×
  • remind me tomorrow
  • remind me next week
  • never remind me
Subscribe to the ANN Newsletter • Wake up every Sunday to a curated list of ANN's most interesting posts of the week. read more

Forum - View topic
Shelf Life - NY Noir


Goto page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5  Next

Note: this is the discussion thread for this article

Anime News Network Forum Index -> Site-related -> Talkback
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
Emerje



Joined: 10 Aug 2002
Posts: 7328
Location: Maine
PostPosted: Mon Nov 21, 2011 8:55 pm Reply with quote
Funny you mention Doctor Who (though it's hard not to when time travel is involved) seeing as how Steins;Gate solves their time paradox the same exact way the most recent season of Doctor Who does. spoiler[Both fix their paradox by having to fake the death of a character that is seen killed.] But Steins;Gate did it first, kinda makes you wonder if someone on the Doctor Who writing team read a Steins;Gate game summary for inspiration.

Emerje
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website My Anime My Manga
Surrender Artist



Joined: 01 May 2011
Posts: 3264
Location: Pennsylvania, USA
PostPosted: Mon Nov 21, 2011 9:26 pm Reply with quote
I think that ANN has by now more or less hit every note on Loup Garous; Zac Bertschy hated it, Theron Martin liked it, and Erin Finnegan was ambivalent about it. Well, perhaps it was meant as slightly more approving than that, but it read as ambivalent to me. It seems like it has some worthwhile content that's significantly flattened out by plenty that's various less-good. I half want to see Loup Garous now just to find where I'd stand and because some of it seems at least a little bit interesting, but I somehow doubt that I will.

I happen to like Noir a lot; I often mark it as one of my favorites. So this column is of course not really for my benefit. I was surprised that of my own usual criticisms of the series, only the excessive flashbacks appeared in this column. I've long wondered why they were repeated so much in the first half; I always thought that budget crises usually happened later in a production. I liked the languorous pace and even if it was motivated more by budget than style, it's still a feature, not a bug since felt that it added a lot to the mood.

Erin Finnegan wrote:
that I could swear the director was just making up the story as he went along.


Well, Kōichi Mashimo and his staff have, reportedly, a practice of developing ideas while drinking heavily... (Of course in this case spoiler[the red shoes] suggest that it was planned in advance, but I doubt that she was being literal)

I feel like I should be interested in Steins;Gate, the presence of a semicolon in the title should be enough, but somehow I haven't been yet.


Last edited by Surrender Artist on Tue Nov 22, 2011 9:26 pm; edited 2 times in total
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website My Anime My Manga
jmfsilenthill



Joined: 31 Aug 2009
Posts: 1863
Location: Chinese cartoons are srs biz
PostPosted: Mon Nov 21, 2011 9:52 pm Reply with quote
Nice collection. There aren't enough hours in a lifetime to watch all that stuff Laughing .
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
ninjapet



Joined: 20 Apr 2009
Posts: 1517
PostPosted: Mon Nov 21, 2011 9:57 pm Reply with quote
That collection is amazing, I wish I had a basement like that ;w;

As for the time travel in Steins;Gate. The anime cut a good bit of explanation of how everything worked and the risks Okabe faced in the later eps.

Then again the anime had 12 hours to fit in everything and the game can easily take 20 hours to read. But chps 5/6 and 8/9 of the VN explained the time travel stuff in detail. So if you really want more info on it read the VN, because a good chunk of the text in those parts of the game is just Kurisu explaining things.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Blood-
Bargain Hunter



Joined: 07 Mar 2009
Posts: 23669
PostPosted: Mon Nov 21, 2011 10:08 pm Reply with quote
I am deeply, deeply jealous of Conlan and Sharla's set up - that collection is to kill (or die) for. And I never thought of only cutting the plastic wrapping so that you can get the discs out and leaving the rest of it for protection.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime My Manga
nightjuan



Joined: 22 Jan 2008
Posts: 1473
PostPosted: Mon Nov 21, 2011 10:18 pm Reply with quote
Ironically enough, watching the 2009 Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom (or, to be more accurate, playing the visual novel from circa 2000 that it was based on...about, say, two or three years earlier) actually reduced my personal appreciation for Noir. In other words, I went through pretty much the exact opposite of Erin's reaction. Laughing

For better or for worse, I didn't find the presence of lesbians to be inherently appealing even back in 2001, plus all the excessive occultism and flashbacks that Mashimo seems to love so much ended up being more distracting and boring for me in Noir, both at the time and in retrospect, than whatever stereotypical or predictable genre elements may have been found in either the animated or game version of Phantom, regardless of Erin's understandable disinterest or annoyance concerning the same.

