Forum - View topicThe Mike Toole Show - Cover Story
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invalidname
 Contributor Posts: 2451 Location: Grand Rapids, MI |
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Oh, you know I have to mention Rumbling Hearts here, right? That box art is so glassy-eyed and precious, and some international editions are even dippier. You'd have no idea that after the second episode, this makes a hard left into alcoholism, PTSD, and sexual infidelity. The 2003 Fall preview guide is almost comical in how fully it falls for the red herring first episode, but when a show trolls you this hard, what are you gonna do?
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Ali07
 Posts: 3333 Location: Victoria, Australia |
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I'm also a fan. But, there is one thing that, for me, is a glaring problem through most of it. And, that is my perception of Pacifica. With almost all the arcs (and I was glad that the last arc was most of the 2nd half of the series, Pacifica seemed to learn a lesson and would act less bratty...until the next arc and that side of her character seemed to be reset. Still, loved the series overall. Hope it gets a licence rescue, as the Bandai releases are hard to find and seem to be priced at the $90USD mark. Also, I didn't like the first episode either. But, I was checking it out due to enjoying the first season of Chaika, and decided to watch it between the 2 Chaika seasons.
I wish I dropped it during the 'robot monster business'. I stuck it out instead, and realised I only enjoyed the first arc. Just felt like that everything they seemed to be building in the first arc just got thrown out and they went for a 'wackier' ride with the later arcs. Not sure why I decided to stick it out, as I can't say I was enjoying the later arcs. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11406 |
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That anime was so bad it made me avoid anything with Hearts in the title unless word of mouth changed my mind. |
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kazenoyume
Posts: 425 |
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Wrongioli. SF was planned the way it was from the beginning. The 'jumping the shark point', the Flamengers arc is in one of the first promo shots released for the series, months before it aired. You can see the Flamengers vehicles in the air above the core cast, indisputably. The toku arc is 100% meant to be a loving parody, and it's extremely silly to say it isn't. It can be about what it means to be a hero AND have parody elements. These things are not mutually exclusive. As for it not selling enough copies to warrant it, SF has a far larger fandom than a lot of other series they've released. It's not huge, but it's dedicated, and almost all of us would shell out the $$ for it. If stuff like Meganebu can get released over here, then no SF is a joke. And SOMEONE realized that, because Great Eastern is producing US release Samurai Flamenco merchandise, something that many titles get none of. You can see a few items here http://www.geanimation.com/infoonly/characters_list.aspx?CharacterID=343 |
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Eisenmann V
Posts: 212 |
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As far as Samurai Flamenco goes, it changes identities often enough that I'd almost prefer to grade it by the 6 or so arcs it has. The opening 6 episodes were some of my favorite anime of the season, and while I didn't necessarily welcome the genre shift, I didn't mind it too much when the King Torture and From Beyond arcs happened. I found the Prime Minister arc a little too ham-fisted in its attempt at satire, and the Alien episodes felt like the writers were out of ideas so they threw out something crazy. Overall, though, I didn't regret watching the show until the final arc.
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kevinx59
 Posts: 959 Location: In sunny California |
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I'd add Yuki Yuna and Wixoss from last year. I was expecting a cute fantasy from the former, and an edgy dark series from the latter. To be fair Wixoss was dark, but I didn't expect it to actually be that crazy. In the end I loved both series (and definitely prefer them to Madoka). |
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enurtsol
 Posts: 14784 |
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Would ya guys believe some people were laughing at Cowboy Bebop at first?
Still happens with Tiger & Bunny. 
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zawa113
 Posts: 7358 |
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Damn, so was I the only one who didn't immediately like Scrapped Princess? I almost feel guilty (though I joined the fandom eventually, but there was a year gap between my watch of the first ep and the second chance I gave it)
I'm trying to think of a manga where I disliked the first volume, but once I got further in, liked it more. I feel like for every manga, I've liked it by the first volume, or at least wanted to check out more. Sure, shonen are best read in massive chunks, and most manga certain get better as they go on and flesh out setting and characters, but I'm usually at least interested by the first volume. I know a lot of people were so-so on Kekkaishi, which had merely average first few volumes before the plot really kicked in, though I liked it right away. I will say that the Fruits Basket manga wasn't at all what I expected. I only bought it because a) found a bunch of it cheap and b) when Tokyopop was closing, a lot of blogs were doing "best of Tokyopop" and this was on every list without fail. But I feel like Tokyopop always advertised it as "cute animal hugging changy feel good fluffy shojo manga!" and glanced over all the horrifically depressing back stories all the characters had. Not what I went in expecting (I feel like most characters only hug change once or twice, except Kyo and Yuki), but it was what I preferred in the end, so I'm good. |
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Maokun
Posts: 53 |
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My pick would be s-Cry-ed. It had all the ingredients of a super-mediocre action anime: inconsistent character design, sloppy animation, nonsensical name, terrible engrish lyrics, unexplained plot devices as setting and origin story, archetypical delinquent-with-a-heart-of-gold-who-never-gives-up protagonist, laughable turn of the millennium 3DCGi, etc. And I will not mislead you, it did not end becoming a super profound story full of moving human drama and thrilling narrative; not by any measure. What it ended being, though was a surprisingly fun romp with really interesting character dynamics and exciting battles, with a couple twists that managed to keep the series fresh throughout its duration.
