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The Fall 2008 Anime Preview Guide

Not a comment on the previews in particular, which while I often disagree with them I like them as they let you know whats out there, rather on the odd attitude being expressed in some posts. A lot of people seem to be writing off entire series' based purely on a single episode, which I find a little odd, what your doing is judging an entire series based on exposure to ~7-3% of its total content. And thats overall content, depending on its plot strucutre and delivery it could be an even smaller percentage of actual story.

Has there ever been an anime of this vein that's really been successful? There have been a number of anime over the years that bring together the same very general elements: Ranging from Silent Mobius to Blue Seed to Karas to Ergo Proxy to Rental Magica...

Is there anything of this nature that really made an impact? I can't think of one.

I was kind of hoping we could keep these kinds of comments in the other thread and use this one to actually talk about the shows in upcoming reviews. anyway am I wrong in thinking that no one is subbing skip beat?

In a somewhat related question, how do you guys decide which shows to review? Is it decided purely by availability?

Personally, I only have the motivation to watch 2 or 3 series all the way to the end of the season. So, yeah, I only give most shows 1 or 2 episodes to impress me. If they miss their opportunity, I probably won't continue next week. We're not judging the whole series by the first episode, we're deciding if we want to watch the next.

Leebo wrote:

Personally, I only have the motivation to watch 2 or 3 series all the way to the end of the season. So, yeah, I only give most shows 1 or 2 episodes to impress me. If they miss their opportunity, I probably won't continue next week. We're not judging the whole series by the first episode, we're deciding if we want to watch the next.

Thats an impressively fine semantic line you've identified I thought it was clear enough that I was employing judging as an ad-hoc synonym for writing off which Id used earlier in the sentence, evidently I was wrong. Though I would be interested in what you call the process of watching an episode of something and then deciding whether to watch the next epsode or not based on your opinion of that episode. Its almost as if you were forming a critical opinon based on a certain input and then allowing said critical opinon to set your behvaiour towards the aforementioned input. If only there were a handy verb beginning with j which could be used to summarise that process

Anyhow it was just a random thought so I'll drop it now.

Any groups mentioned if theyre going to be subbing the new fist of the north start series? Maybe HoM now that theyre finished with season 2?

Thanks for making this special effort, Theron, Carl, Carlo and Casey. I was afraid that after all the crapola you guys got six months ago you might swear never to compile new season reviews again.

Personally a lot of my friends and myself at Tales Brigade are interested in seeing how Tales of the Abyss does as an anime. Seems like it's already getting mediocre impressions from the get-go D=

there's a term for a what a Book, or TV should do for its first episode/chapter, its called a "hook". A "hook" is supposed to grab the viewers/readers interest and make them continue reading/watching the book/TV show. I feel perfectly fine judging an entire series based on its first episode, because if it doesn't grab me then its not worth my time. Unless something gets REALLY good later i won't watch it after 1 episode. Anime seems to be the only media that doesn't get this whole "hook" idea, and the ones that do are the ones that i generally tend to watch. and considering 90% of anime is garbage(IE the same stuff over and over again), I think most fans would agree with me.

personally i think at this point the "tales" series is a joke to most video game reviewers and i think it'll be a joke to Anime as well. the games represent the worst of the jrpg genre, complete with feminine male lead, and the whole spectrum of hair colors. so my hopes for the anime are not high.

I said I'd leave it, but its late and Im bored. Firstly there is no necessity for anything to have a hook, while its generally a good idea its certainly not a necessity nor is it widely enough used to be considered ubiquitous. Secondly theres no such thing as tv (or cinema) hook, theres a musical hook and theres a literary hook. There's no real formal definition of a hook in cinema or television criticism, well there are plot hooks which are similar but separate from what we're talking about here (there's also scene hooks which are again a different thing). Thirdly, I'm a little confused as to why you quoted my second post on the matter as you seemed to be responding to my first post on the whole thing.

there's a term for a what a Book, or TV should do for its first episode/chapter, its called a "hook". A "hook" is supposed to grab the viewers/readers interest and make them continue reading/watching the book/TV show. I feel perfectly fine judging an entire series based on its first episode, because if it doesn't grab me then its not worth my time. Unless something gets REALLY good later i won't watch it after 1 episode. Anime seems to be the only media that doesn't get this whole "hook" idea, and the ones that do are the ones that i generally tend to watch. and considering 90% of anime is garbage(IE the same stuff over and over again), I think most fans would agree with me.

Some people need a bit of story to help assuage their guilt about the porn, which is all fine and good. But when that bit of story becomes the raison d'entre in its own right, assuming monumental, monstrous proportions, something has gone very wrong. The ero genre has lost its way; it's ridiculous. So would it be too much to ask for the creators of ef ~A Tale of Melodies~ and others of its ilk to get found and hurry up with the sex in subsequent episodes?

I reference to Carl's review of "Tales...":

"...but Master Ion has the most adorable lisp on the planet"....adorable lisp my fanny! If they had not repeatedly referred to him as a him I would have been certain he was a she, if you follow me .