Forum - View topicShelf Life - Akina Drift
|
Goto page Previous 1, 2, 3, 4 Next Note: this is the discussion thread for this article |
| Author | Message | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Grico
 Posts: 201 Location: Fort Wayne, IN |
|
|||||||||||||
|
I bought To heart, enjoyed it thoroughly. It's good slice of life and important roots of modern slice of life really. Why we would need another series with girls on drugs or commiting suicide or attacking with large mecha I don't know. It's a sweet show, with no big pretensions. Saying about initial D "if you're going to get hung up over the character designs, no amount of convincing will make you want to watch this show. But if you can deal with how crappy this show looks visually.." makes me laugh. So bad animation and bad character designs (which i assume you mean means more than just animation) and shelf worthy? There is too much angst anime already, I'll take To Heart any day of the week, It's on my shelf at least.
|
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
|
Zalis116
Moderator
 Posts: 6867 Location: Kazune City |
|
|||||||||||||
Now the direct sequel, To Heart ~Remember my Memories, does improve things a bit by introducing a more focused plot, though there's still some of the "which girl is Hiroyuki hanging out with this week?" element. I have to say though, I liked the 1999 hand-drawn look and character designs of To Heart over the 2004 digital animation of ~RmR~.
|
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
|
bakaShin
Posts: 102 |
|
|||||||||||||
remember that this anime is quite old dating back to 1998 and to me this was a no brainer as a fan of the series. The animation is better in the 4th stage if you want to check out how the animation evolved. ID is very much love or hate. Anime with cars/driving as the plot, eurobeat for music, and i guess a somewhat ugly animation is probably a lot for people to get past but i like it. its interesting, eurobeat grew on me and i can get past the animation. the tricked out ver was a blasphemy ruining the series for me and loyal fans who were probably the only people supporting it.
i think there were some improvement but the concept and plot of the story is very similar to the first. But i do enjoy watching 2 much more. if you like these types of series you will enjoy it but as a casual viewer it was pretty much the same cliches you are used to watching. |
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
Abarenbo Shogun
 Posts: 1573 |
|
|||||||||||||
Fire up that camera, cause I wanna see proof. I'm not even impressed. I'm just gonna rag on the "Tricked Out" version because at least TP semi-redeemed themselves on the Classic Cut (to a point, but thats not the main issue right now....) For starters, DJ Milky/Levy/whatever his damn name is; the guy can't hold a damn tune even if his buttocks made the music thru his farts. I dunno what sense of hearing he has, but some of his "tracks" don't sync in really well with the scence. One I can think off the bat was during the Intro of Impact Blue. Instead of the traditional Eurobeat, he replaced it with this stupid....I dunno how to describe it....it just sounded like he used a synthezed drum beat with two women going "work it" in repetition for a few minutes. That's his frickin' talent? Using a drum and two women? And it never fit in with Impact Blue driving their Sileighty!! The Street Slang....god, it frickin' irritated me. Did they even think such slang would be "obsolete" within a few years? It's now extremely dated since they first released it. Way to go guys, no wonder why your DVD division tanked. Even worse, it was released around the time of Fast and Furious, which made it even more redundant. Nowadays, people scorn Initial D fanboys, from AE86 folks (like me) to even experenced tuners. And what even irked me more was how they handled the car specs. I don't know where they said it (since I exclusively watch the Classic version now) they used bored instead of stroked. BIG DIFFERENCE IN THE MEANINGS IN RELATION TO CARS YOU RETARD!! This is why I really hope when a US Licensor gets Wangan Midnight, they find someone who knows cars and the scence and get's the translations right. And I hope to god TP doesn't get the Manga OR the Anime. |
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
Randall Miyashiro
 Posts: 2451 Location: A block away from Golden Gate Park |
|
|||||||||||||
|
After reading the review on To Heart I decided to watch the first DVD. Why doesn't this series have any music? It felt as though most episodes only had 2-3 short pieces of music and minimal ambient sound effects. I think most of the projects I've worked on had more follies than To Heart.
