Forum - View topicShelf Life - Hal I Met Your Mother
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vashfanatic
 Posts: 3489 Location: Back stateside |
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The first case really isn't an issue of not trusting the system. Akane isn't advocating letting the woman go, just bringing her in for treatment rather than killing her on the spot. That's a decision left up to her discretion. It's an indication of her merciful, empathetic, accepting nature, which is what allows her to stay sane even under extreme stress. That, plus her belief in the system, is also why she finds it hard to kill spoiler[without knowing with 100% certainty whether someone is an actual threat.] She wasn't completely blank before episode 11, just unfocused. She hadn't really found herself, because she lives in a society where coming up with a sense of self-identity is done for you, by tests, and hers were inconclusive. The second half is Akane figuring out who she really is on her own. |
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SquadmemberRitsu
 Posts: 1391 |
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The second half of Psycho Pass is what cemented the show as the weakest thing Urobuchi has written for me. The first half was so much better.
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dtm42
Posts: 14084 Location: currently stalking my waifu |
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^
If you want to be taken seriously, please explain why you think the first half was better than the second. |
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Xagor
Posts: 192 |
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I saw Hal at the Leeds Anime Day / Festival last year, and yeah the latter part was a bit out there.
Unrelated to the story, but it struck me how easy it was to tell that Ryuu was voiced by Mamoru Miyano. He really seemed to be playing up his more exaggerated voice. |
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SquadmemberRitsu
Posts: 1391 |
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I think my big problem with the show was probably the lack of emotional depth that Urobuchi's best works had. I felt more emotionally attached to the murderous psychopath in Fate/Zero than any of the characters in Psycho Pass.
I watched it as it was airing so I still enjoyed the second half thanks to pretty much everything else airing that season being complete garbage (Although JoJo was airing at the time I didn't watch it until it finished). But the second half was undoubtedly a fair bit weaker than the first half. The pretentious villain, the hyper oats, Urobuchi's hard on for grey morality (Only not well written like in Madoka and Fate/Zero), it was all just a really big mess. Overall I'd say it was 'good' thanks to the cool cyberpunk vibe, a few nail-biting moments towards the end and the fantastic first half but when it comes to Urobuchi I expect a lot more than just 'good' |
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dtm42
Posts: 14084 Location: currently stalking my waifu |
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^
The hyper oats were definitely worthy of a facepalm or two. Not only is it implausible (I had an easier time accepting the Sybil System's true nature), such an important detail should never have been revealed so late in the piece. It felt like they just made it up at the last minute. Both the pretentious villain and the general lack of emotional depth were problems in the first half too. And the protagonists were certainly more cooler and likeable in the second half, thanks mostly to Akane but also to Ginoza and Masaoka. Even Kagami in my opinion was better in the second half than he had been in the first. I liked how they all seemed to bond, even if only on a professional level. The grey morality - at least with respect to the Sibyl System and not Makishima - I thought was really well done. Very thought provoking and tried to look at the situation from a rational view. It was about seeing the world and humanity for what they really are rather than what we would like them to be. spoiler[The same shackles that bound the citizens to the Sibyl System were also nourishing them. Almost all the time in fiction "The System" is something evil to be overthrown, but in Psycho-Pass the Sibyl System was actually just another flawed entity trying to do the best it could with the limitations and power it had. It wasn't actually a villain and was beneficial to the people, and good on Akane for realising that. She vowed to be the one to turn it off . . . but only after she could find something better to replace it. That maturity is almost never found in science fiction which too often descends into brainless "row row fight the power" anarchism and anti-authoritarianism.] |
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Knoepfchen
 Posts: 698 |
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^That. And your last comment. I really hope we won't get the standard kind of spoiler[overthrowing the bad system by the glorious power of free will without dealing with the aftermath of revolution] in the second season. The show cleverly found different, more mature, and certainly more interesting answers to the same questions within the same setting every SciFi-fan has seen so many times before. It also admitted to not being able to provide spoiler[it's MC with a satisfying solution] at this point in time. The hyper oats could have worked incredibly well, I believe, if we had been given more information (and at an earlier time) about how Japan had once again chosen to spoiler[put itself into a position of isolation from the world], of how important economic self sufficiency was in order to maintain this position (and the system providing the required stability). It could have been fascinating to see a system be forced to change by spoiler[taking away it's power through economic liberation] instead of having the heroes blow things up. Sadly, the hyper oats thing was introduced much too late in the story and therefore seemed constructed by the laws of convenience. Nonetheless, the ending has become one of my favorites. The system spoiler[might win this round, but it's not like Akane rats out her loved ones and loves big brother or has been broken by not being able to change things for the better.] For this kind of dystopian setting, the ending actually feels strangely ... uplifting for me. |
