when I pick up the DVD.

Hell Girl: I'm still totally on the fence about this show. It sounds like it could be interesting, and certainly the last volume sounds good, but I'm not so sure if I want to watch all the episodic content. This isn't to say I dislike episodic series at all, but I'm caught up in purchasing so many other shows that feature an enduring storyline, which I ultimately prefer over episodic shows; hence, this is something of a backburner title for me.
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