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Animerican14
Joined: 19 Aug 2006
Posts: 963
Location: Saint Louis, MO
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Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2012 2:43 am
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Hey, speaking of references... in episode 1, wasn't the crowbar a reference to flippin' Gordon Freeman of Half-Life? After all, he too fought Lovecraft-inspired monsters, didn't he?
Man, I'm really happy that I followed up on my gut instinct before the season even started to catch this series. I'll gladly oblige to seeing the rest! ... As a free-loading Crunchy Roll member that'll always be a week-late to the party, sadly.
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walw6pK4Alo
Joined: 12 Mar 2008
Posts: 9322
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Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2012 4:45 am
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DuskyPredator wrote: | On another note, I decided to start reading some H.P. Lovecraft to get a little more involved, so far read: Nightgaunts, Dagon, The Statement of Randolph Carter, The Doom That Came to Sarnath, The Cats of Ulthar, The Nameless City, Herbert West - Reanimator, The Music of Erich Zann, The Lurking Fear, and The Hound. They can be hard to read, but not as hard as I expected. |
Yeah, reading the Lovecraft stuff does sort of help put a kind of understanding behind the show. Nyaruko does things beyond human comprehension, and could be lying about everything she tells Mahiro. I wish the original work and thus its adaptation had made more attempts to incorporate the fear and horror into the story, it seems weak so far outside of normal harem anime antics. More Great Old Ones, less school.
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pokefreaks
Joined: 01 Sep 2006
Posts: 45
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Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2012 4:45 am
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I missed my chance to check out the last year's short episodes of Nyaruko San. I'm glad I pick this up for this season. Also, love the crowbar since I'm such a melee weapon freaks in video games.
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DuskyPredator
Joined: 10 Mar 2009
Posts: 15571
Location: Brisbane, Australia
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Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2012 7:35 am
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About the crowbar, it was in the original, so I am not sure if it intentional reference to Gordon. From my understanding it is supposed to be a reference to a pharaoh's scepter, and one of Nyarlathotep's forms is that of a pharaoh.
I would say that Mahiro has had a fill of horror, been attacked by nighthaunts, seen his own protector do things pretty inhuman (he was losing sanity points), rode a Dagon to a theme park full of eldritch abominations. And worst of all find out that he narrowly missed out becoming part of some alien peepshow, the romantic role being sold to some freaking beast. So probably no horor for audience, just the characters, the thing to look out for will be memory loss that seems to hapen to a lots of the protaganists.
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Mister V
Joined: 15 Apr 2009
Posts: 1000
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Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2012 2:34 pm
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Blood- wrote: |
Mister V wrote: | I hope our male tsundere warms up towards her. |
Sadly, I doubt he ever will. |
Like the others have said - he just knows the Mythos. Actually I've read somewhere that in the LNs he is very much aware of that, all the time, and that kind of messes with his perception of her.
...not that I'd care This is the Japanese version, after all, their main form is 'cute girl' by default, canon notwithstanding, so in the end we are talking about Nyaruko, not the 'real' Nyarly.
Besides, it's been a long time since I've seen a good genki character, too, so it gets a lot of bonus points.
(Actually, this season seems to be rich in nice female characters, wonder what's up with that)
I was sure that the crowbar is a HL reference from the start. Like, obvious. If it's a double reference to the sceptre, then it's even better.
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Xanas
Joined: 27 Aug 2007
Posts: 2058
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Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2012 11:30 pm
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I know nothing about Lovecraft at all but I have to say I love this show. It seems to just have a lot of energy to it and that makes it extremely compelling to me. It's definitely totally out there, but it's probably my favorite show thus far this season. I've rewatched both episodes of this show within the same week and that's not something I've done in awhile as I've started to watch more shows during each season.
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DuskyPredator
Joined: 10 Mar 2009
Posts: 15571
Location: Brisbane, Australia
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Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2012 11:01 pm
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Episode 3
Well Nyarko definetly got a taste of her own medicine, even Mahiro gave some suport. The similarity to Nyarko and pharaoh outfit showed that the villain was a Nyarlotephian, but it took me to almost half way to figure out it was obviously her older brother. I like the little touches at making character look tough, then ruin their images with being NEET, Nyarko apparently being competent with a test and Kuuko useing her uncle seems funny.
Oh liked the little thing in the begining where she was doing the onii-chan, and threw in Nii-nii, Nyarko seiyu also did the sister from Amagami SS. Nyaruko seems to have no awareness that what Kuuko is doing to her is exactly what she does to Mahiro.
Oh and shock horror, next episode will apparently have his mother returning while he now has two girl living with him, a rare thing indeed in anime.
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Otishio
Joined: 04 Mar 2012
Posts: 73
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Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2012 12:03 am
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I adored this weeks episode and finally glad that I noticed not just one but two references this week; I caught the Fullmetal Alchemist one and the Kore wa Zombie desu ka. I really am liking this show a lot and am anxious to see how his mom is going to react to the two girls at his house.
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Polycell
Joined: 16 Jan 2012
Posts: 4623
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Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2012 1:54 am
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"Humankind" always bugged me. We have "humanity" and "mankind"; why exactly do we need to scrunch them together? But then, Funimation made that choice a long time ago and it's too late to bitch at them now for it.
On the episode itself, I like how they almost completely ignored Nyarlo. It's almost like the serious side of the plot exists solely for the purpose of bringing th cast together...... I must be missing something.
