×
  • 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
REVIEW: K-ON! The Movie Blu-Ray


Goto page Previous    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
DmonHiro





PostPosted: Sat May 11, 2013 2:54 pm Reply with quote
You need good plot for a show to be good? Oh really? Then I guess Seinfeld was shit, wasn't it? Or, for a more anime example, Azumanga Daioh, Dragonball Z, Sailor Moon, those were all crap, right?
Back to top
EmperorBrandon
Encyclopedia Editor


Joined: 04 Oct 2002
Posts: 2209
Location: Springfield, MO
PostPosted: Sat May 11, 2013 3:06 pm Reply with quote
I was really anticipating this movie, and held out until Sentai's release to watch it, and I can't say it disappointed me at all. It has some absolutely beautiful moments of character interactions (things like Azusa and Yui on the airplane really left a lasting impression). Like the focus on the mundane moments during the trip.

Thinking about it, the movie doesn't really feel "necessary" in the same sense as say (to bring in another series-ending movie that I love to pieces), the second Cardcaptor Sakura movie, was, but I still felt it was an extraordinary complement to the later part of the second series. It ties in various things from that series so neatly (especially the song at the chronological end), even the opening animation with the classroom performance.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime My Manga
Zac
ANN Executive Editor


Joined: 05 Jan 2002
Posts: 7912
Location: Anime News Network Technodrome
PostPosted: Sat May 11, 2013 3:09 pm Reply with quote
DmonHiro wrote:
You need good plot for a show to be good? Oh really? Then I guess Seinfeld was shit, wasn't it? Or, for a more anime example, Azumanga Daioh, Dragonball Z, Sailor Moon, those were all crap, right?



...Do you not know what a 'plot' is?
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website My Anime
FenixFiesta



Joined: 22 Apr 2013
Posts: 2581
PostPosted: Sat May 11, 2013 3:16 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
Thinking about it, the movie doesn't really feel "necessary"

That is pretty much the trend of anime based movies, most are NOT exceptional pieces of media and could be seen generaly as a high budget episode or on the bad end of the scale an over drawn out filler episode.

K on the movie is on the better end of the scale of Anime series THE MOVIE, yet isn't on the "go tell everyone you know to watch this movie" type of situation, so I can easily see someone that didn't care for the series not haveing a positive reaction to the movie and on the flip side the targt audience eating up this favorite flavored slice of cake for what it is.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Megiddo



Joined: 24 Aug 2005
Posts: 8360
Location: IL
PostPosted: Sat May 11, 2013 3:17 pm Reply with quote
Zac wrote:
DmonHiro wrote:
You need good plot for a show to be good? Oh really? Then I guess Seinfeld was shit, wasn't it? Or, for a more anime example, Azumanga Daioh, Dragonball Z, Sailor Moon, those were all crap, right?

...Do you not know what a 'plot' is?

Something like Yui, Mio, Ritsu, and Mugi are struggling about what to give Azusa for a parting gift as their graduation looms closer, so they decide to all take a trip overseas to create more special memories. In the meantime, Yui is trying to come up with a song dedicated to Azusa.

I don't really find the K-ON movie as lacking in plot, personally. It does its job. It provides motivation for the characters' actions each step of the way.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Chagen46



Joined: 27 Jun 2010
Posts: 4377
PostPosted: Sat May 11, 2013 3:22 pm Reply with quote
Actar wrote:


I mean, do you look at the Mona Lisa (or Robot Carnival, or whatever) and go, "Oh, there's no plot and zero character development." Garbage. No, you don't, because you cannot go about applying these one set of criteria to everything.


Of course I don't, the Mona Lisa isn't a story, it's a piece of art. That was such a non-sequitur I'm not sure what your point was.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Megiddo



Joined: 24 Aug 2005
Posts: 8360
Location: IL
PostPosted: Sat May 11, 2013 3:27 pm Reply with quote
Haven't seen Robot Carnival then I take it? An anthology of shorts that don't really tie in together. Some have really fantastic animation, like Cloud.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Zac
ANN Executive Editor


Joined: 05 Jan 2002
Posts: 7912
Location: Anime News Network Technodrome
PostPosted: Sat May 11, 2013 3:36 pm Reply with quote
Megiddo wrote:
Zac wrote:
DmonHiro wrote:
You need good plot for a show to be good? Oh really? Then I guess Seinfeld was shit, wasn't it? Or, for a more anime example, Azumanga Daioh, Dragonball Z, Sailor Moon, those were all crap, right?

