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Shelf Life - Shafted


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leafy sea dragon



Joined: 27 Oct 2009
Posts: 7163
Location: Another Kingdom
PostPosted: Mon Feb 02, 2015 3:39 pm Reply with quote
I sometimes forget that Tsugumi Seishiro was introduced that early into Nisekoi. By the way, Raku's name is typoed as "Ruka" at one point in the article, leaving me a bit confused as to who this Ruka is.

Tsugumi is a pretty one-note character though, without any real character growth and largley reliant on the gimmick that she relates better with boys than with other girls and prefers clothing for men.

Quote:
The internet being what it is, though, there's probably crossover fanfic in some niche corner of the community.


Oh, I thought that meant PaulXBamboo shipping.
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katscradle



Joined: 05 Jan 2013
Posts: 469
PostPosted: Mon Feb 02, 2015 5:45 pm Reply with quote
I love The Rose of Versailles. I guess the litebox is just different packaging from the LE and no artbook for the second set. Nice Rightstuf could re-release it though. Ikeda did do her research for the manga, so the story actually does manage to be a rather historically accurate.
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corinthian



Joined: 20 Feb 2009
Posts: 264
PostPosted: Mon Feb 02, 2015 5:59 pm Reply with quote
Memories is definitely the stronger of the ef's, which is probably why I held off on buying it. I didn't even know they were doing a complete collection.

I remember randomly stopping by the video room at a convention when the show was first airing and being really impressed by the visuals, especially by the mentioned scene with Miyako's voicemail messages. By the time Melodies came around I guess the techniques weren't as new, and the melodrama was a little more forced.
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Animegomaniac



Joined: 16 Feb 2012
Posts: 4070
PostPosted: Mon Feb 02, 2015 6:10 pm Reply with quote
Wow, no mention of A Tale of Melodies largest issue... wait, there are quite a few. Anyway, I can say that Melodies is shelfworthy as long as you're getting it for free with Memories.

And the sequel doesn't take anything away from the first series {Genshiken!} so you can watch it once and forget it exists.

And speaking of Genshiken, there's no where the series could go with fujoshi once their original example did her own doujinshi featuring the two male leads of the series.

Oh yeah, they made her their leader. Wait...

What I wanted was the real third season that completed Ogiue's story arc, relationship arc, career arc and so on, what I got was the "Hato" series with the rest of the cast making occasional appearances. Why? The manga itself has spent years on splitting the answer or even the question of his sexual identity as far apart as the author could, going from "who's that?" to "who knows?" to "who cares?" but having to endure it unfinished in anime form?

But sure, the continuation is about the females. Just keep telling yourself that.
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Yttrbio
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Joined: 09 Jun 2011
Posts: 3649
PostPosted: Mon Feb 02, 2015 7:15 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
This is an older series, and it's obvious that the folks at SHAFT were still working the kinks out of their animation style when they made ef.
I don't think this is really what's going on. It was SHAFT at the time, but the visual style is Oonuma Shin's, which means it makes more sense to compare it to Silver Link stuff, like Dusk Maiden of Amnesia, or C3, or BakaTest.
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boredandlazy



Joined: 16 Nov 2009
Posts: 189
PostPosted: Mon Feb 02, 2015 7:50 pm Reply with quote
Ugh. ef~ Tale of Memories was one of the most offensively bad anime series I've seen. It's one of the two only series I've sold immediately after watching them(I sold Oreimo season 1 immediately after I finished watching the season 2 OVA's).

Apart from the main male character being utterly braindead boring and devoid of any well... character, the tipping point for me was the scene spoiler[on the school roof where they have sex. The girl wakes up each day with a mental age of a 12 year old girl(I think it's 12? It's been a while since I've seen it), and 8 hours later she's having sex on a school roof? I know it's based on a visual novel but that was just too much of a stretch.]
Didn't even bother with Melodies after that trash.
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grooven



Joined: 16 Aug 2006
Posts: 1424
Location: Canada
PostPosted: Mon Feb 02, 2015 8:23 pm Reply with quote
I really liked the stories from melodies but they don't really meld well together. A few things were changed from the visual novel too that had more impact, which made me sad. OT note I wish Makoto Shinkai's studio could've animated this, like the visual novel OP. Shaft's art approach is really tiresome sometimes.
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invalidname
Contributor



Joined: 11 Aug 2004
Posts: 2434
Location: Grand Rapids, MI
PostPosted: Mon Feb 02, 2015 10:34 pm Reply with quote
It's nice to see a bundle of both ef series. I remember Sentai's David Williams being asked about such a release a few years back and Anime Central and his response at the time was that they're technically two different series, so he wasn't sure if such a bundle would be possible.

