Forum - View topicBest World-Building Tournament: Concluded!
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zawa113
 Posts: 7358 |
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A-17: Twelve Kingdoms
Wow, this is a hard vote! I adore both series, but I'm going with Twelve Kingdoms for much the same reason I voted Dustbin over Glie last time (not that it did much good). Mushishi has great atmosphere, but we don't exactly learn about the world itself so much as the mushi there. Yes, the mushi mostly are the world if you want to look at it that way, but the mushi also don't really have a totally set structure going on with them, they're pretty well capable of doing whatever the ep calls for. Twelve Kingdoms on the other hand has both the fantasy atmosphere thing that's awesome and this entire political system with tons of detail. There's weird details on everything all over the place on top of it, from how babies are born to how people can be immortal sometimes, and a lot of other things. A-18: Stern Bild City I didn't vote for Aqua last time, I'm not going to here either. Same reasoning as last time, for me, Aqua is like looking through someone else's Venice vacation photos and videos on Facebook. Far more interesting for the person who went on the vacation than for me viewing it. Fortunately, I am more than comfortable voting for Stern Bild, only halfway through the series (so if anyone posts any spoilers, you'd better put them in tags!), but the super hero thing and how it affects the city is really fascinating, yet it also feels like that's what would happen in today's society. A-19: Land of the Beast Gods These are both shows I rather dislike, so personal feelings won't really interfere for me. So I'm going with the setting that I actually remember, which is Land of the Beast Gods. Actually at work today, I saw someone's wallet had one of the kodama on it, that scene was quite cool. A-20: Macross Universe Maybe I'm biased here, because I've only seen Macross and not the other two, but it's a vast universe that starts from a single island and as later entries in the series come in, each place has its own unique feel yet still feels like part of the same universe. Of course, one must mention the SDF Macross itself from the original series. I'm still not entirely sure if they had like, a farming spot in there because how else could they feed an entire population for at least a year, but the city literally rebuilds itself. Then it has to do it again in a way that nothing will get smashed when the SDF transforms, most transforming things don't have to worry about smashing things inside. But there's also an arcade, video phone services, shops, restaurants, its own broadcasting system and pop idols, it really is a very lively city that I'd totally want to live in, it's one of my selects for "anime places I'd like to live", but only after Digimon and Pokemon, naturally. |
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marie-antoinette
 Posts: 4136 Location: Ottawa, Canada |
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Well, with Spice & Wolf's demise, I think my mini-game is officially toast. Boo for people saying GitS should be nominated for so long without actually nominating it, since it definitely should have been a seed.
Also, Key, the guide entry link for Stern Bild City is wrong (it should be http://www.usaanime.us/World-Building/SternBildCity.html). Group A-17 Twelve Kingdoms, The Twelve Kingdoms Mushishi's been on my to-watch list for awhile and the look and feel of its world is one of the reasons I most want to watch it. However, the originality of 12K is going to be tough to compete with (although it's execution has flaws that will hurt it later, I'm sure) and I don't feel like Mushishi is quite up to the task. Group A-18 Aqua, Aria franchise Eh, I'm not wowed by either of these competitors, either of which I'm sure will be trampled on next round by the A-17 winner. I'm voting against the one I've seen because I really don't remember there being anything interesting about Stern Bild City and I did watch a decent amount of the first episodes. Group A-19 Land of the Beast Gods, Princess Mononoke Still going with Mononoke, since the world was about the only thing from this movie that left a favourable impression on me. Group A-20 World of Wolf’s Rain, Wolf’s Rain I consider Wolf's Rain to be one of the strongest worlds out there, certainly the strongest in this group that I've seen. It definitely deserves to win this round and go even further. |
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18194 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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Thanks for the catch, marie-antoinette; I copy these set-ups from a source Word document and apparently caught that error at the "posting into forums" stage rather than the source document last round.
