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REVIEW: Mushishi DVD 2


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zetsuie



Joined: 21 Jul 2006
Posts: 193
PostPosted: Sun Sep 09, 2007 3:09 pm Reply with quote
i don't believe a word of this review
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JackCox



Joined: 22 Jun 2006
Posts: 386
PostPosted: Sun Sep 09, 2007 3:30 pm Reply with quote
Trust me, The Review is absolutely correct, this series is one of the most beautiful most original and most heart-wrenching series ever made.
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Aromatic Grass



Joined: 31 Dec 2003
Posts: 2424
Location: Raleigh, NC
PostPosted: Sun Sep 09, 2007 3:32 pm Reply with quote
zetsuie wrote:
i don't believe a word of this review

Why? The review pretty much got the series exactly how it is. It's just that good.
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Zac
ANN Executive Editor


Joined: 05 Jan 2002
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PostPosted: Sun Sep 09, 2007 4:01 pm Reply with quote
zetsuie wrote:
i don't believe a word of this review


Back your opinion up with something or don't post it at all.
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Unholy_Nny



Joined: 22 Jun 2005
Posts: 622
PostPosted: Sun Sep 09, 2007 4:03 pm Reply with quote
Zac wrote:
zetsuie wrote:
i don't believe a word of this review


Back your opinion up with something or don't post it at all.


Personally, I rarely trust anything that says "the best" or "the greatest" instead of something similar to "one of the best".

EDIT: Not to mention the review seems more like a drawn out advertisement, either that or a art film student who's trying to act impressive was the writer.

The review has actually scared me away from the series, it seems like some form of high-art that you're pure scum in the eyes of art-snobs for not liking.

Don't think that's the case here, but the way the series is described in the review makes me nervous.
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ManOfRust



Joined: 08 Jan 2006
Posts: 1935
Location: Seattle, WA
PostPosted: Sun Sep 09, 2007 4:18 pm Reply with quote
Unholy_Nny wrote:
The review has actually scared me away from the series, it seems like some form of high-art that you're pure scum in the eyes of art-snobs for not liking.

It's odd to me that you got this impression. I thought the reviewer specifically made the point that you don't have to be some kind of film school graduate to simply enjoy this series for what it is, although if you do want to start digging below the surface that there is some substance there to dig into.

Sometimes the hype about a series is deserved. Don't cheat yourself out of this one just because of a scary review. It really is that good.

I like Carl's insight about the problems with the mushi resulting from a lack of understanding of their nature and Ginko's ability to solve these problems because he does, in fact, understand them with this understanding giving him a sort of power. This is so often the situation of things in real life as well where if you know how things work you are always going to be valuable to those that will not or can not gain that knowledge for themselves.
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Zac
ANN Executive Editor


Joined: 05 Jan 2002
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PostPosted: Sun Sep 09, 2007 4:27 pm Reply with quote
Unholy_Nny wrote:

Personally, I rarely trust anything that says "the best" or "the greatest" instead of something similar to "one of the best".

EDIT: Not to mention the review seems more like a drawn out advertisement, either that or a art film student who's trying to act impressive was the writer.

The review has actually scared me away from the series, it seems like some form of high-art that you're pure scum in the eyes of art-snobs for not liking.

Don't think that's the case here, but the way the series is described in the review makes me nervous.


So you're frightened by anything that seems like it was written by someone with an ounce of intelligence and passion for his subject?

There's no such thing as an "art film student". You can be an art student, or a film student, but not an "art film student".

People who are scared of college-educated opinions annoy me. Not everyone who writes with intelligence is 'trying to sound impressive".
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Unholy_Nny



Joined: 22 Jun 2005
Posts: 622
PostPosted: Sun Sep 09, 2007 4:43 pm Reply with quote
Well, technically you could do a dual-major in art and film >_>

And my only problem with the review is that the first half seems written almost in a poetic manner. This is an anime website. I see advertisements with half-naked anime girls in the top banner, writing in that form isn't really expected or required. Not that I have a problem with that writing style in general, it just seems extremely out of place.

I like series with a lot of depth and the sort, but when the only negative mentioned is that it's so deep that it might take the entertainment value away from some viewers, I call bull.

Oh, plus:

Quote:
a treasure so precious that only a fool would pass it by.
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Sarkozy



Joined: 28 Feb 2006
Posts: 132
PostPosted: Sun Sep 09, 2007 4:47 pm Reply with quote
My take on the review - excuse it for being somewhat disorganized, I'm running on exhaustion right now.

