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Pile of Shame - Genesis Surviver Gaiarth


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Blanchimont



Joined: 25 Feb 2012
Posts: 3426
Location: Finland
PostPosted: Tue Mar 05, 2013 12:51 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
Availability (Japan): A 2-disc DVD boxed set was released in 2004, and might be out of print. No English. Old VHS and LD releases are likely out there as well.

Availability (English): Subtitled VHS and LD, Dubbed VHS from AnimEigo (out of print)

Something's missing.

The dual-audio rips (based on LD and DVD) of this out there with stereo ac3, and the one English-dub only LD-rip, suggest there must have been at least a dubbed LD release of it. Or did Madman release this in Australia?

Edit; After doing few searches, apparently the AnimEigo -96 LD release was with double-sided discs, one side with subtitles, the other dubbed.

Source/disc info found here;


Last edited by Blanchimont on Tue Mar 05, 2013 2:22 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Snomaster1
Subscriber



Joined: 31 Aug 2011
Posts: 2793
PostPosted: Tue Mar 05, 2013 1:37 pm Reply with quote
I'll be honest. I've never heard of this anime before now. I don't know if I'll try to find it. I don't think it would be necessary. This "Genesis Surviver Gaiarth" seems to be one that old Justin didn't like. I've never seen it before. And I don't think they ever showed this on the Sci-Fi Channel when it had anime.
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Chrno2



Joined: 28 May 2004
Posts: 6171
Location: USA
PostPosted: Tue Mar 05, 2013 1:55 pm Reply with quote
Yeah, this one is from my old HS days. But it was one that escaped my radar during my AIC days. Looking at it now I wonder if the same designer also worked on Moldiver. While Moldiver was from the later 90's it still retains the style and feel of the past late 80's. And then there was Tenchi which was still at the heart of AIC's 90 legacy.

I never found anyone that had a commercial copy to borrow. Or even a recorded copy. Kind of sad that it wasn't much but then again much of those OVAs are 'hit or miss'.

Glad that you guys are getting to visit some of these old unheard of titles. But I wonder if anyone will see this film released one day.
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walw6pK4Alo



Joined: 12 Mar 2008
Posts: 9322
PostPosted: Tue Mar 05, 2013 2:04 pm Reply with quote
I think I watched this one possibly dubbed while half paying attention, and I doubt I missed anything I could haven gotten from Lemnear. And Moldiver is from 1993, and shows it. As with most old anime that I'm not too keen on revisiting any time soon in their current formats, I think I'd make exceptions when a BD or maybe remastered DVD is released, since now the entire visual experience is enhanced and thus different. I've felt better about Harmageddon and BAOH after checking them out in better quality. Even if the story and writing don't change, appreciation can.
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No Comment



Joined: 19 Jun 2012
Posts: 83
PostPosted: Tue Mar 05, 2013 2:47 pm Reply with quote
Man, Community really is a husk of its former self. It all feels so forced. I think I'm bugged more by the fact that all my friends haven't noticed the drop in quality though. I'd rather be suffering than ignorant.
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jsevakis
Former ANN Editor in Chief


Joined: 28 Jul 2003
Posts: 1684
Location: Los Angeles, CA
PostPosted: Tue Mar 05, 2013 3:06 pm Reply with quote
Blanchimont wrote:
After doing few searches, apparently the AnimEigo -96 LD release was with double-sided discs, one side with subtitles, the other dubbed.

Ah, thank you! Fixed.
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belvadeer





PostPosted: Tue Mar 05, 2013 3:16 pm Reply with quote
The mecha warrior designs look cool I guess. Probably the only thing getting my attention here.

Quote:
It's as if everyone was imagined as J-RPG characters, destined to fight battles and fetch objects, but with no human interaction more meaningful than a few screens of expository text.


Quote:
There is nothing here that couldn't be predicted or written by any 10-year-old who had ever played a fantasy RPG or seen a handful of movies, and there is no attempt to add even a shred of personality or twist on any of the tropes here.


You must be getting JRPG confused with WRPG.
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dtm42



Joined: 05 Feb 2008
Posts: 14084
Location: currently stalking my waifu
PostPosted: Tue Mar 05, 2013 3:41 pm Reply with quote
Justin wrote:
And so it is with anime: even the lamest dude-falls-on-boob gags are delivered with awkward silence, a pregnant pause, and THEN a sight gag.


That sense of timing may be typical of Anime, but putting a pause in doesn't prevent the gag from being unfunny.

I get what you were talking about with characters sitting in the rain. If done properly, those sorts of scenes can deliver so much without having to say a word and set the mood. I am reminded of Grave of the Fireflies, how its quiet scenes were instrumental in causing an unsettling foreboding.

But I don't think that Anime has to follow a particular rhythm just to be watchable. Too often, the rhythm is simply wrong. A walk-in scene in the first episode of PapaKiki where the guy and girl stand there for fifteen seconds before finally reacting is not automatically funny just because of the pause (in fact, it was terrible).

As with anything in life, execution is the most important thing. Though I have not seen Genesis Surviver Gaiarth, I'd be happy to wager that it still could have been good even if it had followed a different rhythm to other Anime, if that rhythm had been executed sufficiently well.
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Moonsaber



Joined: 16 Jan 2007
Posts: 343
Location: USA
PostPosted: Tue Mar 05, 2013 6:00 pm Reply with quote
I actually own a cel from this show, framed and hanging on my wall.

Why? Because it was cheap, and a fairly nice head shot of the main character. I did see the first OAV back when this came out, and being fairly new to anime at the time I liked it enough to pick up the cel.

Honestly, this show is on my pile of shame too, and I own a cel of it. Guess I will need to show that off in a Shelf Life sometime, huh?