Group A-17 Twelve Kingdoms, The Twelve Kingdoms vs. World of Mushishi, Mushishi The Twelve Kingdoms is just too expansive and well-developed a s etting for even the intriguing nature of the mushi to seriously challenge it here. Group A-18 Stern Bild City, Tiger and Bunny vs. Aqua, Aria franchise Stern Bild City is one of the most fantastic visual imaginings of a city in anime, and the way super-hero culture is so firmly and deeply ingrained into it gives the franchise an additional boost. Group A-19 Land of the Beast Gods, Princess Mononoke vs. 18th Century France, Le Chevalier d’Eon Not an easy choice, since both do a great job of recreating historical periods with supernatural aspects spliced in, but I feel a bit more immersed in Land of the Beast Gods so it gets the nod here. Group A-20 Academy City, A Certain Magical Index franchise vs. World of Wolf’s Rain, Wolf’s Rain vs. Macross Universe, Macross franchise For me this is a Macross/Index choice, and a tricky one at that. I am giving Academy City a slight edge because the way its series delve into the details and complications of such a large esper population, as well as examining the way those without powers feel left out, gives it a bit more depth. |
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marie-antoinette
Posts: 4136 Location: Ottawa, Canada |
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You're very welcome. Btw, is this the round where all choices have to be justified or is that still to come? |
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Unicorn_Blade
 Posts: 1153 Location: UK |
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Group A-17
World of Mushishi, Mushishi Iwill go with Mushishi becuse that's the one that grabbed my attention and where I really felt immersed. There was something enchanting about the world in which human an mushi coexist. Magical, lyrical, very powerful. Although it looks simple at first, each episode unfolds new kinds of mushi and ways they interact with their surroundings. Group A-18 Stern Bild City, Tiger and Bunny I liked Aria, but thats about it. From the write up its contender looks more complex. Group A-19 Land of the Beast Gods, Princess Mononoke I'm going with Mononoke as I am more familiar with it, and I really enjoyed the way Miyazaki used the Japanese folk religion as a background to the story. After so many years from watching it is still one of the most beautiful things I have seen, and the scenes with Moonwalker going back to sleep still give me chills. Group A-20 World of Wolf’s Rain, Wolf’s Rain Wolf's Rain on al fronts. First, I loved the cycle the world was following about- the constant revival and destruction, a world doomed to fail, but still offering a hope that one day someone will be able to break the vicious cycle. Or maybe one of the things that are the most interesting is that the world if flawed, and that the mythical paradise is not actually necessary? |
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Animegomaniac
Posts: 4083 |
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Group A-17
Twelve Kingdoms, The Twelve Kingdoms vs. World of Mushishi, Mushishi The Twelve Kingdoms over the world with mushishi. While neither come to a point or much of anything but setting, at least Twelve Kingdoms tried; Mushishi may as well be "Travels with Fungi". Besides, the mushishi seem to range from single cell organisms gone large to Lovecraftian Gods ... to ghosts... to whatever the story calls for; That's not setting, that's ... I think it's Mad Libs. What's left is Medieval Japan removed of all the interesting stuff. Group A-18 Stern Bild City, Tiger and Bunny vs. Aqua, Aria franchise Aqua over SternBild City. Athene's company is called "Orange Planet" rather than "Red Planet" because the changed atmosphere brought about a new view on the fourth planet. The flashback episodes of the first season showed quite well how arduous the process of turning Mars into Aqua was. In contrast, Sternbild City is just a place for superheroes to hang out, save people and look cool- how is that different from Metropolis or Gotham? NYC or Tokyo, ok, go on and tell me what they mean to the city but here, it doesn't fly. Group A-19 Land of the Beast Gods, Princess Mononoke vs. 18th Century France, Le Chevalier d’Eon Land of the Beast Gods over, I can't even say it. Group A-20 Academy City, A Certain Magical Index franchise vs. World of Wolf’s Rain, Wolf’s Rain vs. Macross Universe, Macross franchise[/quote] Academy City? The city of research scientists in world that also has magic doesn't research magic. In fact, they doesn't even believe in it despite all evidence to contrary, including psychic powers bordering on magic or "open mindedness" versus "arbitrary skepticism", the measure of true scientists. Fail. Wolf's Rain where they're only "wolves" when it's suitably tragic? "They got hands and they know how to use them..." Fails a spot check constantly. Macross Universe? Macross Universe. |
