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Shelf Life - The Other 1/2

EricJ2 wrote:

back in the days when US anime was either inscrutable failed art features like Streamline, cheap failed OAV's which were the only thing small startup companies could get their hands on,

Hey! Dominion Tank Police! Devil Hunter Yohko! Patlabor! Project A-ko!

EricJ2 wrote:

Once Viz hit the shelves--to cash in on the manga fans and say "Ranma talks!"--every company had to have one long-run comedy series. Software Sculptor's Slayers also became one of the first nutty audience-friendly comedies to hit the mainstream stores, and also became an instant thing in the US,

Slayers was also the first to come out with 4-eps per VHS volume below $20, that helped its hit status. It's not too unusual back then for the hottest properties in Japan to be somewhat audience-friendly - they were aired on daytime hours and didn't rely on depraved fetishes as a hook.

I can't defend Pupa as a whole, but episode 6? Where it's the little sister eating him bite by bite for 4 disgusting unflinching minutes?

That's every imouto show distilled down to its screwed up essence.

....we lost so much good universal entertainment with the decline of mainstream daytime anime.
It was such a wonderful time, before anime started culturally hating its own audience.

What I wanted I've gained through fanfiction. Stories where the cast matures some, particularly Akane. Stories where she tries to improve and reign in her temper. Stories where she trains and grows stronger. Stories where Ranma is the one to train her and they grow closer. I have nothing wrong with slapstick, wacky humor, but I need something more than comedy to keep me going. Once I become attached to a character, I want to see them grow and develop - not repeat the same schtick ad nauseum.

Shelf Life wrote:

It's hard to tell what parts of Pupa are gimmick, and what parts are meant to be dissected (no pun intended, for all those who have suffered through the other three-minute episode of people screaming) as an elaborate allegory for domestic abuse.

Did anybody else read this and think

My name is Pupa
I live on the second floor
I live upstairs from you
I think you mighta seen me before
If you hear something late at night
Some kind of troublesome kind of fight
Just don't ask me what it was
Just don't ask me what it was
Just don't ask me
What it was



Yeah, I'm old.

They cry in the dark, so you can't see their tears
They hide in the light, so you can't see their fears
Forgive and forget, all the while
Love and pain become one and the same
In the eyes of a wounded child

Because Hell, Hell is for children
And you know that their little lives can become such a mess
Hell, hell is for children
And you shouldn't have to pay for your love
With your bones and your flesh

It's all so confusing, this brutal abusing
They blacken your eyes, and then apologize
Be daddy's good girl, and don't tell mommy a thing
Be a good little boy, and you'll get a new toy
Tell grandma you fell off the swing

On Psycho-Pass:
I didn't watch it because the concept sounds kind of dumb to me, and the first episode was kind of boring. How can you punish someone for a crime they didn't commit? If your main argument is "But they'll be less crime!," well, Death Notes could reduce crime, too, as could an autocratic regime, or a really good "Big Brother" system...

But you guys are saying that the shw gets better, and it *does* have a second season coming up...Just get through the first 11 eps, right?

On Ranma:
willag:

Quote:

What I wanted I've gained through fanfiction. Stories where the cast matures some, particularly Akane. Stories where she tries to improve and reign in her temper. Stories where she trains and grows stronger. Stories where Ranma is the one to train her and they grow closer. I have nothing wrong with slapstick, wacky humor, but I need something more than comedy to keep me going. Once I become attached to a character, I want to see them grow and develop - not repeat the same schtick ad nauseum.

I'd love to see a rec list of good Ranma 1/2 fanfiction, if they're still available somewhere.

Psycho-Pass is designed to make you think. For instance, take the scenario in which someone is tagged as a violent criminal and is apprehended. Although that person may have previously not been violent, they now are, faced with the fear of incarceration or death. Latent criminal, or self-fulfilling prophecy? It gets hairier too, when we learn that those marked for death can reverse their Psycho-Pass readings. It makes for a unique moral question, given the assumption that we already have a sophisticated algorithm that can accurately predict criminal intent.

I'm planning to give the show another chance, and if the system is more about preventing crime by reforming potential criminals, I'll definitely see it differently.

Psycho-pass is the "Potemkin Village" of anime: if you follow only where it leads you and look only where it directs-if you go along for the ride-then it seems alright but when you wander a bit on your own you realize that all the grand constructs are just poorly-painted facades.