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Shelf Life - Me, Myself, and Yourself


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king 47



Joined: 14 Jun 2006
Posts: 264
PostPosted: Tue Apr 22, 2014 1:15 pm Reply with quote
Myself Yourself was an interesting watch, but I agree that it was trying to hard at times to be dramatic. The music was good though. I didn't like that it had incest though.
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ANN_Bamboo
ANN Contributor


Joined: 05 Jan 2002
Posts: 3904
Location: CO
PostPosted: Tue Apr 22, 2014 1:28 pm Reply with quote
king 47 wrote:
Myself Yourself was an interesting watch, but I agree that it was trying to hard at times to be dramatic. The music was good though. I didn't like that it had incest though.


I guess with the incest bit, spoiler[we don't know for sure that the twins actually did it, though when we see them holding hands 10 years later, we know they're at least still very close. But maybe they're just like... in love, without boning.]
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TsunaReborn!



Joined: 08 Sep 2012
Posts: 4713
Location: Cheltenham UK
PostPosted: Tue Apr 22, 2014 1:33 pm Reply with quote
For me personally I would say the first halfish of From the New World is shelf worthy but after that hmm, it's good but not as good. spoiler[Too many time skips for my liking.]
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dtm42



Joined: 05 Feb 2008
Posts: 14084
Location: currently stalking my waifu
PostPosted: Tue Apr 22, 2014 1:45 pm Reply with quote
I agree with Bamboo on From the New World, at least in terms of what she said about it. It has some incredible ideas and the world building is very strong, but the way the various story elements are put together is so weak and disjointed. The middling to poor execution of the show will always hold it back from true greatness.

But hey, it is full of thought-provoking themes, has amazing art direction and the tone is effective at being mysterious and unsettling, so at least I always had something to feast on. For those reasons alone I believe it is Shelf Worthy.


Last edited by dtm42 on Tue Apr 22, 2014 1:49 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Hononotenshi



Joined: 17 Nov 2009
Posts: 18
PostPosted: Tue Apr 22, 2014 1:46 pm Reply with quote
Edit: ^THIS

It is true that almost the entire first half of From the New World is a little hard to understand, have pacing problems and may not be "shelf worthy" for everybody. The really good meat starts and it only keeps getting better in the second half. Kind of the same situation with Steins;Gate (at least for me, the 1st half was not that so great and odd-pacing and confusing but the 2nd half is a masterpiece). I hope this review doesn't scare off too many potential viewers because I promise, this series IS VERY GOOD. You just have to wait for the payoff. My blu-ray copy is now resting in my shelf and I'm eager to buy part 2 as soon as it becomes available. This was one of the best 2013 anime IMO, it's a shame it got overshadowed to say the least.[/quote]
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belvadeer





PostPosted: Tue Apr 22, 2014 3:00 pm Reply with quote
From the New World certainly sounds interesting. I think I'll add that one to my list.
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sokpupet



Joined: 22 May 2004
Posts: 133
PostPosted: Tue Apr 22, 2014 3:08 pm Reply with quote
Rainbow hippo info dump.

I wish this could become memetic in some way, but I would hate for it to then be crushed by repetition and fall by the wayside. Thus shall it remain localized and beautiful in its own way.
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter



Joined: 07 Mar 2009
Posts: 23667
PostPosted: Tue Apr 22, 2014 3:18 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
It so frequently appears in anime that it should be a genre by itself, perhaps called, "Just You Wait."


Laughing That is precisely the experience I had with Myself; Yourself. I knew absolutely nothing about the title when I started watching it and my initial reaction was, "hmm, this is sort of a standard, ho-hum, low-stakes romance" story. Little did I know that somebody evidently decided to crank the Melodrama Dial up to 11. I was agog at each new bizarre revelation.

I gotta say, I ended up kinda digging it. Whatever else you may think of it, I doubt you'll be saying, "hmphf, saw that one coming from a mile away."
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maximilianjenus



Joined: 29 Apr 2013
Posts: 2857
PostPosted: Tue Apr 22, 2014 3:53 pm Reply with quote
this is the first from the new world review that does not mention fanservice and lesbians at all,, though I am nor sure if it's becuase those elements were sanitized for the tv series or because the reviewer did not find them worth mentioning.
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Waffitti



Joined: 17 Mar 2013
Posts: 55
PostPosted: Tue Apr 22, 2014 4:29 pm Reply with quote
From the description, it seems like the creator of Myself; Yourself built the story by taking bits and pieces of Twin Peaks and smashing them into a Japanese media genre.