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Aylinn
 Posts: 1684 |
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Twelve Kingdoms
Mushishi is an excellent show, but its main strength lies in the portrayal of people and their stories. The setting is beautiful background for them, but it doesn’t make a great world-building. Stern Bild City Aqua is nice to look at, but ultimately not so interesting as far as world-building is concerned. We get some history, there is some magic and advanced technology, but they are just part of the beautiful background and magic remains unexplained. Strange things happen and that’s it. And while Stern Bild City isn’t living up to its potential, it is still more intriguing with its idea what it would be like if a city had its own group of superheroes. Land of the Beast Gods It seemed more interesting. Academy City The idea of having magic and espers is interesting. The first season of Toaru did a good enough job to make me curious about it. Even though I dropped the second season, because of the increased amount of fanservice and stupid, repetitive jokes about Toma landing on someone’s breasts or a girl falling in a way that would show her pants, etc while the quality of the plot were falling, these elements are not connected with the world, so it gets my vote. Last edited by Aylinn on Fri Nov 29, 2013 3:35 am; edited 3 times in total |
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One-Eye
 Posts: 2261 |
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Group A-17
Twelve Kingdoms, The Twelve Kingdoms vs. World of Mushishi, Mushishi I have my issues with 12K. Not a really complete story, at times some quick out of the blue turn arounds by characters, annoying recap episodes, things in the setting that are not really explained but feel dropped in by the creator cause maybe its cool, etc. I thought it was good, but it was not a masterpiece for me. Still, there is world building and it can be detailed at times. Voting for Twelve Kingdoms, The Twelve Kingdoms Group A-18 Stern Bild City, Tiger and Bunny vs. Aqua, Aria franchise I think I might be one of the few people who is not that impressed with Tiger and Bunny. I think it failed to live up to the potential of its first episode and turned into an ok show. However, and with apologies to Aria fans since I have not seen the show, the description of Aqua doesn't really grab me much. It seems like it might be a nice place to take a vacation to, relax and see the sights. But what else is there? So, I'm going with the show I'm more familiar with here. Voting for Stern Bild City, Tiger and Bunny. Group A-19 Land of the Beast Gods, Princess Mononoke vs. 18th Century France, Le Chevalier d’Eon Kind of a tough one here. But I'm reminded of the first time I saw the PM movie and the almost alien quality of the stag god. How the other gods had their particular traits and personalities. How the environmental message is not a completely black and white issue as each group has its reasons and motivations. How everyone is distinctively garbed and most importantly how I always felt immersed in the setting. Chevalier just doesn't have that immersive quality for me. Voting for Land of the Beast Gods, Princess Mononoke. Group A-20 Academy City, A Certain Magical Index franchise vs. World of Wolf’s Rain, Wolf’s Rain vs. Macross Universe, Macross franchise The magic vs esper thing never really worked for me in the Index show. Academy city was a little stronger in the Railgun series, but also felt a little cliched at times. I just don't think Academy City holds up against its two other opponents. This is kind of difficult. I haven't seen Macross in a long, long time and I didn't see every single derivation of it. I do remember somethings turning me off though. At the end of the day I ask myself which show would I watch again? Well, probably Wolf's Rain. Kind of like NGE its a re-watch once every 5 to 7 years. Not something I would put myself thru every year, but its more than I can say for the other two shows. Voting for World of Wolf’s Rain, Wolf’s Rain. |
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Errinundra
Moderator
 Posts: 6528 Location: Melbourne, Oz |
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Group A-17
