Forum - View topicREVIEW: Hozuki no Reitetsu Episodes 1-7 Streaming
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musouka
Posts: 705 |
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The second paragraph of this review is very, very strange. "Hell as a bureaucracy" is just the way Buddhist hell works. It wasn't inspired or created by various other anime series, and to claim it did is almost mindboggling to me. (If there was ever an argument as to the insularity of anime fans...)
Count me in as one that really enjoys the show, though it probably does help to have an interest in Chinese and Japanese mythology and literature (you know, beyond DB and YYH ), I think if you tend to like your humor dry, the series has something for you. |
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rheiders
Posts: 1137 Location: Colorful Colorado :) |
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Well, I completely disagree with the review, but I can't really say anything in response to it except to shrug my shoulders and say "Comedy is subjective." For me, every episode has been laugh-out-loud funny and it's one of the shows I look forward to most each week. It fits my bone-dry sense of humor more perfectly than any anime comedy I've seen in a while, except maybe last year's The Devil is a Part-Timer. It helps that I've been able to catch most of the cultural references.
I don't know if the show is doing something all that "different," apart from the kind of neat visuals. The jokes actually feel a lot more mainstream than most self-referential otaku-pandering anime comedies, which is one of the things I like about it. Also, the dog is really cute. |
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enurtsol
Posts: 14746 |
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Reminds us of Brit Office.
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navycherub
Posts: 233 |
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Yeah, sign me up for the complete disagreement with this review club. Everything mentioned as a negative was a positive for me, and the only segment I've found to not hit its mark so far was the second half of the episode with Beelzebub in it. The latest episode was especially hilarious.
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Dop.L
Posts: 713 Location: London |
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I think Carl must have been watching a different show to me. Because I think this is the best comedy of the season, and have regularly been rolling with laughter at each episode.
Sure, it's Very Japanese, but there are lots of references which work if you've seen enough anime, and there's plenty of weird comedy which is universal. So while some things go over my head, there's plenty that doesn't and makes me laugh. It's brilliant! |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15433 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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I can see how some people would have problems with how dry it is, it is likely to totally bore who don't like to follow the almost uninteresting happenings of the bland story.
But I actually find it very funny. Like Hozuki's conflicting traits of a kind overseer who fixes all problems in the job that everyone looks up to, and him being a merciless demon that can be teeming with anger behind his clenched teeth as he tears apart who approaches his bad side. Hozuki is practically a mystery, often appearing just serious and kind eccentric but also pretty kind, but as time goes on you start to see times where he is truly sadistic. Or maybe him being a tiny bit petty, but the way he goes about it by using precision insults or just extreme brute force. Its is slow, but if you the patience to pay attention to the dry wit and a strong interest or knowledge in the culture, it can be very entertaining. |
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SnaphappyFMA
Posts: 216 Location: California |
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Count me as another fan who loves this show (and doesn't understand the reviewer's near-complete lack of appreciation of it).
It's like slice-of-life (slice-of-hell?) with quirky characters and beautiful art. Each episode tells two stories, usually quite different stories in pacing and tone. I especially enjoy Hozuki and his never-changing look of bored displeasure no matter what's going on around him (or perhaps - because of what's going on around him ). Hozuki no Reitetsu has been one of my favorites this season. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11306 |
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I think you must never have supervised anyone. I absolutely identify with Houzuki and the odd minions he has to deal with, not to mention his boss. Many's the time I've wished for a spiked club and the authority to wield it as he does! That he has such a weapon of rage at his disposal yet contains his anger behind that icy facade is all the more interesting to me. It's ironic that the most furious-looking we ever see Houzuki is during the cheery opening song about how wonderful Hell is. He looks like he's about to bite someone's head off if his own doesn't explode first. At any rate, if Houzuki were not in this, I probably wouldn't be watching it, so yes, for me, he is a draw unto himself. I love the humor and the things I learn from each episode, and the art, and pretty much everything about this series. I've seen two reviews of it in the last week that consigned it to the depths of hell for being boring, and yet the replies to both have been overwhelmingly positive toward it. Not sure what to make of that, but I guess there's a reason why it topped this list in Japan. |
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Durga
Posts: 103 |
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I'm in the "Hozuki is kind of boring" camp. Sorry fans!
I was looking forward to this show based on the plot synopsis and art style. Couldn't muster up the urge to watch past the first 2 episodes. Hozuki himself is just too stoic a character for me to care about him. In theory, juxtaposing him with ridiculous demons should result in some good jokes. But I found that few of the jokes really landed for me or seemed to rely too heavily upon Japanese mythology. The show is very low-energy. Nothing wrong with that, and I'm glad it's not a hyper-active chipmunk "WE'RE OVERREACTING BECAUSE IT'S FUNNY." Instead of having too much energy it has not enough energy. The animals are admittedly cute though. |
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P(mv)rick
Posts: 9 |
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Let me guess. Most of the people that think Hoozuki is boring are non-Japanese people that don't have a clue about its references, huh? Well, if we don't know about its references, then that just means we're not the audience. Even I don't know the majority of them, but I still get a kick out the ones that I do know.
Humour that doesn't work for you ≠ Bad Humour |
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Knoepfchen
Posts: 698 |
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This is very much how I feel about the show as well. Also, I like the dryness, and I have a certain soft spot for stoic characters, anyway, so it works out well for me, even though I'm well aware I'm not even close to getting the most out of this show due to not understanding a significant amount of the references. Still, the atmosphere and the parts I do get have me coming back. Also, drunken, singing, pet goldfish plants. |
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zeo1fan
Posts: 1016 |
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I've been reviewing this show, as well, and I too find it to be extremely uneven. I began to notice a pattern cropping up, wherein the first half of an episode would be extremely boring and the second half would be relatively more interesting, and now it's become more wholly unbalanced. The most recent installment (the alcohol episode), for example, should've worked in theory, but the story had such a downbeat energy, and in spite of a couple of decent bits, largely didn't exploit potential the possibilities for humor where it could have. This isn't a case of me disliking dry humor. It's a case of instinctively rejecting narratives where little to nil happens.
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leatherhead333
Posts: 1187 Location: Kansas |
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That seems like an arbitrary generalization to make. The show has enough normal jokes that it's easy enough to overlook the complicated ones you wouldn't understand if you aren't invested in Japanese/Chinese culture. Heck the show makes a good amount of American/European jokes as well so it's not like it's completely one sided in that regard. Whether or not you still find those jokes funny of course is subjective. Please take note that there is no such thing as "bad humor" given how subjective humor is. That's why people need to take into account that it's the reviewers "opinion" and it's not being stated as a cold hard fact. It may not be bad humor for some but it is for others. I myself am not included as think the show is pretty good but I can see why the humor may be a miss for folks. |
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P(mv)rick
Posts: 9 |
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Even though I did say it was non-Japanese not understanding the jokes, I actually meant the references the show makes in general, and not just specifically for Japanese and Chinese cultures. No matter what country you're in, if you still don't get any of the type of references the show has (apart from the really random trivias), then it's not meant for you. This author's review is basically just screaming, "Hey, I'm not the kind of fan that this show is trying to attract, but nonetheless, I have a review of how bad this show is in my point of view." He knows the jokes aren't meant for him, yet he criticises dry humour like its bad, even when you said yourself that humour is subjective. I get that he has opinion of this show; I have a bad opinion about the Monogatari series as well, because I'm not the kind of fan it's appealing for. Does that mean I have to focus my review on why it's bad in my point of view? |
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Miniicy
Posts: 11 |
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This review, well opinions are opinions
I enjoy this show, its not a marathonner, but still |
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