I really wanted to like this DVD especially as many of you have mentioned because of all the work Right Stuf put into it. I like how they use a smaller font for the occult girl when she speaks, and the translator notes are also a nice bonus. I did however notice that a white line would appear on the far right of the screen (only when upscaling to 1080) when the subs appear which is something I've also noticed on Jubei-chan and a few other titles. The video quality is really pushing the original prints since you can really see some grain, most likely resulting from a 16mm print if my guess is correct. This is similar to the final effect that the remastered Macross, or Mospeada have and looks much better (especially in color and contrast) than the DVDs for series like Eden's Bowy, Silent Mobius, or Cybuster. I don't know why, but the new masters of Gunbuster looks amazing even though I believe it was also struck from a 16mm print. It doesn't look anywhere nearly as good as the DVD remasters of Cagliostro's, Megazone 23, Ghibli films or any other 35mm. I wonder why Right Stuf placed an almost identical image on the reverse side of the cover instead of doing something different. The GITS SAC season 1 DVDs also did something similar, although the reverse lacked the logo. It seems like an odd thing to do since I can't imagine scanning another piece of artwork would cost that much relative to printing on both sides of the cover. Overall I just couldn't get into this series, especially having just finished the intense Rumbling Hearts. Fate/Stay Night (and Tsukihime) is definitely more my thing and I'll continue collecting it instead. It is not too often these days that I'll stop collecting a series (Guyver, and GaoGaiGar come to mind) during it's initial release, but sadly this is one of those series that falls in this category. I'm however really looking forward to Kurau which has just been shipped to me. I must say that Fantastic Children was one of my favorite releases from last year, and Noein (along with Ergo Proxy) is my favorite current release. I also wouldn't mind if it resembled Figure 17 which I absolutely loved. Although I'm a big Excel fan Nerima Daikon Brothers is hard for me to get into, but I've already ranted about this on other threads. The main reason why I'm still collecting this series is ADVs wonderful job with the on DVD extras. |
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
undeadben
 Posts: 1212 Location: West Texas |
|
|||||||||||||
Menchi says, "thanks for the compliments, guys." Actually he just sort of tilted his head to the left and looked at me like I was crazy when I was telling him everyone liked his pictures. But the sentiment is there!
Think tortoise. Big, sturdy, slow moving.
He's 11 weeks in the new shot. I know it is silly to count in weeks, but it is easy because that's how the vet counts for all his vaccinations. As for letting him near the anime, well it is just Desert Punk, if I had seen him go at the boxes I would have taken those away.
I'm glad Menchi was able to brighten your day. I love keeping dogs for that same reason, no matter how bad my day is at work I come home and see that little face and forget all about it. (Well after cleaning up whatever it is he managed to grab and shred to pieces that is  )
|
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
darkhunter
 Posts: 2992 Location: Los Angelas |
|
|||||||||||||
|
Initial D is freaking awesome once the series start to take off...., forget the lame Fast and the Furious movie.
The animations does take getting used to but the style is different from all the current same old stock animation of every other series. This is the type of series that typical dorky MOE fan love to hate. 
As for Karau, I like it. It's a decent title from Bones Studio. Yes Bones that produce FMA, Wolf's Rain, Rahxephon among others. |
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
Chrno2
 Posts: 6171 Location: USA |
|
|||||||||||||
I agree. As I pretty much thought the same thing. 'Figure-17' was the one show that has similarities to 'Kurau' but they are two completely different horses. Now if you're like those folks talking about that "ultimate masturbation" deal then yeah, they're pretty much similar. 
Try writing down some of the relations between both and you'll probably come up with some things that relate.
|
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
Gauss
 Posts: 519 Location: Finland |
|
|||||||||||||
|
I haven't seen the first ToHeart but if the review is anything to go by it's even more washed out than ToHeart2. Yes, I sorta liked TH2 but at times the overall bloody niceness of the characters had me rolling my eyes like the balls in a lottery mahcine. You started getting a little bit of drama at the end but it felt tacked on and ultimately resolved in an "ending lite". Frustrating.
|
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
luffypirate
 Posts: 3186 |
|
|||||||||||||
|
ouch @ to heart!
 it sounds like everyone is expecting too much from it though. just take it as it is. its nothing near mindblowing but still a nice lighthearted story. i cant wait to buy it (hopefully today!) this show has been one of my favorites and im glad rightstuf picked it up 
|
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
Richard J.
