Forum - View topicWhy I Can't Stop Watching Prison School
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Actar
 Posts: 1074 Location: Singapore |
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Looking over the quoted line,
the writer uses the word "the audience", which makes it a generalization. |
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Desa
 Posts: 285 |
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As in any case where someone likes something but can't explain why, what usually crosses my mind is "perhaps she doth protest too much".
Is there a plausible element in the notion that perhaps one may not wish to accept that one could enjoy something like Prison School? Nah, that couldn't be it. I've long accepted that trying to define everything into neat little categories like "satire", "parody", or "homage", etc, is a fool's errand and I never had much care for it. I like Prison School because it's Prison School. Individually, I don't think there is a single character I actually like on their own, but when you put them all together in one place, something magical happens. |
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Merida
 Posts: 1945 |
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On the one hand there's this hilariously silly premise, ridiculously over-the-top "fanservice" and a bunch of incredibly stupid characters, male and female and on the other hand there's this faux-dramatic atmosphere. It's probably that mix which makes the show work for me. I certainly wouldn't watch it if it was completely serious and if it was a straight comedy, it would probably get boring real soon.
But yeah, like another poster mentioned, it's a certain kind of humour that either clicks with you or not. Being able to "switch off your brain" a little bit doesn't hurt as well.. 
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18179 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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I actually found Azazel-san to be at least mildly entertaining (and occasionally quite funny) for all of its depravity. I think the difference is that PS takes itself so much more seriously, and that difference is enough to make it a no-go for me. |
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kotomikun
Posts: 1205 |
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Isn't this show basically a parody of fanservice shows in general, and of the surprisingly large number of anime where the plot is "one or a few boys end up going to an all-girls school and romance ensues?" It's seemingly a cynical sort of parody, making itself overly tense and unpleasant instead of just funny. But it's not like that's never been done before...
Then again, it may really be just a fanservice show, based on some sort of fear/humiliation fetish, and interpreted as a confusing sex/horror/comedy mashup by people who don't have that fetish. Whatever it is, I'm definitely staying far away from it, because it looks like the exact opposite of what I look for in anime, in every conceivable sense. |
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bobob101
 Posts: 201 |
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Your reasoning definitely applies to my enjoyment of Prison school as well to a lesser extent why I watch Shimoneta (these light novel short titles are getting out of hand).
Some of my favorite comedy series (Golgo 13, Chaos Dragon, Baki the Grappler) are based on the concept of people being incredibly serious about things that are so absurd it is impossible not to laugh at them. This same principle applies to Prison School *Note: Just because I grouped them together does not mean I in anyway think Golgo or Baki on the same level of Chaos Dragon, which enters the realm of comedy because it has been booted from the realm of suck. |
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SHD
Posts: 1752 |
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Azazel-san and Prison School do have their differences, but I don't think Prison School takes itself seriously at all... Sure, it puts on a straight face but that's because that's how its humor works: it's funny because it treats all the completely off-the-wall absurdities and characters seriously. It's not being serious, it pretends to be serious and using the dissonance between dramatic delivery and just plain wtf-ness to its advantage. (Even when a situation is actually serious the story goes out of its way to drag it down to defuse it. See: Chiyo protecting Kiyoshi whose entire experience of it boils down to "BOOBS!!"; Joe's attempt at murdering a fellow student ending with his weapon in Kiyoshi's butt, which then also leads to his side adventure with Hana; and so on.)
Yeah. To me the article was saying "I know this is something I'd normally treat as below me, but I enjoy it anyway, so here's my article-length attempt at justification and trying to convince myself", instead of just owning up to having fun watching a dirty comedy (excellently directed and acted, mind you).
Yep. |
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JacobC
ANN Contributor
 Posts: 3728 Location: SoCal |
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I get where you're coming from, but you can't make an editorial out of "I like this show because I just do." I'm playing up my confusion for comedic purposes obviously, but it's also fun to think a little too hard about the media you enjoy.
