×
  • remind me tomorrow
  • remind me next week
  • never remind me
Subscribe to the ANN Newsletter • Wake up every Sunday to a curated list of ANN's most interesting posts of the week. read more

Forum - View topic
REVIEW: Hozuki no Reitetsu Episodes 1-7 Streaming


Goto page Previous  1, 2, 3, 4  Next

Note: this is the discussion thread for this article

Anime News Network Forum Index -> Site-related -> Talkback
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
musouka



Joined: 09 Sep 2003
Posts: 705
PostPosted: Mon Mar 10, 2014 4:14 pm Reply with quote
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 Rolling Eyes), I think if you tend to like your humor dry, the series has something for you.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
rheiders



Joined: 05 Jul 2011
Posts: 1137
Location: Colorful Colorado :)
PostPosted: Mon Mar 10, 2014 4:34 pm Reply with quote
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.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime My Manga
enurtsol



Joined: 01 May 2007
Posts: 14746
PostPosted: Mon Mar 10, 2014 5:02 pm Reply with quote
Reminds us of Brit Office.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
navycherub



Joined: 26 Oct 2007
Posts: 233
PostPosted: Mon Mar 10, 2014 5:05 pm Reply with quote
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.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Dop.L



Joined: 23 Mar 2007
Posts: 713
Location: London
PostPosted: Mon Mar 10, 2014 6:37 pm Reply with quote
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!
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
DuskyPredator



Joined: 10 Mar 2009
Posts: 15433
Location: Brisbane, Australia
PostPosted: Mon Mar 10, 2014 8:16 pm Reply with quote
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.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime My Manga
SnaphappyFMA



Joined: 14 Jan 2009
Posts: 216
Location: California
PostPosted: Mon Mar 10, 2014 8:19 pm Reply with quote
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 Very Happy). Hozuki no Reitetsu has been one of my favorites this season.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Gina Szanboti



Joined: 03 Aug 2008
Posts: 11306
PostPosted: Mon Mar 10, 2014 10:45 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
He's a logically consistent kind of character, but that just means he's consistently frosty, distant, and unfeeling. He is a singularly uninvolving lead. Not once do we root for him, feel for him, or identify with him. He's the motivating force behind the vignettes, but not a draw unto himself.

I think you must never have supervised anyone. Very Happy 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.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Durga



Joined: 21 Jun 2010
Posts: 103
PostPosted: Tue Mar 11, 2014 12:26 am Reply with quote
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.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
P(mv)rick



Joined: 21 Dec 2013
Posts: 9
PostPosted: Tue Mar 11, 2014 3:45 am Reply with quote
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
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Knoepfchen



Joined: 13 Dec 2012
Posts: 698
PostPosted: Tue Mar 11, 2014 5:52 am Reply with quote
dtm42 wrote:
It's really like a pleasant picnic on a sunny day where there's no pressure to have fun yet everyone has fun anyway.


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.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
zeo1fan



Joined: 02 Sep 2011
Posts: 1016
PostPosted: Tue Mar 11, 2014 7:43 am Reply with quote
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.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime
leatherhead333



Joined: 15 Aug 2013
Posts: 1187
Location: Kansas
PostPosted: Tue Mar 11, 2014 7:43 am Reply with quote
P(mv)rick wrote:
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


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.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
P(mv)rick



Joined: 21 Dec 2013
Posts: 9
PostPosted: Tue Mar 11, 2014 8:06 am Reply with quote
leatherhead333 wrote:
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.


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?
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Miniicy



Joined: 09 Jan 2009
Posts: 11
PostPosted: Tue Mar 11, 2014 8:10 am Reply with quote
This review, well opinions are opinions

I enjoy this show, its not a marathonner, but still
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime
Display posts from previous:   
Reply to topic    Anime News Network Forum Index -> Site-related -> Talkback All times are GMT - 5 Hours
Goto page Previous  1, 2, 3, 4  Next
Page 2 of 4

 


Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group