Twelve Kingdoms, The Twelve Kingdoms vs. World of Mushishi, Mushishi While MushiShi is the better series and its world stranger and more evocative, I'm going with Twelve Kingdoms, The Twelve Kingdoms because, despite its contrivances, it's one of the most fleshed-out scenarios in anime. The contrived rules behind its creation aren't enough to have me vote against it here. Group A-18 Stern Bild City, Tiger and Bunny vs. Aqua, Aria franchise Frankly, to me it beggars belief that anyone who has seen both these series would consider voting for Stern Bild City ahead of Aqua, Aria franchise. Stern Bild City is just a prop (albeit a very pretty one). Where's the backstory of how it came to be? Do we get to meet anyone outside the superhero coterie? There's no exploring of the city or the everyday people who live in it or how it runs economically. It's just there in the background while shounen jocks disguised as grown-up men belt the crap out of each other. What to the women in the city do? Where are the women in the city? The story is bilge and the world building is superficial. Over two years I wrote this in my post about Tiger and Bunny in the What are you watching right now? Why? thread just after I'd watched it:
Group A-19 Land of the Beast Gods, Princess Mononoke vs. 18th Century France, Le Chevalier d’Eon I'm going for Land of the Beast Gods, Princess Mononoke because, while being a movie and thus lacking the running time to explore its world as much as a TV series can, Le Chevalier d'Eon never manages to quite shake of its aura of silliness. It never quite manages to be serious enough or, for that matter, silly enough. Group A-20 Academy City, A Certain Magical Index franchise vs. World of Wolf’s Rain, Wolf’s Rain vs. Macross Universe, Macross franchise I'll stick with World of Wolf’s Rain, Wolf’s Rain for the reason I gave last round. The summary for Academy City doesn't do enough to convince me to pick that ahead of the other two. |
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Furudanuki
 Posts: 1874 |
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Group A-17
Twelve Kingdoms, The Twelve Kingdoms As a series overall, I'll take Mushishi every time, however The Twelve Kingdoms invests a lot of time and effort in putting its world together. There is not a shortage of improbabilities, but it all seems to mesh as a whole. Group A-18 Aqua, Aria franchise I must echo these sentiments:
For those who opine that Aqua is nothing more than Neo Venezia I can only assume that they have either not watched the entirety of the anime, or that they have missed/forgotten episodes featuring: the floating island used for atmospheric control, the underground city where the artificial gravity is maintained, the countryside where Grandma lives, islands established as cultural preservation sites (the Inari shrine episode), Neo-Burano Island, Aqua of the past during the days of terraforming, and the hidden mystical side of Aqua represented by the Kingdom of the Cats. Group A-19 Land of the Beast Gods, Princess Mononoke Princess Mononoke lacked the time to flesh out its setting in the manner it truly deserved, but it still made the most of what it had. I can't quite say the same about Le Chevalier d’Eon. Group A-20 Macross Universe, Macross franchise None of these three rank especially highly in my opinion so I'm simply going to vote for the one that has given my more enjoyment on the whole. |
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Dorcas_Aurelia
 Posts: 5344 Location: Philly |
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Right, so, really late with the scores this week, but I'm blaming Thanksgiving and that I hate having to mess with my spreadsheet to accommodate three-way match ups.
Results. Round D2 threw a people off a little more than usual, with Daikuuriku's win catching a majority off guard, and Spice and Wolf vs. GitS was a pretty even split, too. I'm the only person who predicted all 8 matches correctly, but 5 people were only 1 off. |
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Dorcas_Aurelia
Posts: 5344 Location: Philly |
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Group A-17
Twelve Kingdoms, The Twelve Kingdoms vs. World of Mushishi, Mushishi Choosing: Twelve Kingdoms I've said previously that I find Mushi-shi's world lacking in connectedness. The mushi are fascinating, but wildly different from one another, and there's no overlap in mushi from one episode to the next. Twelve Kingdoms has an issue that will probably keep me from voting for it much longer, but for now, the depth and bredth of culture, politics, and fauna it creates far outweigh what Mushi-shi has. Group A-18 Stern Bild City, Tiger and Bunny vs. Aqua, Aria franchise Choosing: Stern Bild City Between super-powers, the city itself, and character backstory and drama, Tiger and Bunny seems a stronger choice. Group A-19 Land of the Beast Gods, Princess Mononoke vs. 18th Century France, Le Chevalier d’Eon Choosing: 18th Century Europe This is a hard choice, but I think Chevalier's ability to take real historical people and places and twist them into a macabre revision of history is a little more impressive. Group A-20 Academy City, A Certain Magical Index franchise vs. World of Wolf’s Rain, Wolf’s Rain vs. Macross Universe, Macross franchise Choosing: Macross Universe Macross has the advantage of being a large enough franchise to have inter-series references and have them be in-universe historical events. |