...Do you not know what a 'plot' is?

Something like Yui, Mio, Ritsu, and Mugi are struggling about what to give Azusa for a parting gift as their graduation looms closer, so they decide to all take a trip overseas to create more special memories. In the meantime, Yui is trying to come up with a song dedicated to Azusa.

I don't really find the K-ON movie as lacking in plot, personally. It does its job. It provides motivation for the characters' actions each step of the way.


K-ON is light on plot, for sure, but it does have one. Things happen and it does build toward some manner of climax, even if it is slow-paced and extremely low-key, with a focus on character interaction above all else.

I saw the film and thought it was really boring, just like the show. But saying it doesn't have a plot is flat-out wrong.

Actual 'plotless' cinema doesn't resemble traditional narrative. It's usually art film and 99.9% of people have zero exposure to it - not much of it even gets made.

Megiddo wrote:
Haven't seen Robot Carnival then I take it? An anthology of shorts that don't really tie in together. Some have really fantastic animation, like Cloud.


And with the exception of Cloud every short film in Robot Carnival has a plot. Why are people even bringing Robot Carnival up?
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website My Anime
Mohawk52



Joined: 16 Oct 2003
Posts: 8202
Location: England, UK
PostPosted: Sat May 11, 2013 3:37 pm Reply with quote
This will definitely be a rent for me, but when I do get it I will listen to the Japanses track to get the proper gist of them trying to speak "broken Engrish" I don't think the dub would do that as well, but I'll give both a try. I rented the TV series basically because my daughter was interested in it as she had read all the hype, but we both got bored with it after 4 episodes and dropped it. She is 18 and we both couldn't figure out what all the fuss was about. "It's like watching paint dry" her quote and I have to agree. I'm glad we dropped it. I was not comfortable watching it. I felt like a stalker peeking in though a hole in the wall at these girls. At least this Move has an interest in the fact it's location is near where I work and there's at least the plot of a couple of Japanese first time tourists who have never been anywhere outside of Japan ending up on the other side of the planet in Blighty. I have seen real live Japanese tourists doing very similar things.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
EnigmaticSky



Joined: 06 Aug 2011
Posts: 750
PostPosted: Sat May 11, 2013 4:20 pm Reply with quote
Chagen46 wrote:
RyanSaotome wrote:

I think a big part of it is cultural. When I look at Japanese blogs and forums, I never see any kind of obsession with plot like the West typically has. People care far more about the character development, the attention to detail, evoking feelings about the characters, etc. This is probably why anime is going away from the stuff the West likes.


>Implying that character devlopment isn't a fundamental part of writing in general
>Implying that westeners don't care about detail
>Implying that GOOD WRITING doesn't focus on BOTH characters and plot

Ryan, I know you desperately want to become Japanese but stop fabricating BS out of thin air.


I have to agree. I tried watching the series. I REALLY wanted to like it. But I couldn't. I felt like I was watching paint dry. The characters develop little more than "Yui's an airhead, Mio kinda wants to get stuff done, Ritsu has energy, Mugi is rich" and nothing ever seems to happen. Laughs were few and far between, and I saw little reason to keep watching. Waiting for Godot was a brilliant read despite it's plotless nature, that is plotlessness done right. I even liked Lucky Star quite a bit because it was genuinely funny (after a few episodes). K-On! though? It had little more than pretty visuals and (supposedly) cute girls. It wasn't BAD, but it was a fairly boring affair.

I will watch the movie really just for the sake of completing the series; maybe I will like it more.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
FenixFiesta



Joined: 22 Apr 2013
Posts: 2581
PostPosted: Sat May 11, 2013 4:28 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
I will watch the movie really just for the sake of completing the series; maybe I will like it more.

You won't.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
DmonHiro





PostPosted: Sat May 11, 2013 4:29 pm Reply with quote
Zac wrote:
...Do you not know what a 'plot' is?