I don't need to come up with an essay-justification for why I enjoy something, but the idea was that, if you had to explain Prison School to others, it would be much more difficult to explain its appeal than most other anime, so here was my best crack at explaining what it is and what it isn't. (Side note, as regards the whole Hana thing, yes she looks very "turned-on" in that gif, but context really is everything. The show doesn't treat her like a horny hot-thing, and it doesn't want you to be horny with her. It feels more like watching a wild animal drooling to disembowel its prey, or in this case, watch it while it pees. Framing is everything, and Prison School doesn't really do sexy framing.) |
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meiam
Posts: 3442 |
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So I actually watched those pee segment (thank you, youtube) and... not sexy you say? spoiler[I mean you literally have one scene where she lock eye with his crotch while blushing and then... 80's porn music start playing! Complete with raunchy saxophone!
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spoiler[When it actually happen you have the aforementioned gif happen. Then, when the guy start peeing, he has what can only be described has an orgasming face just to immediately cut to a scene of a another girl drinking water, obviously with her breast exposed and covered with water like one naturally drink water everyday. And then the money shoot, where you see Hana on the ground and covered, framed very similarly to a girl who just received a facial.] |
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KingKhai
Posts: 43 |
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Bravo, Mr Hope Chapman!
An EXCELLENT read this is. A VERY detailed, deep and thoughtful study on Prison School, and I think you are ABSOLUTELY SPOT-ON on most if not all the points. "In their own words, the boys are "imprisoned by love" (lust) and the real prison they can't escape from is the rush of perversion and sexual obsession flooding their system that just won't ever go away. It will follow them for the rest of their lives, just like it has the academy's otherwise professional headmaster. He will forever like big butts and be unable to lie about it. " ^My most favorite point; Even I didn't realize this observation. |
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justsomeaccount
 Posts: 471 |
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meiam: Ehhhh? The music that sounds is pure energetic rock for such tense situation that transmits urgency, and he doesn't spoiler[have a orgasm face, he has the typical "PEEING WHEN YOU CAN'T KEEP IT ANYMORE" face]. And the cut to spoiler[the dominatrix drinking is basically tricking us for a second that they were actually showing us... well, Hana drinking that (and making all of us going "UUUUGH"), but instead it's just ridiculous dominatrix drinking in ridiculous way]. That's not sexy at all, just pure over the top sexual ridiculous stuff meant to be funny.
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HaruhiToy
 Posts: 4118 |
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That Hana. What a workaholic. Just look at her.
Hana aroused? As in sexually aroused? No flipping way. No sireee. She has a job to do and she is going to do it to the best of her ability. That's all you're looking at. The unmistakable giveaway is how she lets all her peers know exactly what she is doing here. After all she unzips a guy's pants all the time just what is your dirty mind thinking here? It is just part of the job no matter how unpleasant. And there was just no other way to teach him a lesson was there? Some of you guys crack me up more than the anime does. |
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SilverTalon01
Posts: 2402 |
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Just because it was intended to be a ridiculous funny doesn't mean it wasn't also intended to be sexy. I just checked youtube since he mentioned it was there, and I'd say they were clearly intending for that to play off as funny and sexy. Like he said, they were intentionally playing that as if it was a sex scene. |
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Valhern
 Posts: 916 |
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My feeling for enjoying Prison School is more of a mix. The tension, true, it's amazing, but also the weird yet extremely entertaining contrast of something being incredibly serious, ridiculous and hot (I'll be serious, I enjoy how sexy the manga and the anime's style is, and mostly I don't like ecchi scenes/anime). Sometimes it's one or two alone, sometimes it's the three at the same time, and it's great because it's truly a unstoppable ride where you try to feel many things at the same time but none overshadows the other and most of the time you feel rewarded.
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onewing
Posts: 26 |
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straight forward stupid boy and all the stupid way of sexual appeal on the show,
that's why PS was so hilarious. And when you put it on a"take itself very serious story" = successfully hilarious(which is difference from many show that have done these kind of stupid boy do shit things before) 
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