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Looking for opinions on Peacemaker




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joshuafer



Joined: 03 Jan 2006
Posts: 262
PostPosted: Fri Apr 20, 2007 10:21 am Reply with quote
Rightstuf is doing a pretty decent sale on ADV stuff, I have already placed some orders, and I was wondering if I should pick this up. I have seen previews, and from what I can tell, it looks fairly violent and gory. I have no problem with that really, and since it is animated by gonzo, I am sure the visuals will be decent. How is the story ? Plot ? characters ? Is it all doom and gloom ? Some funniness or no ? I always like a little humor in my anime.
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Deltakiral



Joined: 07 Oct 2004
Posts: 3338
Location: Glendora, CA (Avatar Hei from Darker than BLACK)
PostPosted: Fri Apr 20, 2007 11:02 am Reply with quote
Personally I am not a fan of Peacemaker, I thought the show was lacking in development of it's characters and also how portray people in that part of history.

If you want to read more opinions check out this thread.
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kolibri



Joined: 23 Aug 2006
Posts: 712
Location: Vancouver
PostPosted: Fri Apr 20, 2007 11:16 am Reply with quote
If you like funny, maybe you'll like Peacemaker.

I have to say I agree with most of the stuff on that other thread - I think when it was serious it was very good, but most of the time it's not, it's very silly. I enjoyed it well enough - I bought the thinpacks, and we watched it all within a week or so which wouldn't happen if we weren't into it. But in the end there's really not much substance left... but if you get it cheap and you like silly and you like samurai, I'd say go for it.

I'm really looking forward to reading the manga though, hopefully Tokyopop will start publishing it soon.
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Tony K.
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Joined: 18 Nov 2003
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Location: Frisco, TX
PostPosted: Fri Apr 20, 2007 11:21 am Reply with quote
Read my review in My Anime for an overview of the technical stuff (art, animation, music), while below is just my general rant.

I was very excited after watching the first four episodes of this series because I developed "a thing" for Bakumatsu/Meiji period pieces after seeing Kenshin and The Last Samurai (best Tom Cruise movie ever).

However, PMK (Peace Maker Kurogane, the actual name that ADV decided to change for whatever reason since it clearly is not the same thing as the Shinsengumi Imon Peace Maker or Peace Maker Kurogane manga) disappointed me a lot between volumes 2-5.

It's not as gory as it looks aside from episode 4 and until the last two volumes because the series has way too much comedy to do this period piece any justice. Bakumatsu was a very turbulent and violent era of war, but they spent too many episodes developing a lame sense of friendship and not focusing enough on the actual story.

You can basically think of Tetsunosuke as a reversed character of Kenshin. The premise is that his parents were killed in front of him and that he and his brother basically join the Shinsengumi to exact revenge because they know the murderer was a Choushuu. But the way it resembles a reverse Kenshin is that Tetsu has never actually killed anyone, yet he wants so bad to have "the power" to do so, and the jist of the story is supposed to be his conflict over whether or not he's to become a "demon" like Okita and the rest of the Mibu-roh.

So what happens between the great setup of the first four episodes and the last (let's say..) six? Lame, lame, lame interaction. He loses focus of the real goal at hand, while they throw in a bunch of festivals, little girls, and a westernized hillbilly version of Ryouma Sakamoto Rolling Eyes.

It fails in really exposing or developing any kind of depth for a lot of the characters, really. Tetsu goes around crying about how powerless he is, Tatsu spazzes out over everything his little brother does, and they throw in this even lamer third party between the two conflicting factions just for supernatural kicks.

Now, from what I've read in and about the manga, the problem with PMK the anime is that they tried to combine the content from both series into one item. Much of the continuity is very different and a lot more coherent in the manga, as well as some of the characterizations (Tatsu feels a lot cooler and more stern).

Tokyopoop has recently licensed the original PM, but ADV stopped one volume short of completing PMK (damn them Evil or Very Mad), so I don't know if we'll ever get the whole story since they made such a blunder in the first place...

Anyway, long story short: I enjoyed the beginning and surprisingly violent ending of the series (such a great transition in the last 8 episodes), but I really had problems digesting the middle. There's just too much comedy and implied friendship going on, but not enough on the actual story. It's poorly written, badly directed, and a real test of patience. I gave it a So-so / B-, meaning it's buyable, but only at bargain bin pricing. Give it a shot at a good price, but don't expect too much.
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kolibri



Joined: 23 Aug 2006
Posts: 712
Location: Vancouver
PostPosted: Fri Apr 20, 2007 11:31 am Reply with quote
Yeah, what he said.

