Forum - View topicREVIEW: Nekomonogatari White Sub.Blu-Ray
|
Goto page Previous 1, 2, 3 Next Note: this is the discussion thread for this article |
| Author | Message | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
SouthPacific
Posts: 689 |
|
|||||
Well, then you should prepare to pay Japanese prices, because Aniplex sure as hell won't include the items that many otaku in Japan are looking to get in the Japanese BD releases in significantly priced down US releases. If they replicated pretty much everything from the Japanese release we'd have to pretty much pay the same price that the Japanese do. Otherwise reverse importation is due, and no one wants that. Honestly, i'd love to see Aniplex start doing import friendly releases in Japan, because I for one would pay Japanese prices, but I know that many won't. But from what i've heard this one isn't really on Aniplex, at the last not the VA commentaries not making it into the US release. In quite a few cases VA agencies lock these stuff in Japan by either simply saying "No, you cannot have this in your overseas release" or by charging ridiculous amounts of money that can never be recouped. This is not always the case, as it depends on who is part of the production committee, who holds the rights to what and a ton of other details that are not disclosed, or perhaps not even known to a single person on a project to project basis. Sometimes we do get those cool stuff though, and in recent times Aniplex of America has been supplying us with that. The first Bakemonogatari set had commentaries, the SAO LE box sets had a bunch of digital extras other companies can only dream of to offer + we got the entire OST. There's more, but you get my point. They said they couldn't include the commentaries in the Nisemonogatari sets due to licensing rights, and since Aniplex of America is part of Aniplex you can probably figure out that it was someone outside Aniplex that didn't want the overseas release to have the commentaries. @Jayhosh apart from a handful of titles, titles that's been out for many years even, nothing else comes close to reaching a mainstream audience. SnK is a rarity among even the rarest, and it's one tiny-sized tiny droplet in a very big pond in relation to what actually appeals to a mainstream audience. You may think Wolf Children is great, but does your parent(s), friend(s), colleague(s) that too? Probably not, because chances are they've never heard of it since anime is not mainstream, and even titles that can be regarded as well-liked and enjoyed by many within the anime fandom doesn't amount to much when you compare that fandom to the population of a country. An easy way to see if something's mainstream is if somebody likes it and doesn't feel like they're fans of anime. They're fans of that show/movie, but not fans of anime. That's the case with many people who like Dragonball. They like the show, but don't care much for "anime". Not saying that's a bad thing or a good thing, that's just how it is. |
||||||
|
||||||
|
Zac
ANN Executive Editor
 Posts: 7912 Location: Anime News Network Technodrome |
|
|||||
|
So far there has been one comment that's actually about this show, the content that's on the discs, and the franchise as a whole.
The rest is the usual Aniplex Pricing Argument. Does anyone have anything to say about this show or this franchise? |
||||||
|
||||||
Gabbomatic
 Posts: 74 |
|
|||||
|
I was okay with Araragi's intrusion at the end. I thought it highlighted how Hanekawa had learned to depend on others for help sometimes instead of shouldering all burdens herself. She did the emotional heavy lifting anyways by confessing to Araragi and reconciling with the uglier parts of her personality.
Not much of a collector but might pick this up as my next personal reward. Nekomonogatari White was my favorite arc in the entire series so far. |
||||||
|
||||||
|
SejinPK
Posts: 129 |
|
|||||
|
I didn't think Araragi coming in at the end was a misstep at all. One thing I think the Monogatari series excels at is showing human interaction and relationships in a very realistic way, even if the actual interactions and relationships themselves aren't necessarily realistic. It's all the little things about how people interact with and relate to each other that the series captures so well.
