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EP. REVIEW: CROSS ANGE Rondo of Angel and Dragon

Niflheimr wrote:

I’ll jump into the fray once more with an observation from reading this thread. Interesting to notice that several people are glad that a somewhat positive review is finally made for it, like they needed it to somehow justify liking a controversial series.

I wouldn't say a C of any kind is positive. I'd interpret a C more as 'eh, you could do worse.' And I think you're making a sweeping generalization there that people liked his review because of how he rated it. I don't think those two things necessarily go together. I have liked plenty of negative reviews on ANN and still strongly disagreed with their conclusion. I don't think you have to agree with some one's opinion to like the way that they expressed it.

Personally, I liked it because he didn't get emotional or preachy about it and stayed objective. That is say in comparison to some of the preview guide reviews that got emotional and threw around a bunch of trigger words. Not that those reviewers aren't entitled to that response or that they shouldn't be allowed to do that, but that isn't how I tend to like reviews. I like them either objective like this one or ones just clearly making a joke out of it (some of Zac's preview guide reviews have been really amusing).

Dear Theron this board is to a great start already. I just typed in your name and the sites into goggle to find out where your baffling review is coming from.
And i now found out that you are already getting internet famous for this show´s coverage. I hope it turn out well. I am HIGHLY anticipate your final write up. You should also at least acknowledge the series blatant reuse of the esthetics of from sunrise anime gone by. I know that they are sunrises property and not plagiarism but man oh man it is baffling how few ideas this show even has. The only new this thing show has going for it to my knowledge is the leads sexual arouse while killing dragons. That could be new !
By the way the original mecha hentai this anime takes from is the Hades Project Zeorymer manga. So this one will be in Robot Wars too. Yay.
Chagen46 your review i like. This show is indeed on of the worst directed peaces of televison i have seen or will now look at in gif form. 90% of hentai i have watched had better directing and character motivation. I find it quite sad that i can´t get the train wreck spirit going but fetishised rape and homophobia proved to deadly for me. School Days i will allways have you. Peace out for real and see you in 22 episodes.

I’ll jump into the fray once more with an observation from reading this thread. Interesting to notice that several people are glad that a somewhat positive review is finally made for it, like they needed it to somehow justify liking a controversial series.

If the writing is up to Therons usual standard, I can honestly say I got no qualms after nipping this in the bud after the first episode.

EDIT: By the time I finished writing this, I haven't seen mangamuscle's and Zac's intervention on this very same thread. Still, I decide to leave my message just as it is. Feel free to mod my post if you deem it necessary, but I just want to point out that I have this account since 2007 and I made several posts about everything in all these years. You can disagree with me or plain ignore me, but I would hate to see posting my two cents as "trolling".

FINALLY a decent review for this series. While we can disagree about the score, it ends up being a really a trivial matter, since I can respect the arguments you're using and how you structured your points.

I was annoyed at the hypocrisy of a couple of other reviewers who did episode 1 (I wasn't surprised though, but I have to be very careful about my wording), and it's nice to see a more relaxed, grounded and analytical point of view.

I'd like to point out something though, which relates to the first sentence of the previous paragraph:

Quote:

Yona of the Dawn, a pure fantasy story clearly made with female audiences in mind, takes the more romantic approach, with the princess being aided and protected by a powerful, dashing male warrior and eventually surrounded by a bevy of other male warriors. Even the usurper is a handsome guy who probably actually does love her, too, and apparently has very mixed feelings about getting her involved in his coup.

While I perfectly understand Cross Ange can be seen as something that lacks taste and is far from subtle, I am baffled at the double standards people have when watching anime.

Several shojo stories (or the newer trend:effeminate/bishonen/manly guys who bond over sports/singing/whatever works) are as sexist and detached from reality regarding how they treat their characters (they just either "objectify" men in a diff manner or they make the female MC undecisive & blush every 30 seconds at every flirting moment) yet randomly get a free pass and get away with doing this stuff just because it's seen as harmless and a rule of its genre.

