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ikillchicken
Joined: 12 Feb 2007
Posts: 7272
Location: Vancouver
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Posted: Fri Dec 13, 2013 8:48 am
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dtm42 wrote: | Well, this show is a thing that exists.
That's probably the nicest thing I can say about it right now. |
That...may be the case. But it wouldn't discount the possibility that we've all suffered some kind of mass hallucination either.
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EmbraceMe
Joined: 17 Dec 2010
Posts: 2015
Location: Growing old and jaded.
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Posted: Fri Dec 13, 2013 1:10 pm
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I was neither super impressed by this episode nor did I enjoy it on the level as the previous episodes. It felt really cheesy with both Masayoshi's and King Torture's speeches; but I still enjoyed their speeches.One good thing I did see was how they're developing Mari's character through her conversation with King Torture. It really showed her selfish side.
In many ways, this episode really did feel like the final episode. But we know that's not the case for this show since it's schedule to run until next season. Plus, they still haven't resolved the whole alien cells and cyborg supervillain mumbo jumbo yet. Perhaps that will continue on as a plot point in the next couple of episodes.
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dtm42
Joined: 05 Feb 2008
Posts: 14084
Location: currently stalking my waifu
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Posted: Fri Dec 13, 2013 2:16 pm
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ikillchicken wrote: | That...may be the case. But it wouldn't discount the possibility that we've all suffered some kind of mass hallucination either. |
I hope you have your water wings on because you're in the Nile.
(Not intended to be insulting, it's just a poorly-worded joke referencing your previous chart.)
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Agent355
Joined: 12 Dec 2008
Posts: 5113
Location: Crackberry in hand, thumbs at the ready...
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Posted: Fri Dec 13, 2013 4:05 pm
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I liked this tweet I saw yesterday:
Quote: |
ABCB Honey @
ABCBTom
Everything was
deconstructed: idols,
heroes, villians, arms, toys, SUVs |
This is a deconstruction of the superhero genre, and a gloriously insane example of a superhero show. Strap on your seatbelts, because it's gonna be a wild ride!
Loved Goto and Masayoshi's team work and banter. How are fujoshi receiving them in Japan? I bet there's lots of fan art already! Sugitan's line reading of "I don't know if I'll be free next week! I might not even be alive next week!" Was so Gintoki! *squee!*
Gotta echo the sentiment that King Torture's revelations to Mari, and her tortured, cry-jag singing was great character development for her, and I wonder where it's going to go. Now that Mari's sung in costume and Masayoshi revealed his face to the press the secret identities are no more, and who can tell where it's going next (aliens? Giant robots? Aliens piloting giant robots?)
I still think the show would've been fine, maybe even better, if it kept its original "realistic" Kick-Ass style, but I decided to embrace the crazy and go wherever the show takes us. It still has a superb sense of humor and comic timing, and the characters are always a lot of fun. And what's the worst that can happen now?
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Spastic Minnow
Bargain Hunter
Exempt from Grammar Rules
Joined: 02 May 2006
Posts: 4617
Location: Gainesville, FL
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Posted: Fri Dec 13, 2013 5:07 pm
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It's a HORRIBLE example of deconstruction though.
It was doing alright until they decided to quit being thoughtful and placing the the "villainy" squarely in the real world and instead decided they'd bring in a super-scientist bad guy whose abilities completely defy the logic of the "real world" you've been presented with.
What they've done since the introduction of King Torture is to shove in a sterotypical super-villain, who comes out of nowhere, into a world in which such super-villains make no sense. Well, okay, if a guy started acting like a Hero, it makes sense that someone would act like a villain, but this is supposed to be a world "like our own"- a world without super science that can make humanoid cyborg-animal homunculi.
If such a guy as King Torture actually existed he would be the greatest scientific mind ever known.... a super scientist in a world without super scientists. The show tries to portray him as someone who could exist in the same world as some dweeb who rides around on his mountain bike punishing disruptive drunks on a Friday night. But it is complete nonsense that "KIng Torture" could exist in such a world without being noticed, recognized, and praised for a genius that far exceeds the rest of the world... let alone building secret lairs and giant rockets in city adjacent gravel pits.
Those of us that have been patient with the show for the past few episodes have done so because we've been waiting patiently for this discrepancy between a concrete real world idiot hero and an outrageous, unrealistic, nonsensical and jokey villain to be reconciled in some way.
But no, the hero is still a dork with a flimsy bicycle helmet for a mask and the villain really is a guy who can chop off his arm and instantly replace it with Ash's chainsaw arm.
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FierceAlchemist
Joined: 12 Dec 2013
Posts: 75
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Posted: Fri Dec 13, 2013 9:12 pm
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I really like what they did with Mari in this episode. I feel like she's gonna be super depressed for a little while.
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Ohoni
Joined: 10 Jun 2003
Posts: 3421
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Posted: Sat Dec 14, 2013 4:40 am
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I thought the episode was really dark, but I kind of liked it. I can totally get how some people feel "betrayed" by the episodes, but I can't imagine that wasn't intentional on the creators' part. They deliberately set up certain expectations as to what sort of show this would be, and then slowly angled away from that, and then drove the bus off a ####ing cliff. Whether you enjoy that or not depends on how much you like freefall.