Sometimes we need a good kick in the rear or a helping hand to push through the difficulties of changing something significant about ourselves. In this case, Araragi provided that helping hand. Up to that point, Tsubasa had been progressively setting the stage for this development. Realizations about herself at various points in the series have caused her to rethink how she conducts herself and deals with her blackness. Over time, these realizations progressed to the intent to change, and then to Tsubasa finally taking action in the form of reconciling with Black Hanekawa and going to confront Kako (the tiger). If Tsubasa hadn't gotten to that point herself, the confrontation wouldn't have happened and there wouldn't have been a situation like this for Araragi to come in and help out with. Tsubasa was having trouble taking the final steps in her attempts to change herself. Araragi's aid was the push she needed to succeed in that endeavor. You can poke and prod a person all you want, but they're the only one who can actually do something to change their situation. I think that's what the whole "you can only save yourself" thing is about. You can help another person, but you can't really fix their problems for them, especially when they create their own problems as in the case of the Monogatari series. I also think Tsubasa/Black Hanekawa not being able to take Kako on their own fits in really well with what Kako represents. As stated in the series, Black Hanekawa represents Tsubasa's stress. I think he also represents the way Tsubasa had been dealing with her blackness up to that point, suppressing and denying it (which caused stress). In the same vein, while Kako explicitly represents Tsubasa's jealousy, I think he also represents the consequences of how Tsubasa had previously conducted herself. When we take an action, that action produces consequences. Those consequences can quickly come to be out of our hands in terms of our ability to contain the effect they have. At this point, depending on the circumstance, help from someone outside ourselves can be...helpful...in dealing with those consequences. This is what I think Araragi coming in at the end represents. And even then, he doesn't force Kako back into Hanekawa for her or anything. She still has to actively make the decision to take him back into herself and then follow it up with the act of doing so. Compared to stress, jealousy is a much more powerful negative feeling. Looking at it that way, I think it makes a lot of sense that Kako was so much stronger than Tsubasa and Black Hanekawa, even after they combined their efforts. Tsubasa accepting Black Hanekawa and Kako back into herself represents that she's come a greater realization, understanding, and acceptance of not only how she'd been dealing with her blackness, but of the consequences that way produced. On the topic of how the sets are packaged, I'm generally fine with it. While I do prefer the chipboard boxes that Bakemonogatari and Nisemonogatari came in, I don't think that the slipcases are of poor quality. They're definitely sturdier than a lot of the slipcases used that are only the thickness of a few sheets of paper. The one (slight) criticism I have is that I really liked how the Bakemonogatari set had the in-character audio commentary, so I was disappointed that the subsequent releases left that out. I can only guess as to the reason, but at the same time I don't think it ruins the value of the releases. As a side note, I absolutely love the quality of NIS's limited edition box sets. I only have two of them (Toradora! and Cardcaptor Sakura), but I was in awe at how sturdy they were. |
||||||
|
||||||
Angel M Cazares
 Posts: 5421 Location: Iscandar |
|
|||||
Of course I have something to say about this franchise. It is one of my favorite anime franchises because the characters are enjoyable, the way it tells stories is very unique and the visuals are great. Nekomonogatari White follows this tradition, and, like I mentioned in my first post, this entry has some of the best stuff in the franchise since Bakemonogatari. Carl's review is spot on, and I am glad to hear that he is still this excited about an anime franchise that is 5 years old. I hope that the rest of the source material is animated soon and that it concludes in a high note. I am still amazed that this franchise has managed to stay relevant this long and that 58 anime episodes have been produced. How I wish that other franchises like Haruhi Suzumiya had stayed relevant for all the source material to be animated (all the Monogatari novels are supposedly going to eventually be animated). I disagree with your notion, Zac, that this thread is the usual Aniplex Pricing Argument. People in this thread have behaved; no one has called anyone elitist, human trash or has denounced Aniplex USA's prices as immoral or sinful. Also, the thread is not even 10 pages long. |
||||||
|
||||||
penguintruth
 Posts: 8459 Location: Penguinopolis |
|
|||||
If the expensive Aniplex mark up is mentioned in the review, how is talking about it not fair game? |
||||||
|
||||||
|
ThisJustThis
Posts: 54 |
|
|||||
|
It's not in the review, but can anyone comment on the quality/accuracy of the translations? This being a heavily dialogue-driven series, even the subtle things can affect the (mis)understanding of the characters and their relationships. Also, how is the typesetting for signs/screen text? I remember Bake being pretty thorough, but Nise somewhat lacking.
|
||||||
|
||||||
Ali07
 Posts: 3333 Location: Victoria, Australia |
|
|||||
Yes. I love it as a whole. Hanekawa isn't my favourite character from the series, but I will say that I have enjoyed the 3 stories that she's been the major focus in.