Cheers, thanks for reminding me of this show.
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rheiders



Joined: 05 Jul 2011
Posts: 1137
Location: Colorful Colorado :)
PostPosted: Tue Mar 05, 2013 6:04 pm Reply with quote
I think you're right about the timing. I'd never noticed it before, but I think that moment of silence before the punch is really effective, and now that I think about it I really don't see it in the Western cartoons I watch. I was immediately reminded of the scene in Summer Wars right after spoiler[Chieko dies], when the movie just gives the characters a minute or two to mourn, and we see Natsuki break down crying. There's no weird camera angle, no music--she just sits there, crying. And it's really a beautiful little scene.
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Galap
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Joined: 07 Apr 2012
Posts: 2354
PostPosted: Tue Mar 05, 2013 6:33 pm Reply with quote
I think it might be appropriate to put my two cents in, seeing as I've seen this OVA and actually liked it. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't the greatest thing ever, but I did like it.

I liked how it was in fact a slightly different take on the whole post apocalyptic scifi thing, in that what it really was was essentially a classic midieval sword and sorcery fantasy told in a scifi context. It did this quite well mostly through little details like one track on the soundtrack being essentially a heavy metal baroque piece (ala Rhapsody of Fire), which fit the setting very well (actually, the whole show could easily be described as 'heavy metal baroque'). With robots and robot beasts instead of knights and dragons, and lightsabers (essentially) instead of swords, it crafted a pretty unique mood. They even have 'tame beast' mounts.

The dub was acually pretty good as far as far as 90s dubs go: not distracting in a thing where the acting isn't the main focus anyway. I actually prefer it to the sub because for this pretty simple story it flows better and instead of literally translating the programming/poetry incantations, they wrote ones that worked in english. Probably the coolest thing about this show was this 'magic', which is delivered in the form of poetical incantations containing programming/hacking terminology. For example:

Dark one, creator, master of the gates
Assign their files to dismal fates
If directories mangle and 'hithers mung'
(can't quite hear what he says here)
Their systems forever shall be hung!

And

Finding entry, hacking root
Crashing systems, force reboot!


I actually kind of wish we got to see more of this but oh well.

It's not that the story had absolutely no depth to it, either. The one theme that I found to be interesting was the fact that despite the fact that there has been some apocalyptic event and huge war, and that there are both intelligent robots and humans in existence, they pretty much treat each other as equals and have a relationship in which they rely on each other. However the less intelligent 'beast' robots are treated as animals since they really do possess lower intelligence.

I do recognize that this thing isn't for everyone, and that your sensibilities probably have to be warped in a certain way for you to appreciate it. I think what people miss about it is that it's essentially a moodpiece, but the mood that it's exuding isn't one that is typically used in moodpieces, which are usually creepy, heady, or somber, whereas this one is kind of garish and adventurous. I really appreciated seeing something that seemed dedicating to inhabiting that kind of mood.

I also think the ending theme to the first and third episodes (I think it also played during the first episode) is one of the most catchy songs in existence. It keeps coming into my head again and again despite the fact that it's been quite some time since I've watched this. You can listen to it here, but be warned: once you listen to it, you may never be rid of it Twisted Evil :http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJLviAsnsIk
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Chagen46



Joined: 27 Jun 2010
Posts: 4377
PostPosted: Tue Mar 05, 2013 6:33 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
It's as if everyone was imagined as J-RPG characters, destined to fight battles and fetch objects, but with no human interaction more meaningful than a few screens of expository text.


Funny, because one of the things that marks a JRPG instantly these days is an absurd amount of character interaction.
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ailblentyn



Joined: 28 Mar 2009
Posts: 1688
Location: body in Ohio, heart in Sydney
PostPosted: Tue Mar 05, 2013 7:41 pm Reply with quote
And in my pile of shame as well. (I can almost see the three tapes from where I sit.)

I have two questions:
1) How could you write a whole column on this show — with not one mention the amazingness of the title's spelling? You're a strong man.

2) Why did Helen McCarthy include it in her best 500 movies and OVAs? I need to see if I can find that book and see what she has to say again.
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JacobC
ANN Contributor


Joined: 15 Jan 2008
Posts: 3728
Location: SoCal
PostPosted: Tue Mar 05, 2013 8:02 pm Reply with quote
rheiders wrote:
I think you're right about the timing. I'd never noticed it before, but I think that moment of silence before the punch is really effective, and now that I think about it I really don't see it in the Western cartoons I watch.


Yeah, it's not really encouraged or executed even in really good Western cartoons with dramatic elements. Guess it reads as too much wasted time on paper too. But it is noticeable when missing from anime, usually in the most horribly amateurish efforts like Aoi Sekai no Chushin de which seems painfully hashed out by fans with little to no knowledge of storytelling morays either in the writing or the animation. (Also, one episode gets done like...every three months.) It doesn't happen often, but when it does, it hits you right in the face with how "off" it is.
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Maize Hughes



Joined: 28 Aug 2011
Posts: 81
PostPosted: Tue Mar 05, 2013 8:25 pm Reply with quote
Galap wrote:
I think it might be appropriate to put my two cents in, seeing as I've seen this OVA and actually liked it. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't the greatest thing ever, but I did like it.


I think it's probably to your credit that you liked it. Anime is a kind of projective test, and the way you interpreted it makes you seem like an interesting, imaginative person. I think every anime could use an intelligent, sensitive, fan to love it, and I really enjoy finding out what people see in otherwise obscure works.

Also, this is kind of clever, and shows some thought on the part of the English scriptwriter:

Finding entry, hacking root
Crashing systems, force reboot!
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