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Shelf Life - Love and Other Thugs


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dtm42



Joined: 05 Feb 2008
Posts: 14084
Location: currently stalking my waifu
PostPosted: Mon Dec 08, 2014 6:21 pm Reply with quote
I'm glad you came to like Log Horizon. It seemed so derivative but is in fact vastly different to other stories like Sword Art Online and the .hack franchise. I'm really glad I stuck with it.

As for the other two titles, I would have put them as Rental at best. Nisekoi completely failed to grab me, and even Shaft's trademark head-tilts and the attempts to rehabilitate tired jokes by placing them in the framework of yakuza families just didn't work. But Silver Spoon 2 was arguably worse. Hiromu Arakawa just doesn't understand people; no-one talks like Hachiken does. And as for the screwed-up aesops that get shoved down our throats each episode . . . ugh.
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maximilianjenus



Joined: 29 Apr 2013
Posts: 2862
PostPosted: Mon Dec 08, 2014 6:41 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
the "guy gets punched for a misunderstanding" is really old at this point,

and that can still be played wise, anime wise it's very boring, but the posible consequences are what can be made fresh; somethign like rivalvries being born fo that, or maybe ahving the girl/someone else nruse the guy because he got punched and lost a teeth or something.
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Fronzel



Joined: 11 Sep 2003
Posts: 1906
PostPosted: Mon Dec 08, 2014 6:44 pm Reply with quote
$50 for five episodes of Nisekoi? This is worse than the bad-old-days of everything on single DVDs.

Good think I've had enough of Shaft's now standardized visual abstraction.
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myskaros



Joined: 13 Jun 2011
Posts: 598
Location: J-Novel Club
PostPosted: Mon Dec 08, 2014 6:46 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
If I had to draw comparisons, Log Horizon is more like MAOYU than Sword Art Online


That's because the author of Log Horizon and the author of MaoYuu are one and the same Wink
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Megiddo



Joined: 24 Aug 2005
Posts: 8360
Location: IL
PostPosted: Mon Dec 08, 2014 6:59 pm Reply with quote
Glad to see you come around on Log Horizon as it is definitely worth the watch for how different it goes about things compared to other trapped-in-MMO/gameworld anime.

As for Nisekoi, I'm pretty sure I dropped it after the first episode. When I saw the ending theme and saw that there wasn't just one key I quickly tossed it aside. Shounen rom-com/harems are bad enough on their own, but the ones that drag out ad infinitum are just the worse.

I also couldn't watch more than a couple of episodes of Silver Spoon (first season) as it was not my thing. I grew up in Texas, but it was in the large city of Houston, and a slow meandering slice-of-life 'comedy' just didn't have much to interest me.
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L'Imperatore



Joined: 24 Mar 2014
Posts: 826
PostPosted: Mon Dec 08, 2014 7:07 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
There are aspects of Log Horizon that function much better as ideas than in practice, like the consideration of NPCs and their autonomy, or the fact that Akihabara's new government works largely based on mass compliance, satisfaction with stagnant roles, and blind trust in self-appointed leaders.

Ahaha, exactly. And it really helps that most of those trapped inside the game are kind-hearted young nerds. Imagine, for example, a bunch of those rotten real-life politicians managed to slip in.
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Hameyadea



Joined: 23 Jun 2014
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 08, 2014 7:18 pm Reply with quote
Log Horizon does a good job to translating the feel of playing an MMO to the small screen.
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noblesse oblige



Joined: 22 Dec 2012
Posts: 279
Location: Florida
PostPosted: Mon Dec 08, 2014 8:05 pm Reply with quote
Bamboo articulated the appeal of Silver Spoon perfectly. It's similar to Honey and Clover in the way it depicts young adults trying to find their way in life, and how they handle things like doubt and emotional conflict.

I'm surprised by the positive review of Log Horizon. Maybe I should have given it more of a chance, but as soon as the show decided to transform a cool female assassin character into a virginal loli romantic interest, I was done.


Last edited by noblesse oblige on Mon Dec 08, 2014 8:20 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Zalis116
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Joined: 31 Mar 2005
Posts: 6867
Location: Kazune City
PostPosted: Mon Dec 08, 2014 8:17 pm Reply with quote
Fronzel wrote:
$50 for five episodes of Nisekoi? This is worse than the bad-old-days of everything on single DVDs.
Not really; there were plenty of single DVDs back in the day that were $30 for 3 episodes, or sometimes $40 if it was a Vol.X+Artbox. Factor inflation in, and this isn't too much worse. What is worse, though...