I never really liked MushiShi - I found it to be just a longer Kino's Journey. The character designs are pretty annoying. The animation is just not very catching. The music is alright, nothing really to write home about. I like episodic series, but this just goes with several series "on my boring list". 26 is overdoing it and would really, quite honestly, bore people. Kino's Journey, being episodic and philosophical, was 13 episodes and worked perfectly. It had likable characters, which is another thing MushiShi doesn't have. I absolutely hate Ginko, but love Kino. Kino's Journey had better, more interesting animation to me. The dub is lacking in MushiShi, but not Kino's Journey. MushiShi has too many factors which go against it which I have said above, another being FUNimation - sure I might be Anti-FUNi, I'll miss out on a lot of series - I don't care really. If anything, they only have 1 series to truly offer me in the future out of what, 10-20 or so titles?

I also agree with Unholy_Nny, this seems like a drawn out advertisement paid for by FUNimation, like they are eagerly hoping to sell a few more copies than the 23 copies sold already. This review, along with vol.1, didn't scare me away -- because I don't like FUNimation, so clearly, I won't be buying this and if I was Pro-FUNi, it'd still scare me away. I also never trust anything that says "the best" or "the greatest".

In essence, I find this series and this review, just a joke. I usually never post on ANN, when I do I try to be as courteus and nice as possible, but this review has kindof made me go off the deep end and somewhat made me laugh hysterically. I respect the reviewers past reviews and opinions as I found most of them dead-on and tend to agree with the past reviews 80-90% of the time, but this one just seems like an April Fool's Joke Advertisement thingymabobber.

- Sark

Edit: It wasn't correct to compare Twelve Kingdoms and MushiShi. Part removed.


Last edited by Sarkozy on Sun Sep 09, 2007 4:51 pm; edited 1 time in total
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teferi



Joined: 16 May 2006
Posts: 400
PostPosted: Sun Sep 09, 2007 4:49 pm Reply with quote
Zac wrote:
Unholy_Nny wrote:

Personally, I rarely trust anything that says "the best" or "the greatest" instead of something similar to "one of the best".

EDIT: Not to mention the review seems more like a drawn out advertisement, either that or a art film student who's trying to act impressive was the writer.

The review has actually scared me away from the series, it seems like some form of high-art that you're pure scum in the eyes of art-snobs for not liking.

Don't think that's the case here, but the way the series is described in the review makes me nervous.


So you're frightened by anything that seems like it was written by someone with an ounce of intelligence and passion for his subject?

There's no such thing as an "art film student". You can be an art student, or a film student, but not an "art film student".

People who are scared of college-educated opinions annoy me. Not everyone who writes with intelligence is 'trying to sound impressive".


Oh, give it a rest. Just because he disagrees with you and doesn't especially make a good job of making his point doesn't mean you have to jump on him in your fervor to defend the review. Petty acts like that don't really help anything.

If anything on some level I agree with Unholy_Nny on a level; the review gushes praise but makes an almost insignificant attempt at trying to explain why it might not be for some people.

Having seen some of the show I completely agree with the review; but for someone with no idea what's going on the description of episodic nature of the show and subdued pace of the show are understated to such a degree it's hard to be surpised someone might be scared off.
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Zac
ANN Executive Editor


Joined: 05 Jan 2002
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PostPosted: Sun Sep 09, 2007 5:06 pm Reply with quote
teferi wrote:

Oh, give it a rest. Just because he disagrees with you and doesn't especially make a good job of making his point doesn't mean you have to jump on him in your fervor to defend the review. Petty acts like that don't really help anything.


You give it a rest. I'm allowed to disagree with people and defend something I think is worth defending. So it's "petty" for me to express my opinion but everyone else is being totally fair? Give me a break, pal. I didn't "jump" on anyone, I expressed my disgust with the anti-intellectualism, lazy-ass "this is an advertisement!!" nonsense and bandwagon bashing present in this thread.

I'll let my writers know they're not allowed to like something too much and they have to write in a manner that doesn't suggest they have a decent vocabulary.
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teferi



Joined: 16 May 2006
Posts: 400
PostPosted: Sun Sep 09, 2007 5:33 pm Reply with quote
Zac wrote:
teferi wrote:

Oh, give it a rest. Just because he disagrees with you and doesn't especially make a good job of making his point doesn't mean you have to jump on him in your fervor to defend the review. Petty acts like that don't really help anything.


You give it a rest. I'm allowed to disagree with people and defend something I think is worth defending. So it's "petty" for me to express my opinion but everyone else is being totally fair? Give me a break, pal. I didn't "jump" on anyone, I expressed my disgust with the anti-intellectualism, lazy-ass "this is an advertisement!!" nonsense and bandwagon bashing present in this thread.