That is what I enjoyed the most about this arc. I like Araragi, but it's nice to see someone else being the MC. But, I actually didn't mind that he did pop up to finish things up. He is meant to be the hero...and I guess DBZ got me accustomed to one character leading to wins. 
On the AoA pricing...it does stop me from importing their releases. I usually import as, most of the time, I can get US releases cheaper than ones here. But, since the Hanabee releases are at a similar price point (though I'm unsure on how packaging may differ), I prefer just buying the Monogatari series from them.
That, to me, is a good thing. Hope that the Hanabee release does have that just tucked away...where I won't have to see it.
|
||||||
|
||||||
|
reanimator
|
|
|||||
Not really. NIS recycles and condenses artworks for their packaging. I have one of NIS collector's edition and their so-called artbook is actually a compiled version of Japanese DVD liner notes/booklets. NIS look like collectors' edition because they redesigned their package with unconventional packaging and using of tons of existing artworks. Speaking of reused artwork, NIS's Anohana collector's edition package cover artwork was actually used in Newtype magazine. So it's nothing exclusive about that. |
||||||
invalidname
 Contributor Posts: 2442 Location: Grand Rapids, MI |
|
|||||
|
One thing that surprised me recently was looking at the list on someanithing.com of Series that have sold an average of 10K or more per volume in Japan, topped by Bakemonogatari at 78K per volume, with Nisemonogatari in fourth with 60K.
I had assumed that the Monogatari franchise was just this reasonably popular thing (probably too talky, buried in puns and cultural references, but still able to find some kind of audience), but this changed my mind to think of it as a much bigger deal that I'd initially assumed. |
||||||
|
||||||
|
Orangespike
Posts: 3 |
|
|||||
|
If you look back at all of the arcs in the Monogatari series, almost every one of them had a character (usually Araragi) being saved in a way by another person.
Oshino stopped the Crab god Araragi guided Hachikuji home (well it was really Senjougahara who guided them) Senjougahara stopping the rainy devil Kanbaru pushing Araragi out of the way of the snake Shinobu stopping Black Hanekawa twice The phrase "You can only save yourself" gets thrown around a lot, but It's never strictly literal. It's usually more a means of stressing the importance of being proactive about your problems. After all, a huge part of Hanekawa's arcs have revolved around the importance of her asking for help. Which she does to Black Hanekawa with her letter and in a more roundabout way with the photo she sent to Araragi. |
||||||
|
||||||
|
SouthPacific
Posts: 689 |
|
|||||
Between the production values of the show, the interesting characters, the amazing music, the unique direction and the AAA++ cast you've also got source material that's cleverly written and extremely well liked. One ought to be very disconnected with anime in Japan, or just anime in general to not know how huge the Monogatari series is. And if i'm not mistaken the entire "monogatari" franchise was greenlit for animation more than two years ago. Whoever is funding the project clearly knows that even if several years would pass the series would still sell extremely well. So yeah, the Monogatari series is a pretty big deal  .
|
||||||
|
||||||
|
Ali07
Posts: 3333 Location: Victoria, Australia |
|
|||||
Yep, they were greenlit. And, with ANN still referencing that fact in more recent articles, it seems like the plan hasn't changed. I'm very happy in knowing that the entire story will be animated. And, with the final volume of Final Season coming out in a little over 3 weeks, I hope that an adaption of the Final Season series isn't too far away. |
||||||
|
||||||
|
Angel M Cazares
Posts: 5421 Location: Iscandar |
|
|||||
Yes, Monogatari is a gigantic franchise. You might have also noted that the Second Season is in its way to average at least 40k per volume. |
||||||
|
||||||
Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 23761 |
|
|||||
|
I think I watched two, maybe three, eps of NW on CR before stopping since I assumed I'd be buying the release when it came out. I wasn't really grooving on the arc. Tsubasa is my least favourite -monogatari female, so that doesn't help. But I also find that the more exposure I get to the -monogatari Universe, the less I like it. There was stuff I enjoyed in Nisemonogatari, for example, but it didn't even come close to the enjoyment I derived from Bake.
|
||||||
|
||||||
 |
All times are GMT - 5 Hours |
|
|
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group