Quote:
The series also wins in terms of visuals, provided by the talented hands at SHAFT, and overseen by the experienced Akiyuki Simbo. It's beautifully drawn (although some of the fanservice shots linger juuuuuuust a little too long), and it's clear the team had a lot of fun making the show.
It's also clear they had even more fun replacing actual backgrounds with generic blank backgrounds and sparkles, cropping away parts of the image in random places, and adding more censorship to the standard hot springs scenes later in the series for the Blu-Ray version. If there were ever a time when a "broadcast version on disc" release was preferable, this would be it.


Last edited by Zalis116 on Mon Dec 08, 2014 10:05 pm; edited 1 time in total
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relyat08



Joined: 20 Mar 2013
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Location: Northern Virginia
PostPosted: Mon Dec 08, 2014 8:22 pm Reply with quote
Definitely surprised by the positive words for Nisekoi. Given that it was animated by SHAFT, I actually really liked the first few episodes because it felt like it was laughing at generic anime tropes. I mean, there were so many cliches that it was impossible not to think it was a joke. After the story attempted to get serious, though, I was done. If it had played the whole thing as a joke it would have been much more enjoyable. I still watched the whole thing and, ultimately, enjoyed it, thanks largely due to SHAFTs animation, but it really felt like they wasted all of that talent on a story that was about as bland as stale bread.

Since it is an Aniplex release I would have still been tempted to give it a purchase if it actually received their normal treatment. Unfortunately it seems like they are going the lame slipcase route with a lot of their newer releases, so this is definitely a no-buy.
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gedata



Joined: 04 May 2013
Posts: 615
PostPosted: Mon Dec 08, 2014 8:30 pm Reply with quote
Log Horizon is a series I never gave a proper chance back when it started out. Shows with this type of premise have never jived with me well, but the positive words this show gets makes me want to suspend my bias. As for Nisekoi, the only shelf that series is worthy of is one that's about to be scrapped.
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dtm42



Joined: 05 Feb 2008
Posts: 14084
Location: currently stalking my waifu
PostPosted: Mon Dec 08, 2014 8:39 pm Reply with quote
Zalis116 wrote:
It's also clear they had even more fun replacing actual backgrounds with generic blank backgrounds and sparkles, cropping away parts of the image in random places, and adding more censorship to the standard hot springs scenes later in the series. If there were ever a time when a "broadcast version on disc" release was preferable, this would be it.


Ahahahahaha, I remember reading about that on Sankaku Complex. It's almost like the BluRay and the broadcast versions were swapped at birth or something. I wouldn't have picked Shaft for trolls, but there's basically no other valid explanation for increasing censorship and removing backgrounds for the home video release.

Talk about a big FU to fans . . . . . .
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Videogamep



Joined: 10 Jun 2014
Posts: 564
Location: CA
PostPosted: Mon Dec 08, 2014 8:45 pm Reply with quote
L'Imperatore wrote:

Ahaha, exactly. And it really helps that most of those trapped inside the game are kind-hearted young nerds. Imagine, for example, a bunch of those rotten real-life politicians managed to slip in.

That's probably because you don't see a lot of real world politicians playing MMOs. Their primary audience is young nerds.
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ANN_Bamboo
ANN Contributor


Joined: 05 Jan 2002
Posts: 3904
Location: CO
PostPosted: Mon Dec 08, 2014 10:50 pm Reply with quote
myskaros wrote:
Quote:
If I had to draw comparisons, Log Horizon is more like MAOYU than Sword Art Online


That's because the author of Log Horizon and the author of MaoYuu are one and the same Wink


Right, that was my point. But I skipped that whole thing in my head and didn't mention the author, so my point totally failed. Anime hyper
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Kougeru



Joined: 13 May 2008
Posts: 5526
PostPosted: Mon Dec 08, 2014 11:10 pm Reply with quote
dtm42 wrote:
Hiromu Arakawa just doesn't understand people; no-one talks like Hachiken does. And as for the screwed-up aesops that get shoved down our throats each episode . . . ugh.
Had to reply to this because it's very wrong. Just because you have not met someone that talks like that does not meet that they don't. I've met quite a few people and my best friend is very similar to him in a lot of ways including that.
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