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danilo07
 Posts: 1580 |
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Now I don't think that Psycho-Pass was saying spoiler[that we need to think of the development that will happen after we take down the system,in order to take it down.I think it's saying that sufficient replacement of system can only come through a gradual change.I found this message to be particularly relevant after some events like Occupy Wall Street. ]
Silver Spoon S2 was better than S1,since some important realistic issues were introduced.But all of flaws of S1 were still there.There were a lot of boring episodes in which something trivial and uninteresting was all that happened (like the episode about Hachiken's dog),Hachiken's dilemma about killing animals was completely forgotten and I still find it hypocritical for someone to say that they love horses and how they also want to work at Ban'ei races. |
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Animegomaniac
Posts: 4082 |
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And this in itself is wrong, from the top down. Leaving the system in place would only be necessary if what replaces is a better, improved Sybil system. Akane is actually saying something more akin to "well, the grapes are probably sour anyway so..." and leaves it as a problem for someone else. Seeing how the system wasn't beneficial to the dead ones should invalidate the whole system as part of any sane social engineering project, excepting the extreme ones that leave all humans dead or sterile {A complacent populace? That's ok, the best we can hope for? "It's not perfect but it's the best we got" even if the first episode shows one person's judgment can be better than spoiler[Legion's] right from the damn start?}. So best course of action? Wipe the whole thing out, start from scratch. Row Row, fight the Power! but with one eye on the past and one towards the future. Damn armchair sociologists.... This is the same sort of "idiot rationality" that puts the blame of episode 11 on her or on the Sybil system. No, the outcome of that was inevitable as a sociopath trumping all the psychopaths as villains. Why? Because he could and he didn't care. Well, we have something in common then because I didn't care either! Also a spoiler[a system of linked sociopathic minds can find similar sociopaths but don't care about them outside of getting them to join?] The moral of that story is :Who didn't see that one coming?! Honestly! And this is the better half?! |
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dtm42
Posts: 14084 Location: currently stalking my waifu |
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I wasn't going to respond to your rant but I cannot let this part of your comment stand unchallenged. Akane spoiler[hates the system, she vows to personally be the one to switch it off. She doesn't leave it to anyone else, instead she's determined to find a better system and make sure the transition to it is as bloodless as possible.] You're so far off base you're in the carpark. Edit: okay, so Ignatz has shown that to be wrong. Last edited by dtm42 on Tue Apr 15, 2014 7:58 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Ignatz
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Actually, in the last episode, Akane says, spoiler["Someone will come to this room some day to turn off the power."] I don't think she's talking about herself. |
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DmonHiro
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You have GOT to be kidding. PMM: One of the best decosntructions of the mahou shoujo genre, with developed characters and a time traveling plot that does NOT collapse in on itself, like most do. SAO: While I do not like it that much, it is THE ultimate self-insertion fantasy. I've never seen anything that comes close to SAO's wish fulfillment fantasy. Hell, I don't even like it that much, and even I can admit it's quite special. Avatar: Seriously? One of the best written cartoons is "nothing special"? You are hereby on my "not to be taken seriously" list. |
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dtm42
Posts: 14084 Location: currently stalking my waifu |
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Really? Huh, well I'll take your word for it. Guess I misremembered. At any rate, it's clear spoiler[that no matter who specifically is the one to flick the switch, Akane isn't just going to put her feet up and avoid doing anything. She's only gonna put up with Sibyl only as long as she has to, and will work towards finding a better system.] |
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Fronzel
Posts: 1906 |
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The James Cameron-directed film is probably what was meant here, I think. So a badly written cartoon, then. |
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Ignatz
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Agreed. spoiler[Akane doesn't just give up. She will work for the sake of a better society, and she is sure that some day the society won't need the SIByL system and that someone will simply shut it down.] I thought that was a great way to end the series. However, I still look forward to the second season. There are many things Urobuchi can expand upon (unlike in PMMM, where he pretty much ruined the story for me with that dreadful third movie, which was comepletely unnecessary to begin with). |
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