I think it's interesting, and I think it could go to some very interesting places and I'm along for the ride.
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CrowLia
Joined: 24 Feb 2012
Posts: 5507
Location: Mexico
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Posted: Sat Dec 14, 2013 5:23 am
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I've already embraced the new direction the show is taking and this episode was really great. I did like it a lot before the change, but this episode has completely sold me on the new story and the extremely insane deconstruction of superhero shows.
I particularly liked what they did with Mari this week, not because I enjoyed watching her tortured (I actually cringed when Moe got her finger crushed), but because I think they've built a great setup for her to improve; making her realize the shallowness of her ideals. The ending with her singing that strange song with a broken voice, barely recovered from her traumatic experience was an excellent touch and I can't wait to see what they do with her.
Sho Hayami as King Torture was absolutely magnificent. His speech about his commitment to evil and to his fallen comrades was great, even if the super science of the cyborgs still doesn't make sense at all. That's something I'm willing to let pass because the rest of it was very well executed to me.
Also, Goto was fantastic. Easily one of my favorite characters this season. It was so hilarious to watch him do all that amazing stuff while constantly complaining about it, like a reluctant hero. And he was insanely cool at the same time. When he showed up to save Masayoshi right in the last second, I jumped out of my seat from excitement. It was great
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dtm42
Joined: 05 Feb 2008
Posts: 14084
Location: currently stalking my waifu
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Posted: Sat Dec 14, 2013 5:44 am
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@Ohoni:
No, whether I like it or not has to do with my preference for stories with internal logical consistency. I don't mind plot twists - I like them a lot, in fact - but they have to be reasonable and plausible given the context of what has happened previously. The best twists hide in plain sight, like The Sixth Sense's ending or PMMM episode three. The creators screwing with their own world-building and logic is not funny, not clever and not good writing. Betraying the audience is not a crime, though it is irritating for us. But crapping all over a great story with equally engaging characters just for a lark is simply unforgivable. It is a level of immaturity that one does not expect from a professional production.
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I'm so far past anger that all I feel are smouldering embers of disappointment. Even the latest episode just got a big fat "meh" from me. At this point I should probably just drop the show, but I guess I'm still curious as to whom Goto's girlfriend is.
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ShinobiX
Joined: 03 Jun 2005
Posts: 889
Location: NY
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Posted: Sat Dec 14, 2013 7:27 am
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Wasn't this anime supposed to have a realistic setting?
just getting back into anime.....
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FenixFiesta
Joined: 22 Apr 2013
Posts: 2581
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Posted: Sat Dec 14, 2013 11:06 am
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The show was "getting extreme" even before King Torture made his debut through Guillotine Gorilla.
It is akin to hearing Batman having a Superman crossover and now suddenly Batman who normally fights criminals with strange themes must now outright fight an enemy that is outright a cyborg powered by kryptonite.
While from a "rational" story telling perspective it feels like it is out of left field, but honestly once you have gone through enough Shonen and/or western comic hero story lines the protagonist finding themselves fighting a "real life comic villain" seems standard affair.
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Ohoni
Joined: 10 Jun 2003
Posts: 3421
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Posted: Sat Dec 14, 2013 8:59 pm
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Quote: | No, whether I like it or not has to do with my preference for stories with internal logical consistency. I don't mind plot twists - I like them a lot, in fact - but they have to be reasonable and plausible given the context of what has happened previously. |
That's kind of what I meant though. I have to believe that they're doing that on purpose. They know where "internal logical consistency" is, and they are avoiding it with a vengeance. It' an unusual thing for a show to do, but it's interesting.
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dtm42
Joined: 05 Feb 2008
Posts: 14084
Location: currently stalking my waifu
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Posted: Sat Dec 14, 2013 11:32 pm
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^
Shooting yourself in the foot with a shotgun is also an unusual thing to do. In fact, you wouldn't deliberately do it unless you were mentally ill, because it is so stupid and pointless and harmful. I don't know what Manglobe are thinking but they certainly don't have the best interests of the fans and the artistic quality of the show in mind.
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everydaygamer
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Posted: Sun Dec 15, 2013 12:01 am
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ShinobiX wrote: | Wasn't this anime supposed to have a realistic setting?
just getting back into anime..... |
Honestly i don't get the complaints. I mean kickass went from realistic to crazy and people loved it. Not sure why what this show is doing is so hard to accept.
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Spastic Minnow
Bargain Hunter
Exempt from Grammar Rules
Joined: 02 May 2006
Posts: 4617
Location: Gainesville, FL
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Posted: Sun Dec 15, 2013 12:58 am
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^^^
The characters in Kick Ass (at least the first one- haven't seen the second) used nothing but real world conventional weapons and hand to hand combat. It was stylized, and outrageous, but did anyone have a glowing stone for a heart? Could anyone instantly replace body parts? Did it feature cyborg animal hybrids? Was there a gorilla with a guillotine chest!!??
And what's especially sad is, you don't even need to have expectations of "reality" in a movie like Kick-Ass, but it was still more consistently grounded in a singular world view than this.
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