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HaruhiToy
Joined: 15 Apr 2008
Posts: 4118
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Posted: Fri Mar 28, 2014 10:45 am
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Blood- wrote: | The show had a lot of good humour, though, and fun characters. |
This reminds me that I have to give them credit for coming up with one of the most overloaded characters of the season, if not the decade: Mashiro. I mean this in a good way because they made it work.
The little wolf is a puppy, but she is also the top dog of the team. She is super smart and working at a high school level (if poorly) and is incredibly earnest. She has secret powers she does not use gratuitously but trembles before Benio. At the same time she is gullible and tease-able to the point that even her own mom gets in on the fun. Sometimes she is even the victim of her own hyperactive imagination. She wants to be taken seriously and is fiercely territorial. Without her the two romantic leads due to their (deliberately) bland personalities would never have done much of anything. She evokes Kobeni's maternal instinct even while leading her along in the story. Hakuya flat out depends on her to tell him what to do. Without her Benio would be totally boring.
If there were a second season (which I am not in favor of) they would pretty much have to make Mashiro the lead.
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter
Joined: 07 Mar 2009
Posts: 23804
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Posted: Fri Mar 28, 2014 10:58 am
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Pretty astute analysis of Mashiro's character and function, HaruhiToy. I would add that she was also there to bring the cute, which I think she did with great aplomb. I.e. her adorable dance and her never-ending quest to collect all possible variants of UMAs from the chocolate eggs (while being oppressed by the ubiquity of the dreaded "Nessie").
I know that Mash-tan seiyuu's voice had a "fingernails on chalkboard" effect on some peeps, but to me it was always part of the cute. It was an interesting choice. Lolis are generally given softer, more dulcet tones. Going with a voice that was likely to be grating on some ears was a bit daring, but really fit the character well.
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Ohoni
Joined: 10 Jun 2003
Posts: 3421
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Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2014 5:28 am
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I loved Mashiro's VA. I have no idea what other people are thinking, she was fantastic for the part.
And yeah, the two leads were a bit bland, but I think that worked. They played the "straight man" of the piece, while the other characters were so weird. They were much more normal and grounded, making the crazies even crazier. Hakuya is one of my favorite male leads in a while, I'm pretty tired of the genki hero, Hakuya just was who he was, and was fine with that.
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Bango
Joined: 06 Jul 2013
Posts: 1122
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Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2014 9:32 am
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That was pretty nice. A little painful at times, as I know a couple who's as bad at communication as these two and all their conflicts stem from "Just freakin' tell him/her!". We're used to anime characters unable to confess their love, but Hakuya and Kobeni communicate about as well as an quadruple amputee flagman. Still though they managed to fail with charm, which is something a show like this can actually do and be good.
I like how the climax problem was the fault of a whole bunch of people rather than just one. I'd ream it for it's stupidity but I guess it was pretty on-par for romcom climaxes and it did avoid some of the stuff I don't like.
I'll buy the snow covering her tracks, and I'll buy her walking towards the precarious cliff because I do all sorts of stupid stuff when I'm dizzy with fever and anyone who's been on a snowy mountain at night knows you can't see shit. I do however fault it that a dude who can follow her scent from so far away and run like lightning couldn't do so here.
I liked the characters a lot, despite that I should have hated Benio. I think they kept her just at maximum tolerance level for me the entire time, which is pretty amazing.
Looking forward to the inevitable hot springs special. I don't actually want an s2 of this one though. I think it said everything it needs to say.
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Yttrbio
Joined: 09 Jun 2011
Posts: 3653
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Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2014 1:31 pm
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I don't agree that these folks had difficulty communicating their feelings, especially on the "anime high schooler" scale. Kobeni didn't really understand her own feelings that well, which made it hard for her to say anything, but I rather liked the subtlety of it, compared to the over-the-top stuff I'm used to in romance anime. But I think feelings got communicated just fine. I never got that "for eff's sake, just say something" feeling I get so often.
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getchman
Space Cowboy
Joined: 07 Apr 2012
Posts: 9121
Location: Bedford, NH
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Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2014 3:51 pm
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like everyone else I really enjoyed this show. looked forward to it every weekend. gave it an Excellent
Bango wrote: |
I liked the characters a lot, despite that I should have hated Benio. I think they kept her just at maximum tolerance level for me the entire time, which is pretty amazing.
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having Nadeshiko around as a straight man to help reel in Benio before she got too out of hand probably helped a lot
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DuskyPredator
Joined: 10 Mar 2009
Posts: 15481
Location: Brisbane, Australia
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Posted: Thu Apr 03, 2014 8:59 am
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OVA
Really? The old winning lots of tickets for a hot spring at a lottery cliché? Well nothing much happened, there was some covered while nude scenes, but it did not really do much. Maybe the episode is not helped by the fact the cliché was already used during the season by chastity belt Imouto anime and what we had in the finale of Kill la Kill.
Mashiro still steals the entire thing.
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Morisummer500
Joined: 28 Jun 2014
Posts: 30
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Posted: Sat Jun 28, 2014 7:34 pm
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Marshmallow makes this anime entertaining, especially when Benio harrases her. That weird blonde girl who's in love with Benio and is
jealous of Mashiro is funny too. Marshmallow's brother is just plain boring though.
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Gatherum
Joined: 14 Feb 2012
Posts: 773
Location: Aurora CO
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Posted: Sat Jun 28, 2014 10:05 pm
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I apologise for adding nothing all that useful to the discussion, being that I've never watched this, but I just wanted to drop in and say that I really love the title of this show. It provokes thoughts of a mystery/thriller, rather than a romantic slice-of-life. I'm a little disappointed, but meh. Made me smile.
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