Second pick: Angel Beats! That one did become a a super profound story full of moving human drama and thrilling narrative after a bland and derivative "Haruhi Suzumiya but in the afterlife" kind of first episode. Last edited by Maokun on Tue Mar 10, 2015 6:43 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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MorwenLaicoriel
 Posts: 1617 Location: Colorado |
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Chalk me up on the "love" side of Samurai Flamenco's hate-it-or-love-it divide. It was a HUGE roller-coaster of a ride with great characters (besides the Flamengers, who were unfortunately not super fleshed out throughout the show). Also I will completely cop to the ending making the shipper in me extremely happy.
Toradora! won me over as early as the second episode and is still one of my favorite shows, but I probably wouldn't have watched it while it was airing if it wasn't for the mostly positive reviews it got in the preview guide. It definitely looks like a typical high school romance with a boring tsundere from the promo art and synopsis. As for shows that I initially dismissed based on the cover or initial impressions, only to really enjoy later when I gave it a chance: Chihayafuru: I don't typically like sports anime (or so I thought--I also enjoyed Free! so I'm starting to reassess that belief), so I thought this would bore me. I was wrong, this is another show where the strength of the characters (plus excellent production values) really make this show something great. Love Live! School Idol Festival: I assumed this show was just otaku bait and wouldn't have any appeal to me, but similar to Chihayafuru the execution and characters (who are no where near as interesting as Chihayafuru's characters, but are written and acted really well for what they are) really won me over. To the point where I actually am considering watching other "pop idol" shows. Princess Tutu: this came out during my teenage "I'm insisting I'm a tomboy despite being super girly because I feel like I have to be 'one of the boys' to participate in geek culture" phase, so I watched a few episodes but dismissed it as shoujo fluff and decided it was too girly and lighthearted for me, and instead decided Pretear was much better because it had more action scenes (which is hilarious to me in hindsight because Pretear is the shoujoest shoujo to have ever shoujo'd). It was actually my younger brother who convinced me to give the show a chance, saying "This is exactly your thing, you need to watch this show." He was right. It's my favorite show of all time. |
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Angel'sArcanum
 Posts: 303 Location: Toronto, Ontario |
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Alright...so I guess to make it brief, a few other shows that took some time to grow on me were: Wolf's Rain which wasn't a matter of having a bad beginning, but I initially didn't go into the series with the keenest eyes so the subtle intellectual content washed over me until I re-tried watching it for the third time with sharp attention and I was head over heels for it. Noein had a bit of a drab first couple of episodes and was sci-fi in a very loose sense at the time, but once you reach episode 11ish it skyrockets for quite a while even if the final few episodes are a little tame. Lastly House of Five Leaves is a really slow burn and quite tepid in its nature that many will lose interest in very soon if they are impatient, but the rich character dynamics and the dimensions crafted to the encompassed individuals are just astounding and it ends on a haunting final act capped off with a soothing and satisfying callback ending; a mature, eloquent and finely tempered period piece and character drama.
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Eldritcho
 Posts: 260 |
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Shows that took me a while to get into?
Hmmmmm...... I suppose i'd say Princess Jellyfish. I was drawn in by the intro, expecting it to be a lot more screwball than it ended up being. But after a few episodes, I really grew to love the characters, and I found the more down to earth approach appealing. |
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EnigmaticSky
 Posts: 750 |
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Samurai Flamenco really is one of the worst series I have ever seen. The first episodes were dull, they introduce tons of characters that don't get developed, the show is far more concerned with being shocking than making sense, and the writing is just horrible in general. spoiler["Hey, Mr. Producer, how about you tell me where that girl is so I can torture her." "No, never." "But it would be super entertaining." "Wait, really? Sure then!" ]
I get watching things because they're ridiculous, but this felt more like watching a middle school play. |
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enurtsol
Posts: 14784 |
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Nah, that'd be the idol ones.
(No really, have ya seen typical dance move sets? It's what you'd normally only see in middle school plays that people only attend since their relatives are in it. Yes, I've been to more than a few, why dya ask......) |
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Desslok
Posts: 178 |
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Thank you, thank you, THANK you for pointing out Samurai Flamenco. I'd totally missed this show when it first rolled around - and now I just wasted all of Thursday powering through the series (with 2 episodes left, while I take a break).
Goddamned genius! Seriously good - and made even better not knowing anything that was coming down the pike at me. Now to go check out those other two series and see if I can capture lightning in a bottle again. (So, when is the Samurai Flamenco DVD coming out?) |
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