 Posts: 3367 Location: Sic Semper Tyrannis. |
|
|||||||||||||
Anyway, I've had a strange obsession with getting To Heart ever since I first saw the PVC for Akari Kamigishi, so no amount of negative review will keep me from making it a personally shelf-worthy title. My shelves don't have enough quiet series anyway. I don't know why I became obsessed with a show after seeing a PVC but I had a similar reaction to promotional art for Haruhi and Jigoku Shoujo so there's a fair chance I'll love To heart. (Though I do wish Right Stuff had done an art box for it.  )
By the way, does anyone know where I could find a detailed comparison of the different versions of Initial D? I've heard about it before and thought it sounded cool but then I heard so many awful things about the "tricked out" dub that I decided to avoid it. I'd like to see what the deal is with it in case I ever decide to pick it up. |
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
Mohawk52
 Posts: 8202 Location: England, UK |
|
|||||||||||||
|
Considering when Initial D was made, the CG isn't that bad. the character designs did look like they were done by a someone in school trying it on. The only irritating thing for mwe was Takumi's mental state. He constantly seemed to be autistic about anything around him, especially Natsuki ( Natalie). I kept wishing she would slap him to wake him up. Also the implausability of never meeting another vehicle coming up that road in the other direction.
BTW, was flaming up the M3 on my commute to work a few months ago, and what do I see but an AE86 in the same colours as Takumi's. It was a bit worst for wear, but still doing 75MPH to my 80. Some geezer with lots of facial hair was behind the wheel. I can just visualise a closing for Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles Minmay got back together with her manager who date rapes her after getting her drunk at an after concert party. She later has his child, where upon he buggers off with a new young thing. Minay continues her career as a pop star and a single mother and later meets and marries another wanabe popstar. She has two more children with this guy, who also later buggers off with some teenage fangirl. Minmay feeling depressed then puts on weight, gets addicted to booze and drugs, has a nevous break down, shaves her head, and gets arrested for flashing her breasts and kicking a police officer in the groin. She is sentenced to rehab, and her children are put into foster care. Meanwhile, out in space some where, Rick and Lisa's relationship hit the rocks when Lisa finds out that she is sterile from space radation, and Rick seems to ignor her. Rick becomes a manic depressive, and disappears never to return, after telling Lisa he is just nipping to the supply hold for a loaf of bread and a sixpack.
|
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
|
Zalis116
Moderator
Posts: 6867 Location: Kazune City |
|
|||||||||||||
 That part of you is correct, I have to say.
On all the talk of Akari Kamigishi and Multi the robot, it was Akari who interested me in the series, since I'm a sucker for the loyal childhood-friend girls in anime like To Heart. Incidentally, TH has been cited as the series that helped launch the voice acting careers of Ayako Kawasumi (Akari) and Yui Horie (Multi). Multi unexpectedly overshadowed Akari's "main girl" character, which is probably why To Heart ~Remember my Memories~ largely revolved around Multi. (Names linked to Encyclopedia pages because even listing just their most promminent roles would be a sizeable list, which I would then be forced to remove from my own post. Check the pages, you'll probably recognize numerous roles.)
And I temporarily forgot that K: PM was a BONES title; in addition to the titles you listed, they also produced some of my favorites like Angelic Layer and Scrapped Princess, which gives Kurau a positive mark in my book, sight unseen. (Oops, forgot that : P without a space = a smiley) |
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
PantsGoblin
 SubscriberEncyclopedia Editor  Posts: 2969 Location: L.A. |
|
|||||||||||||
What the hell are you talking about? Cars and moé go perfectly together. |
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
|
HellKorn
Posts: 1669 Location: Columbus, OH |
|
|||||||||||||
Ironic, considering that I watched Noein right after Kurau in January. I haven't seen Fantastic Children yet (waiting for a box set by Bandai), but I find your comparison valid. Kurau isn't as grounded in sci-fi as Noein is, though.
Ah, didn't quite mean it like that. I find Mushishi to be the best anime series of 2005 and 2006 (hey, it's final six episodes were out then), and one of the best that I've ever seen. Kurau isn't quite as good, but few are. Still, it's an absolute excellent BONES production. From what little I know of your tastes, I have very little doubt that it'll disappoint you. |
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
Sooooooo cute! OMG, I'm all melty now. Thanks for those. 
 |
All times are GMT - 5 Hours |
|
|
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group