Haven't seen a single episode of Steins;Gate yet but it's looking like something I'd want to check out. Unfortunately, I doubt Loups=Garous will ever show up on my shelves (or hard drive) anytime soon. Then again, I haven't really read the other review here, so perhaps there's a small chance that might be saying too much.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
CareyGrant



Joined: 18 Nov 2009
Posts: 453
PostPosted: Mon Nov 21, 2011 10:45 pm Reply with quote
Noir, what a tease you are. I had such high yuri hopes, but no. Nothin' but a tease. While the series ultimately fizzled out for me, I remember, in the day, being madly impressed by the first episode. Here's our twin heroines puttin' the hurt assassin-style on a group of nameless goons in suits and shades, and then... Things slowed WAY down and the tone shifted: too many flashbacks, and such a slow pace for a movie about contract killers, assassins and mystery (like The American).

Needless to say, with each passing episode my fondness (and hopes) for Noir diminished, but I still remember that first ep. fondly.

As for Loup-Garous, I'm inclined to agree with Zac. The bad exposition writing, all the check-list otaku bait...

Lastly, THOSE SHELVES!!! Our should I say that basement! Hell, I'd have a home security system, too, if I was flaunting my stash of Anime & Manga Nerd Crack to a website frequented by internet-savvy Anime & Manga Addicts!

Conlan and Sharla, I tip my cap to you!
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Jrittmayer



Joined: 13 Oct 2009
Posts: 304
Location: New Jersey
PostPosted: Mon Nov 21, 2011 11:20 pm Reply with quote
Thats probably what my dream basement would look like.

Also, WHY IS EVERYTHING IN SHRINKWRAP? Such untouched beauty!
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
RiskyTheShinigami



Joined: 13 Nov 2004
Posts: 92
PostPosted: Mon Nov 21, 2011 11:29 pm Reply with quote
Them's nice shelves.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
B-503_MIA



Joined: 15 Dec 2008
Posts: 149
Location: Green Bay, WI
PostPosted: Mon Nov 21, 2011 11:38 pm Reply with quote
To Conlan - excellent collection! Fellow projector owner here (Optoma DV10), what's your rig?

Also notice that you don't have a screen, did you use screen goo or another kind of wall treatment?
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Sailor S





PostPosted: Mon Nov 21, 2011 11:54 pm Reply with quote
I am happy to see a collection like that in Shelf Life, mainly because it gives me an idea of how many pictures I can send in when I submit my pics. I'm thrilled to see someone with a collection that is close to mine, so when I finally get my DVDs, manga, and figures sent out to Shelf Life I'll know how many pics I can send in.

[Mod Edit: A passing mention of seeing the protestors isn't license to start a polarized political discussion in the forum. She simply mentioned the protestors in the opening, but wasn't making any political statements which are still off-topic. - Keonyn]
Back to top
zawa113



Joined: 19 Jan 2008
Posts: 7357
PostPosted: Tue Nov 22, 2011 12:10 am Reply with quote
Dem shelves! I feel like it's all of my rare manga and then like 5 times more! I think the only thing I didn't see was A, A'! Oooh, and a Paprika and Twelve Kingdoms novels! But the Princess Tutu singles and Basara get my envy especially!
But it must be a pain to rearrange everything a new volume comes in, but at that size, alphabetical is the way to go. I just don't get where people find the time to read or watch that amount of awesome.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime My Manga
Megiddo



Joined: 24 Aug 2005
Posts: 8360
Location: IL
PostPosted: Tue Nov 22, 2011 12:10 am Reply with quote
EDIT: Oh and Erin, while I find Noir enjoyable, I can understand that now 8 years late most of its charm (if it had any) has worn off. I like the extra work put into the backgrounds, and yes, there is so much slow-panning and still shots, but in the end it worked for me. Kajiura's music in Noir makes it one of if not my favorite anime OST. I'm surprised you didn't mention to totally unreal depiction of all the shooting without any blood in the series whatsoever (except in select cases).

Last edited by Megiddo on Tue Nov 22, 2011 12:19 am; edited 2 times in total
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
dboypr



Joined: 24 Mar 2011
Posts: 47
PostPosted: Tue Nov 22, 2011 12:23 am Reply with quote
Just forgot about everything that the reviewer wrote when I saw that collection, I'm speechless... Shocked
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
eyeresist



Joined: 02 Apr 2007
Posts: 995
Location: a 320x240 resolution igloo (Sydney)
PostPosted: Tue Nov 22, 2011 12:24 am Reply with quote
Some correctables in this week's column:

"The plot begins is no longer strictly about cat-maid cafés at that point"

"Everything is gray and takes in place dark rooms"

For some reason, Steins;Gate sounds really interesting to me. But then I like Primer Cool

Noir was by Bee Train. Need we discuss the matter further?
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime
Display posts from previous:   
Reply to topic    Anime News Network Forum Index -> Site-related -> Talkback All times are GMT - 5 Hours
Goto page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5  Next
Page 1 of 5

 


Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group