One thing I forgot to add - you asked about animation, and yes, this series actually looks really good. Gonzo did a good job, and for once the cgi stuff doesn't jump into your face - it's mainly used with swords and dang it looks nice. If only there was more of it...
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undeadben



Joined: 06 May 2006
Posts: 1212
Location: West Texas
PostPosted: Fri Apr 20, 2007 11:33 am Reply with quote
Peacemaker was alright, nothing great but it was entertaining enough. I don't have a lot of time right now so I'll quote my short comments from my own anime list if no one minds:
Quote:
I really had doubts going into this show, and though some of those doubts were justified, I actually enjoyed watching this show and was even highly impressed with 3 or 4 of the episodes. This show is not a formulaic shounen series, however it may have helped reign in a plot that was a bit jumpy if it were. Great concept, interesting characters, and a lot to work with, which is what made it enjoyable, but it seemed that they were unsure if the story should be more dramatic or not and in the end it came up just a bit mild. Somehow what I felt would have been the better concept to deal with, the idea of the “Peace Maker,” gave way to too much else. I did enjoy the story even as it went on its twisty road, and I enjoyed the occasional twists and terse moments, but it seems they only partially introduced and occasionally toyed with the idea of the Peace Maker. And the characters were mostly fun and likable and adequately developed, however, like with the story, they were a bit wishy-washy. It never seemed that they knew exactly what to do with them so they were sometimes deep and serious and then occasionally zany, which is ok normally, just that in this case it just lacked fluidity and instead of making the characters look multi-faceted they come out weaker for it. However overall this is a fun, sometimes interesting and exciting series, and I don't really regret buying it, but it could have been so much more.
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Zalis116
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Joined: 31 Mar 2005
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Location: Kazune City
PostPosted: Fri Apr 20, 2007 2:08 pm Reply with quote
Last spring my local anime club voted on watching Peacemaker as our "watch 2 episodes every week till it's done" series, so I had the chance to watch it when I wouldn't have checked it out on my own.

Tony K. wrote:
So what happens between the great setup of the first four episodes and the last (let's say..) six? Lame, lame, lame interaction. He loses focus of the real goal at hand, while they throw in a bunch of festivals, little girls, and a westernized hillbilly version of Ryouma Sakamoto Rolling Eyes

It fails in really exposing or developing any kind of depth for a lot of the characters, really. Tetsu goes around crying about how powerless he is, Tatsu spazzes out over everything his little brother does, and they throw in this even lamer third party between the two conflicting factions just for supernatural kicks.

I'm not a big fan of the Meiji era / Shinsengumi stuff, so I actually liked some of the comedic fillers and the few flashes of sadness involving (o-)Sayo. The last 1/3 or 1/4 of the series is an improvement and a return to violence/gore (the series as a whole is not one I would classify as violent or gory), but you get the feeling of "Wow, this is just getting good Smile *bam* it's over Sad" when all is said and done. So for me, it wasn't a bad series; it just wasn't that good, either. There's some likable stuff in the fillers, but as TK says, some of it is rather lame. The main annoyance for me came from Tetsunosuke, who starts out deadset on having his revenge, yet spends most of the series whining about his ambivalent feelings towards killing or hurting people.
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HeeroTX



Joined: 15 Jul 2002
Posts: 2046
Location: Austin, TX
PostPosted: Fri Apr 20, 2007 2:42 pm Reply with quote
PMK is the anti-Naruto more than the anti-Kenshin. Tetsunosuke wants to be strong and powerful, but he never quite gets there. Rather than being a study of "loneliness" and how it impacts various people, it's more about camraderie and everyone hanging out. And more than anything else, where Naruto bashes you over the head in that DBZ way of repeating the previous episode's last five minutes with the current episodes first five, PMK seems to sometimes leave on a tense moment and the next episode begins with a "whew, glad that all worked out".

As noted by others, I don't think PMK is a "bad" series, but I can't unreservedly call it "good" either. It's fun and has interesting characters who never QUITE seem to reach their potential and plotlines that never QUITE satisfy you the viewer. Most of the story is interesting ENOUGH that you don't feel it is a total waste of time, but the lack of fulfillment keeps you from really wanting to re-watch it or get others to watch it. In the end, PMK is about it's characters. If you can latch on to certain characters (like Saya, or obviously the brothers -nosuke, or certain members of the Shinsengumi or Akesato) then it will entertain you when it's all said and done. OTOH, if the characters never grab you, the plot and such won't hold on by themselves.
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Randall Miyashiro



Joined: 12 Jun 2003
Posts: 2451
Location: A block away from Golden Gate Park
PostPosted: Sat Apr 21, 2007 10:57 pm Reply with quote
I hated how they portrayed Sakamoto Ryoma. I also don't like the glorification of the Shinsengumi, and I believe the Kenshin interpretation is a little more in line of my opinions. If you want to see a good period piece that integrates real historic figures I highly recommend Shura no Toki which has a really cool version of Sakamoto.
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Nerv1



Joined: 24 Aug 2006
Posts: 601
PostPosted: Sun Apr 22, 2007 3:02 pm Reply with quote
I've never watched the series, I've only read the manga version. From what I can tell you about it, it absolutely made no sense and there really didn't seem to have a plot.
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Rozzer



Joined: 06 Jul 2003
Posts: 344
Location: So Cali
PostPosted: Mon Apr 23, 2007 1:14 am Reply with quote
I really enjoyed this series, because it's the only Samurai themed series I own that has the right amount of both violence and humor. And the title of this anime pretty much gives you a general idea of where the story is going lead you eventually with the main character Tetsunosuke. A lot of my friends did not care for it because it was not an all out blood fest like Samurai X. Although, another great element about this series is the animation and colour scheme, it looks very clean and not too choppy.

And if the entire series is on sale, I think you should pick up this series for sure.
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