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DuskyPredator
Joined: 10 Mar 2009
Posts: 15571
Location: Brisbane, Australia
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Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2012 2:10 am
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I was thinking that chances are that his mother is mixed up somehow in the cosmic horrors, the honeymoon thing sounds like it is just an excuse, maybe why he seems so knowledgable of Lovecraft. It might be one reason why he was targeted, her suden return might have something to do with what is hapening, or imagine if Nyaruko's off handed joke about his blood being true.
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Veers
Joined: 31 Oct 2008
Posts: 1197
Location: Texas
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Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2012 12:11 pm
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Cthulhuguu~ face in episode 3 just shot this anime up a rank in my book. Show's been chuckle-tier silly so far, but that part made me burst out laughing.
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Polycell
Joined: 16 Jan 2012
Posts: 4623
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Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2012 9:48 pm
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New-episode's-out bump.
Good to know Mahiro sees the similarities between how Nyaruko treats him and how Kuuko treats her. Also interesting to see that forks seem to run in the family.
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HaruhiToy
Joined: 15 Apr 2008
Posts: 4118
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Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2012 10:16 pm
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Polycell wrote: | New-episode's-out bump. |
This series is "bump"ing along with a perfectly predictable train of tropes. The main one here is where the Dreaded Parent Arrival They Will Misunderstand Everything morphs into The Parent Is Cooler Than You Thought. Or some such.
For some strange reason I find it pleasant to see the cute girls getting the stiff-arm, being dejected for a few moments, then coming back for more. Another predictable trope, but they manage to make some moderately entertaining moments out of it. Like when Mahiro chats with his mom while Nyarko fends off the perverted Kuuko off screen.
Nothing ground-breaking here, but what it does it manages to do well enough.
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DuskyPredator
Joined: 10 Mar 2009
Posts: 15571
Location: Brisbane, Australia
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Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2012 10:55 pm
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Nyaruko's made up background turned out somewhat true. Got to say I get some entertainment out of seeing the characters web between who they like and telling other one off, like Mahiro "who knows?". Oh and the mother noting that Shanta-kun is harmless, and Nyaruko also trying to pass herself as so.
Oh and it looks to be a technicle harem now, even though one is a boy it still counts, also voiced by Rie Kugimiya. Actually based on Mahiro's emphasis on Hasuta being refered to by "-kun" that he is feeling slightly guilty, the nice one has to be a trap. I actually already figured it out from the OP and ED song.
I so want to see what is the deal with the green haired woman, I assume that she is the chief or something, but her nun disguise seemed a little unneceserry, actually it would have gotten attention.
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Melanchthon
Joined: 02 Oct 2010
Posts: 550
Location: Northwest from Here
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Posted: Wed May 02, 2012 8:40 pm
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I'm rocking this show, by the way. But I wanted to mention two things I observed while watching the last two eps, 3 & 4. Sexism (whoa, big shocker there, right? But this is more subtle). In the third episode, the brother says something along the line, “No sister should be allowed to surpass her older brother”. What stuck me was the use of the word imouto instead of the word kyoudai (sibling). It is possible that kyoudai is only properly used with multiple siblings, I don't know, my Japanese is entirely self taught, but the point I'm trying to make is that while Japan is still a highly hierarchical society (Even in shows where there are characters who are twins, there is great emphasis on age-based honors and roles, even if the time separating the two is only minutes) the line also could be read to say that no woman should surpass a man. The joke is that Nyaruko dispatches him easily, but Nyaruko is the living aspect of chaos, and so while she does 'surpass' her brother, it is not necessarily a thing to be viewed in a positive light. But I could be reading too much into it.
Anyway, in the 4th ep, the mother is introduced as a part time monster hunter. When the male lead inquires about what the father thinks of this, she oozes, “He's such a nice husband to allow me to work a part-time job”. Now, I am no feminist, but to say that a woman can only work at the pleasure of her husband just rankles me. And not only that, but the way she makes it sound like its a kind privilege to be allowed to work makes this one of the worst things I have heard today. But if you think about it, this show is a very 'otaku-conservative' show. 'Otaku-conservative' is a term I just made up on the spot, but I use it to define a strongly male privileged attitude with strongly defined gender/social roles, but with none of the responsibilities attached. Facets of this idea present here: The male doesn't have to work for love, the girl falls literally from the sky and into love with him; The female works to please the male, but the male does not reciprocate (He does make dinner, though, which was surprising); The main villains so far have been homosexuals; The yuri character so far has been little more than a joke and mostly comprised of lust, men generally find no threat in sexually-charged scenes between two girls; And there is a bizarre over-praise of the otaku lifestyle. The standard otaku hobbies are shown to be immensely popular in space, despite there low popularity even in their place of origin.
I like this show, I think it is hilarious, and the voice acting superb. But the foundations it is built on are the lowest-common-denominator otaku world-view, and that is a pity. Instead of something truly creative, we merely got something that is clever.
And on a side note, I have long considered Kugimiya Rie to be a foremost voice actress of this generation. I know people like to hate on her because she always gets typecast into the loli tsundere role, but if you get her out of that, you will find she has an amazing talent and range. She has given this show an excellent performance so far.
//Interesting question: What is worse, the low grade constant sexism of Haiyoru, or the sparse but heavy racism of Lovecraft?
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