I'll let my writers know they're not allowed to like something too much and they have to write in a manner that doesn't suggest they have a decent vocabulary.

It's petty because you do it roughly every time someone disagrees (and that's just what I notice from browsing through the forums every now and then).

If your writers feel it's necessary to defned themselves against every person on the interweb that disagrees with them I'm sure they will. Then again most people understand that there inveitably will be someone that will disagree, and after a while it becomes obvious it's not worth bothering to defend their view against every random poster.

God, the first guy obviously didn't have anything to contribute, and if you don't think you jumped on him I don't know what that was then.

The point isn't that your writers aren't allowed to like something too much; they have to consider the views that are likely to oppose to theirs in more than two lines of text.
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Zac
ANN Executive Editor


Joined: 05 Jan 2002
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PostPosted: Sun Sep 09, 2007 5:43 pm Reply with quote
teferi wrote:

It's petty because you do it roughly every time someone disagrees (and that's just what I notice from browsing through the forums every now and then).


Then you're not paying very close attention. You're telling me I do that "roughly every time someone disagrees", which isn't true and never has been, and then you admit you don't read the forums very often? Thanks for the hyperbolic accusation, that's great.

I defend my reviewers, not their reviews. People can disagree all they want with the opinion expressed in the review. But that's not really what people are doing here; they're accusing the writer of "trying to sound intelligent", they're accusing the review of being an advertisement. I'm defending the writer against those charges and nothing else.

If you hate Mushishi and you think Carl's wrong about it that's fine. Post all you want about that. When it starts getting personal or people start accusing the review of being a "paid advertisement" that's when I step in.

And frankly, every single time I publish anything that's not written in the usual status quo style, people leap all over it and accuse the writer of "trying to sound smart" or being pretentious. This has happened 2 or 3 times now and it drives me crazy - the second we do or say anything outside of the normal style, it's met with derision and anger from people who are apparently offended by writing that maybe isn't as simple.

Do I sound defensive? Yes. Do I defend my writers when I think people are attacking them unfairly? Yes. I'm sorry that upsets you so much.


Last edited by Zac on Sun Sep 09, 2007 5:46 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Sam Murai



Joined: 01 Dec 2006
Posts: 1051
PostPosted: Sun Sep 09, 2007 5:44 pm Reply with quote
Unholy_Nny wrote:
Zac wrote:
zetsuie wrote:
i don't believe a word of this review


Back your opinion up with something or don't post it at all.


Personally, I rarely trust anything that says "the best" or "the greatest" instead of something similar to "one of the best".

EDIT: Not to mention the review seems more like a drawn out advertisement, either that or a art film student who's trying to act impressive was the writer.

The review has actually scared me away from the series, it seems like some form of high-art that you're pure scum in the eyes of art-snobs for not liking.

Don't think that's the case here, but the way the series is described in the review makes me nervous.


I understand how you feel. Personally, I too get a little iffy whenever that sort of praise is heaped onto a series, as it may not ring totally true (i.e. I don't think FMA was great, or even good, at all) . As someone who has seen Mushishi, I can vouch that the show is that good and that review pretty much captured my simliar sentiments. That being said, it's not an "elitist" show that only the purest of fans will like. Rather, it's a simple series with deeper implications that could be to your liking if you enjoy straight-up storytelling, episodic series, or slow, carefully done dramas (think many of the works of Ryousuke Takahashi).

The review was a bit cramped with the praise, but that's apparently just how much he was affected by what he saw, not so much that he was advertising it. If some thought it was boring (which, during its initial debut, was many), then that's not too surprising, as it is that kind of show that will either suck people into it or make them stop after one episode.
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Unholy_Nny



Joined: 22 Jun 2005
Posts: 622
PostPosted: Sun Sep 09, 2007 5:47 pm Reply with quote
Zac wrote:


I'll let my writers know they're not allowed to like something too much and they have to write in a manner that doesn't suggest they have a decent vocabulary.


Rule #1: You cannot use the word "the" implying it is the only. "One of the" is an appropriate replacement.

Rule #2: This site does not require, recommend, or enjoy writing styles not used by your average person. Consider your reader's brain intelligence level. Don't use words they can't understand. Also consider the way the rest of the material currently on the site is written, and try not to write at a level above that. (As hard as that may be.)


EDIT: And I didn't mean to make it seem like it was an advertisement, that was an off-hand comment because the only other reviews I have ever read that don't have anything bad to say about the series at least had the material for the review supplied to them.


Last edited by Unholy_Nny on Sun Sep 09, 2007 5:56 pm; edited 1 time in total
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