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REVIEW: Infinite Stratos + Encore Blu-Ray

asimpson2006 wrote:

configspace wrote: While it did great in Japan, I have a feeling it will do pretty good, or good enough in the US and judging from our Taiwanese friend earlier, elsewhere as well Well right now it is sitting 7 on the Top sellers for anime BD's on Amazon so I guess it is doing alright for itself. I'm sure it is dong okay for RightStuf and RACS.

RACS sold out completely according to their news letter. They also stated Sentai had to order another print run. So I guess it should be doing pretty well.

Personally, whether or not you like this show, I think you should be rooting for it to do well. If it does, Sentai might be more inclined to include the level of extra features it did on other series.

Yeah right, dtm42 reacts to the single episode he saw as if it was one of the worst show's ever created, yet I'm the one over-reacting? What ever you say, dude.

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Its not surprising that most American fans "just don't get it", but this is one of those shows that the Japanese will love. It did everything right in pandering.

Given how well it's selling, clearly some American fans do "get it". This show is popular with the /a/ and /jp/ crowd I'll bet.

Chagen46 wrote:

Quote: Its not surprising that most American fans "just don't get it", but this is one of those shows that the Japanese will love. It did everything right in pandering. Given how well it's selling, clearly some American fans do "get it". This show is popular with the /a/ and /jp/ crowd I'll bet.

Well yeah, it was the 2nd most talked about show of Winter 2011 on /a/ (only Madoka beat it), and they still have popular general topics about it these days for people who read the novel. /a/ is kinda like the target demographic of this show.

And while I'm not a huge fan of it (I think its above average harem but there are still better ones out there), probably the best thing to come out of it is the major doujin scene... thats another thing a lot of Americans don't seem to care as much about.

Blood- wrote:

Yeah right, dtm42 reacts to the single episode he saw as if it was one of the worst show's ever created, yet I'm the one over-reacting? What ever you say, dude.

I also thought it was a complete turd based on the first ep (IIRC I gave it a 1.5 in that Preview Guide). Notice that I didn't rate it too much higher than that in this review, and I thought about giving it an even lower grade; for me, the only thing keeping the writing score above a D is that I actually liked some of the Charlotte/Ichika interactions. Thus I think it's fantastically unlikely that dtm42 would have had his opinion changed by watching any more of the series, so in this case I'm totally fine with the spot judgment.

I also thought it was a complete turd based on the first ep (IIRC I gave it a 1.5 in that Preview Guide). Notice that I didn't rate it too much higher than that in this review, and I thought about giving it an even lower grade; for me, the only thing keeping the writing score above a D is that I actually liked some of the Charlotte/Ichika interactions. Thus I think it's fantastically unlikely that dtm42 would have had his opinion changed by watching any more of the series, so in this case I'm totally fine with the spot judgment.

For the record, I also had a big problem with the more scientific aspects you mentioned. The emphasis placed on "shields" suggests that invisible force field-like projections are protecting the pilot, but this is still more magic than technology.

And there's nothing to "get". It's a generic harem show with a dense protagonist and mecha shoved in. You harems fans always act like there's some special thing about harems that us other people just don't get. That's not it. We just don't like them.

Chagen46 wrote:

And there's nothing to "get". It's a generic harem show with a dense protagonist and mecha shoved in. You harems fans always act like there's some special thing about harems that us other people just don't get. That's not it. We just don't like them.

I like harem anime when the protagonist and female cast doesn't annoy me with how unlikeable they are. Ladies Versus Butlers and Qwaser are good examples for what I want harem anime to do, Mayo Chiki and IS aren't. If you're going to have girls falling for a guy, at least have the common courtesy to fill it with nudity and raunch.

Chagen46 wrote:

And there's nothing to "get". It's a generic harem show with a dense protagonist and mecha shoved in. You harems fans always act like there's some special thing about harems that us other people just don't get. That's not it. We just don't like them.

I like harem anime when the protagonist and female cast doesn't annoy me with how unlikeable they are. Ladies Versus Butlers and Qwaser are good examples for what I want harem anime to do, Mayo Chiki and IS aren't. If you're going to have girls falling for a guy, at least have the common courtesy to fill it with nudity and raunch. I'm more offended by shows that have characters falling into ecchi situations with zero payoff, which hurt Korean Zombie and the first series of To Love-Ru. At least TLRD recovers the fumble and brings the story to new places.

I found the first episode of Infinite Stratos to be so incredibly offensive I struggled to make it to the end (of the episode).

or the general level of writing which was so akin to garbage it reeked of a hobo who's spent the past decade in a sewer.

The show deserves to be consigned to the museum of nineteenth-century torture devices, as it is so out-of-date that you'd have to go back to the eighteenth century just to find the last time any of the show's crappy elements were considered half-way fresh.

Where're the helmets? Where're the goggles? Where're the pressure suits and oxygen masks? The pilot is exposed to the elements and to enemy attacks, which is crazy. And did you notice that all the weight of the mecha's arms and its weapons are being held up with the pilot's own arms and not the arms of the mecha itself? Wow, those girls must be really capable of pumping iron if they can take the recoil of those big guns and swing the giant swords with that much force using their own flesh-and-blood arms.

I was too busy being blown away by Puella Magi Madoka Magica (they both aired in the same season)

So unsheltered flight is bad, but huge bipedal mechas (which would collapse under their own weight as per the Square Cube Law, and are impractical from a military standpoint) in other shows like Gasaraki, your all-time favorite RahXephon, Gundam, Evangelion, etc. are completely okay?

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So unsheltered flight is bad, but huge bipedal mechas (which would collapse under their own weight as per the Square Cube Law, and are impractical from a military standpoint) in other shows like Gasaraki, your all-time favorite RahXephon, Gundam, Evangelion, etc. are completely okay?

I don't think that's his point. His point is that the Mecha in IS are funtionally ridiculous and them working correctly is practically dependent on magic, which sticks out sorely in a work trying to be a midly-serious sci-fi work.

Other works like Eva, Gundam, hell, even Gurren Lagann have onsistent in-story reasons for why their mecha work. The reasons may not e scientific at all, but that matters less than consistency. Apparently IS does not even come up with a Techno-babble explination.

Also, the sheer idea that "only girls can pilot" them is ridiculous. And the MC gets to be the only male who can? Can we say "Mary Sue"?