I always get Leiji Matsumoto's body of work confused (it would help if he could draw more than 3 faces...). I've had an odd fascination with Battleship Yamato (though that's mostly because the Brazilian dub was half adapted from Star Blazers, half adapted from Battleship Yamato). I'll pass on this version, based on the description it kinda seems like that annoying trait of "anime adaptations that are produced only as to market the source and end up compromising their narratives".
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GVman



Joined: 14 Jul 2010
Posts: 729
PostPosted: Tue Apr 22, 2014 4:57 pm Reply with quote
dtm42 wrote:

But hey, it is full of thought-provoking themes, has amazing art direction and the tone is effective at being mysterious and unsettling, so at least I always had something to feast on. For those reasons alone I believe it is Shelf Worthy.


The bland art and animation is half the reason why I dropped; I became physically angry at the show's heavy reliance on CGI, bland abstract imagery, and inappropriate close-ups to hide how poorly-drawn the everything was were and how poor the animation was. What did you see in the art that drew you in?

maximilianjenus wrote:
this is the first from the new world review that does not mention fanservice and lesbians at all,, though I am nor sure if it's becuase those elements were sanitized for the tv series or because the reviewer did not find them worth mentioning.


No, it was in there. Though I do wonder why Bamboo didn't comment on it.
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yuna49



Joined: 27 Aug 2008
Posts: 3804
PostPosted: Tue Apr 22, 2014 5:22 pm Reply with quote
Probably because the "bonobo" part of the story fades to the background once the kids grow older. As for "fanservice," what fanservice did you see? Any actual sex takes place off-screen. I don't even recall any nudity. At one point two characters hold hands in a boat. What, if anything, happens after that is left to the viewer's imagination.

The derivative manga is full of lesbian fanservice from the little bit I've seen, but that's the manga-ka's doing. Compared to many, many other shows, the level of actual "fanservice" in the anime version of Shin Sekai Yori is miniscule.

Are you concerned that some people will recoil in disgust when they watch SSY if they were not warned? Most anime viewers are pretty open-minded about such things. SSY is hardly a show for children either, despite the ages of the characters at the outset.
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kotomikun



Joined: 06 May 2013
Posts: 1205
PostPosted: Tue Apr 22, 2014 5:53 pm Reply with quote
I didn't really find Shin Sekai Yori's story to be all that disjointed overall, but I agree that the early monster rat sequence felt kind of out-of-place. It was almost like it was from a completely different show.

yuna49 wrote:
Are you concerned that some people will recoil in disgust when they watch SSY if they were not warned? Most anime viewers are pretty open-minded about such things.


That... is a thing that happened, when it aired. The problem is that it has both yuri and yaoi (though both in trivial quantities) and, well, let's just say that some people treat their enjoyment of those two genres as a zero-sum game.
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Echo_City



Joined: 03 Apr 2011
Posts: 1236
PostPosted: Tue Apr 22, 2014 5:57 pm Reply with quote
GVman wrote:

The bland art and animation is half the reason why I dropped; I became physically angry at the show's heavy reliance on CGI, bland abstract imagery, and inappropriate close-ups to hide how poorly-drawn the everything was were and how poor the animation was. What did you see in the art that drew you in?

Oh great. I have this on my shelf but I haven't watched it yet and since I've often found myself thinking along similar lines while watching other shows I'm now leery about this one. The latter 2 were fixed on the bluray, right?

I was led to believe that the cover that Sentai used, with the yuri scene, didn't represent the series. I'm expecting a show that puts the SciFi/Fantasy first and the "Strawberry Panic" second and this column is leading me to believe that I should expect the opposite.
Quote:
...some people treat their enjoyment of those two genres as a zero-sum game.

As well they should...As well they should Wink
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Alexis.Anagram



Joined: 26 Jan 2011
Posts: 278
Location: Mishopshno
PostPosted: Tue Apr 22, 2014 7:33 pm Reply with quote
kotomikun wrote:

That... is a thing that happened, when it aired. The problem is that it has both yuri and yaoi (though both in trivial quantities) and, well, let's just say that some people treat their enjoyment of those two genres as a zero-sum game.

You would think these kind of hang-ups wouldn't manifest as such seeing as every surviving character in the show spoiler[apparently undergoes some form of conversion therapy at an indeterminate point in the timeline, resulting in each of them settling into perfectly standard heterosexual couplings by endgame.] And this is why I stick to a hard and fast rule of: ignore canon, achieve representation.

IMO, although it was one of the few shows of 2013 I stuck through 'til (almost) the end, Shin Sekai Yori's graceless handling of its tween romances is actually pretty exemplar of the show's generally hackneyed attempts at philosophical storytelling and discombobulated plot lines, invariably mired by its fascination with sprawling, episode-and-a-half long expositions (every arc has at least one IIRC) and totally non-threatening pseudo-villains which constantly undermine any and all sense of conflict pay-off one might dare to hope for. It's clear that the story was adapted from book material, and it might have been a great book, but as television it drags like it wants you to drop it.

Saki is a great lead heroine, though. And I actually think the first arc is the strongest, since it engages the show on the two levels it works best: creating dense mysteries and being visually charming.
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