I'm confused. In the next comment you posted, you seem to have the same idea as me. Maybe I phrased my comment wrong. I meant to say that you don't always need some epic plot to be a good show.
Back to top
dtm42



Joined: 05 Feb 2008
Posts: 14084
Location: currently stalking my waifu
PostPosted: Sat May 11, 2013 4:54 pm Reply with quote
I tend to just treat "story" as what the characters actually do and feel; it's the sum of their actions and the narrative themes. On the other hand I treat "plot" as being the goal(s) that must be fulfilled (for lack of a better way to explain it). Plot is naturally influenced by characters and often intimately tied to them, but plot seems to influence characters just as much as characters can change plot. With this in mind, a show like Usagi Drop doesn't actually have a plot, because there's nothing for the characters to do. They're not saving the world or winning a war or tracking down a serial killer or anything like that. However, Usagi Drop definitely has a story, and a damn good one at that.

Plot is external, story is internal. That's a really simplistic and crude way of putting things but I believe it is a useful shortcut to roughly classify Anime between those where characters dictate events - like K-ON! or Only Yesterday - and those where events test characters, like PSYCHO-PASS or Seirei no Moribito. Naturally of course there's a huge overlap between plot and story, I'm not saying there's not. But it's useful to classify shows depending how whether the story or the plot is dominant, i.e. the driving force. That's just the way I look at it. In that vein I'd say that Bleach for example is quite plot-driven because everything Ichigo does is forced by outside circumstances and he must always overcome the challenges raised by the plot. Yes, Shounen battling is a very simple plot, but a plot nonetheless. At least I reckon so.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime
Zac
ANN Executive Editor


Joined: 05 Jan 2002
Posts: 7912
Location: Anime News Network Technodrome
PostPosted: Sat May 11, 2013 5:19 pm Reply with quote
dtm42 wrote:
I tend to just treat "story" as what the characters actually do and feel; it's the sum of their actions and the narrative themes. On the other hand I treat "plot" as being the goal(s) that must be fulfilled (for lack of a better way to explain it). Plot is naturally influenced by characters and often intimately tied to them, but plot seems to influence characters just as much as characters can change plot. With this in mind, a show like Usagi Drop doesn't actually have a plot, because there's nothing for the characters to do. They're not saving the world or winning a war or tracking down a serial killer or anything like that. However, Usagi Drop definitely has a story, and a damn good one at that.

Plot is external, story is internal. That's a really simplistic and crude way of putting things but I believe it is a useful shortcut to roughly classify Anime between those where characters dictate events - like K-ON! or Only Yesterday - and those where events test characters, like PSYCHO-PASS or Seirei no Moribito. Naturally of course there's a huge overlap between plot and story, I'm not saying there's not. But it's useful to classify shows depending how whether the story or the plot is dominant, i.e. the driving force. That's just the way I look at it. In that vein I'd say that Bleach for example is quite plot-driven because everything Ichigo does is forced by outside circumstances and he must always overcome the challenges raised by the plot. Yes, Shounen battling is a very simple plot, but a plot nonetheless. At least I reckon so.


WHy do you feel like you need to come up with your own definitions for things that are very clearly already defined?

Here is the story of Lord of the Rings:

Hero overcomes obstacle to save the day and realize inner potential.

Here is the plot of Lord of the Rings:

Frodo Baggins is asked by Gandalf to take the One Ring to Mount Doom yadda yadda yadda

Plot is what happens narratively, story is the basic concept. You can always describe the story of something without ever using character names. That's it. Very simple.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website My Anime
MarthKoopa



Joined: 08 Apr 2012
Posts: 271
PostPosted: Sat May 11, 2013 5:29 pm Reply with quote
What was more disappointing than the lazy handling of Engrish, was the outright removal of Azu-sist jokes, and replacing it with just plain "let me hold your stuff" or "can you hold my stuff?".

Why in the heck would they remove the best joke of the whole movie?
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Display posts from previous:   
Reply to topic    Anime News Network Forum Index -> Site-related -> Talkback All times are GMT - 5 Hours
Goto page Previous    Next
Page 2 of 11

 


Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group