When I was on the ClannADCast with Zac and Hope, ef is a title I talked up for doing something different with the visual novel adaptation / seinen romance than all the various self-same Key / Visual Art's shows. After someone sees Clannad or Kanon, I think they'd be much better served trying out ef than to just plow into the rest of the Key oeuvre. It's stylistically and structurally much different, and a genuine attempt to do something different in the genre, which is maybe why it's hung around US fandom a little longer than something like, say, True Tears (which is technically newer).

Frankly, I like the fact that they left in the sexual nature of the stories, even though I've twice had to stash my iPad away on the airplane upon hitting an H scene. Nothing too explicit, nothing you couldn't show on TV, but it does serve to both raise the stakes and provide an emotional payoff. I've been rewatching it recently and I totally forgot the shot showing that spoiler[Chihiro neatly folded her clothes before having sex with Renji on the school roof.] I don't know why, but that just struck me as really peculiar and enjoyable… maybe a nice metaphor for this odd series.
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Megiddo



Joined: 24 Aug 2005
Posts: 8360
Location: IL
PostPosted: Mon Feb 02, 2015 11:12 pm Reply with quote
True Tears is completely an anime original story. It only shares a name with a visual novel but has nothing to do with it.

As for ef, For me, I only found half of memories watchable as Miyako actually had a personality and was interesting to watch. The other girl had me completely skipping her scenes since neither her or her love interest engaged me whatsoever. Never bothered to watch melodies
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invalidname
Contributor



Joined: 11 Aug 2004
Posts: 2434
Location: Grand Rapids, MI
PostPosted: Mon Feb 02, 2015 11:26 pm Reply with quote
Megiddo wrote:
True Tears is completely an anime original story. It only shares a name with a visual novel but has nothing to do with it.

But True Tears still fits squarely in this seinen romance category, along with other anime-original series (for example, I would include anohana in this genre). After all, are Steins;Gate and ef more alike because both are based on visual novels, or more different because one is sci-fi and the other is romantic drama? I would argue the latter.
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Ali07



Joined: 01 Jun 2014
Posts: 3333
Location: Victoria, Australia
PostPosted: Tue Feb 03, 2015 3:59 am Reply with quote
Can see exactly why ef has been given a rental. I love memories, and agree that melodies is something that most would want to only watch once (if they get sucked in by memories).

But, the completest that I am...I had to get memories, so I had to get melodies (bought before this repack). While I may not watch melodies on my own again, I know I'll end up watching it with others...after having them watch memories. Laughing
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Zalis116
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Joined: 31 Mar 2005
Posts: 6864
Location: Kazune City
PostPosted: Tue Feb 03, 2015 5:35 am Reply with quote
Quote:
Second seasons are always a little scary, especially when they're spaced ten years apart.
Genshiken Nidaime came out six years after the previous Genshiken anime, not ten. Though there is still some reason for concern.
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Greed1914



Joined: 28 Oct 2007
Posts: 4410
PostPosted: Tue Feb 03, 2015 9:51 am Reply with quote
I just got my hands on the latest season of Genshiken a couple of days ago. Overall, it was still mostly the same show that I like so much, and even though it has a lot of new cast members, the old ones are around quite a bit. The shift into a largely female perspective was rather interesting, although it spends a ton of time focusing on fujoshi and BL, so be ready for that.
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darkchibi07



Joined: 15 Oct 2003
Posts: 5459
PostPosted: Tue Feb 03, 2015 10:02 am Reply with quote
Yeah, in terms of SHAFT-style romances, Memories for the most part nailed it on that regard; I found them both simple yet endearing. Melodies really went overboard, and I just couldn't buy into Mizuki's and Shuichi's romance at all. I felt like they were pairing the "leftovers" when their secondary nature in Memories were just fine as the way they were.

On a side note, has Genshiken ever dealt with yuri fandoms at all or even talk about it? I felt like the series did a nice overview on the other fandoms but felt it missed that one.
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Fred the Barber



Joined: 11 Nov 2014
Posts: 12
PostPosted: Tue Feb 03, 2015 10:34 am Reply with quote
The ef review totally nailed it: Memories was very good, Melodies went way overboard on emotional manipulation, and the voicemail scene was the highlight of the series.
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