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farichada
 Posts: 303 Location: Wisconsin, USA |
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Group A-17
Twelve Kingdoms, The Twelve Kingdoms vs. World of Mushishi, Mushishi Stranger and more mysterious yes the world of mushi doesn't compare well at all to Twelve Kingdoms in sheer detail and complexity. Also the setting of Mushishi is mainly only interesting for the mushi and the focus is on the episodic and character driven storytelling, not the case in 12k where the world plays a major role. Group A-18 Stern Bild City, Tiger and Bunny vs. Aqua, Aria franchise Meh, Stern Build City is a great but still archetypical hero setting. Aqua,serves as more than a prop and arena which I felt was the purpose behind Stern Build City more often than not. Aqua places more emphasis on world exploration, which makes the world more interesting and cements the setting as more than backdrop for battle. Group A-19 Land of the Beast Gods, Princess Mononoke vs. 18th Century France, Le Chevalier d’Eon Land of the Beast Gods, Princess Mononoke because, while being a movie and thus lacking in content the world is so much more breathtaking and alluring in its first impression than the quirky hodgepodge of themes/genres crammed into setting of Le Chevalier. Group A-20 Academy City, A Certain Magical Index franchise vs. World of Wolf’s Rain, Wolf’s Rain vs. Macross Universe, Macross franchise World of Wolf’s Rain with Macross not far behind. Macross is a tad too cheesy and the Index world doesn't have the arguments behind it to convince me. |
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Beltane70
 Posts: 3888 |
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Group A-17
Twelve Kingdoms, The Twelve Kingdoms vs. World of Mushishi, Mushishi Again, voting for Twelve Kingdoms based solely on its reputation. Group A-18 Stern Bild City, Tiger and Bunny vs. Aqua, Aria franchise Having seen only half of Tiger and Bunny and nothing of Aria, I'm voting for Stern Bild City since I know at least a little about the setting. Group A-19 Land of the Beast Gods, Princess Mononoke vs. 18th Century France, Le Chevalier d’Eon Voting for Land of the Beast Gods, again because of the familiarity of Princess Mononoke. Group A-20 Academy City, A Certain Magical Index franchise vs. World of Wolf’s Rain, Wolf’s Rain vs. Macross Universe, Macross franchise As with the last round it was in, I'm again voting for the Macross Universe since I feel it's much more fleshed out than Wolf’s Rain. Plus, I've seen nothing of Railgun/Index. |
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rosebrook11
 Posts: 1181 |
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Group A-17
Twelve Kingdoms, The Twelve Kingdoms vs. World of Mushishi, Mushishi Twelve Kingdoms I've only seen abou half of the show, but it does an amzing job at describing its setting. Mushishi's world building is more in a general spiritual regard and isn't as strong as the one in Twelve Kingdoms. Group A-18 Stern Bild City, Tiger and Bunny vs. Aqua, Aria franchise This one was the hardest one for me. I've seen all of Tiger and Bunny and I'm the one who nominated it, but I know that it's far from the strongest competitor in the tournament and the arguments for Aqua have been very well stated even though I've never seen the show. I'll give the vote to Aqua because while I love Tiger and Bunny and do love the setting, they still could have expanded on the city itself. I remember while writing the write-up I had to look up a lot of extra details, because I couldn't remember a lot off the top of my head for things that didn't directly relate to the NEXTS and Hero TV. Group A-19 Land of the Beast Gods, Princess Mononoke vs. 18th Century France, Le Chevalier d’Eon 18th Century France I love the world building in both of these, but Le Chevalier had something special for me in how it was able to make it's own story by expanding on an existing setting. I don't think it should go down without a single vote. Group A-20 Academy City, A Certain Magical Index franchise vs. World of Wolf’s Rain, Wolf’s Rain vs. Macross Universe, Macross franchise World of Wolf's Rain Academy City is very fun, but a lot of it appears to be wasted potential. I think it's a weaker competitor than both the Macross Universe and Wolf's Rain. I voted for Wolf's Rain last time because of how much I love it's subtle story telling and how that subtly integrates itself into the world building. When watching it for the first time, I was surprised at how much the viewers learn as they watch it without initially realizing that they are learning anything and then it all comes together to form the world that the show takes place in. |
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