I understand the "forced" aspect of some scenes might be what threw a lot of people off, and I can agree with that being offensive if the series is showcasing them in a sexy manner. But I do not believe that every other merit the series might have going on for it should be overlooked and reacting in an outrageous manner to prove you have your morals in the right place. And I certainly disagree with thinking it's fine "in that one" but not "in this one".

Bottomline if the reviewers would apply the same strict moral compass to other animes and started calling them out on everything wrong with them regarding what kind of message they're conveying, at least I could disagree with a consistent point of view. Which is always more pleaseant to read.

Having said that, I don't have a problem with the kind of stories I mentioned, I just happen to not watch them. So it's cool that this review notes that Cross Ange is certainly not for many of you while at the same time it doesn't judge whoever watches it.

This is a thread to discuss the show and Theron's review of the show. It is not open season on everyone who disagrees with you about Cross Ange and it isn't going to turn into a giant flamewar, so pre-emptively doing the "everyone who took exception to the material in Cross Ange is a stupid pansy" routine is completely unnecessary and will be considered trolling for the sake of starting fights. So knock it off.

Discuss the show, your view of it and Theron's reviews. That's it.

Man, it's funny how saying "everyone who took exception to the material in Cross Ange is a stupid pansy" is "trolling" but

"For something like this, though, it is impossible for me to type "hey, this might be for you if..." because the rest of that sentence is "if you're really in to cruelty and depravity and are A-OK with a rape scene unambiguously played for fanservice titillation" and that sounds like something a writer who is so detached from the entertainment they consume that they're just going through the motions as a critic." basically saying "anybody who likes this anime is a pervert that likes rape fantasy and violence against women" is not.

Remember kids, this is how social justice works, demonize ANYTHING YOU don't like and then cry "troll!"on any differing opinion.

I'm just glad that unlike the game industry, the anime industry gives zero fucks about going down the diversity checklist censoring things to make a small subset of people happy (that will never be happy).

How can you expect people to be calm when attitudes like yours or Justin's taken just to the next step get innocent people in prison?

However I will admit this - at the time I wrote my preview, I was genuinely disgusted with Cross Ange. As the weeks went on, I watched the second episode, saw what the reaction was, and downgraded my reaction to the show as simple dismissal - it's drawing mostly from old "women in prison" cliches, movies like Hell House Kittens or whatever, from the late 60s through the 80s (women in prison was a seriously popular genre in Japanese porn through the 80s). I'm not offended by Cross Ange's existence and I think it's the sort of entertainment for a specific audience that maybe doesn't have a lot in common with me, taste-wise, but the disgust I had for it is gone. It's a salacious B-movie with shiny modern anime trappings and that's about all I get from it.

I'm really gonna miss that crazy commander, now the fun of the show will be much more subdued and relegated to just seeing side characters get splattered. So far I'm in agreement with others, I can't in good conscience call it a well crafted or intelligent show, but I'm just curious to see where the hell it goes.

Not to keep derailing this thread, but if the "Fall Preview Review" would've been worded more like the above quote instead of what felt like fingerpointing it would have gone a long way towards not feeling like an agenda was being pushed.

I'd rather someone be it Theron or somebody else just not give into the whole Hurr Sunrise Trainwreck method of reviewing these shows just for once. Like if people don't want to like the show fine whatever, frankly I don't even like it, but the hate on for Sunrise mecha anime is so tired, so cliche and so one-sidedly bullied across that it's frankly more annoying pretty much every time than some of the irksome things that can go on in the shows.

I like that Theron explains in his review the good, bad and ugly things about the show's premise. My issue is that when it comes to abuse done for titillation, I cannot see anything redeemable on it. CROSS ANGE is a bad written show with no substance that needs to relay on sensationalizing brutality and sexual abuse to appeal to a certain audience

I think Theron is giving the show's creators too much credit by presuming that the objectionably content is there to somehow clarify and strength the premise. I am convinced that the objectionable content is there exclusively for titillation.

I disagree with that assessment. That scene was intended to give a hard on to the intended audience (horny otakus).