Forum - View topicThe Stream - Winds of Amnesia
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~~EpiC~~
 Posts: 243 |
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This is interesting. If I'm not too lazy maybe I'll go to the store and find a copy of the first few volumes to compare, unless someone else does it before me. Does seem like an interesting comparison. |
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Agent355
 Posts: 5113 Location: Crackberry in hand, thumbs at the ready... |
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I really emphasized with the first ten minutes of Kotoura-San, taking it as an instance of child abuse and neglect, a subject I'm far to experienced with. The image that sticks out for me is Kotoura's mother dragging her daughter to yet another doctor when none of the doctors she had already seen had a diagnoses to offer. (It didn't seem like Kotoura was driving the doctors away with her mind reading, as Zac stated in his review, but that they were confused by her case), and her mother was determined to prove that something was wrong with her daughter.
Kotoura's parents used her as a scapegoat and treated her as unfortunately many parents do when they can't (or won't) understand their child's behavior. Kotoura was trying to tell the difference between people's surface thoughts and their speech and trying to navigate a world of subtle social cues and mixed messages. Her parents noticed she was unique, but tried to ignore it/find a "true" diagnoses instead of helping her figure out how to manage her tendencies. As they became more and more frustrated and disillusioned with her, they drifted apart from one another and had affairs-and blamed Kotoura for it! Her broken home life (which she was blamed for outright; she would've felt responsible in any case as most children do) and her stunted social life didn't seem unrealistic to me at all. That said, I'm not fully I'm board with the show because I found the drama and Wacky!comedy bits not well meshed so far. But I like Kotoura's perspective and I'm very curious about Yuriko, so I definitely want to watch more. Problem Children... has been a romp so far and I really like where their going with the characterizations. As another poster pointed out, all 3 main characters are acting against type spoiler[Shy You is incredibly brave and willing to put her life on the line to prove it. The Little Rich Girl is specifically trying *not* to act privileged, and most impressively, Izayoi The Delinquent not only cares about the people he's fighting for, but is clever enough to come up with a strategy in order to recruit more people for their cause!] I'm glad we didn't get backstory on the leads at the start, because so far their characters are coming out in their actions and short flashbacks. And hey, it's brightly colored and fun! |
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zensunni
 Posts: 1294 |
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So far this season, my favorite new shows, in no particular order, are:
Chihayafuru 2 - I love the characters, the art, the poetry, and the story. spoiler[The new kid that licks his lips is a bit on the creepy side, but I expect he is intended to be... He softens quite a bit once his brothers are introduced.] Love Live! - My cheeks hurt at the end of each episode! It is cheesy and overly sweet, but it just makes me happy to watch it. Kotoura-San - The mix of comedy and melodrama is quite extreme, but I am enjoying the heck out of it. Maoyu - I love the show! Yes, the milquetoast Hero can be annoying, but I actually like the fact that what is giving him the most trouble is spoiler[the fact that he feels useless in the new world The Demon King is trying to make. In addition to the totally confusing "protagonist doesn't know what to do with a beautiful woman" issue.] I haven't gotten around to watching Tamako Market or Haganai Next yet, but I probably will. (Though it appears that I'll need to pay to watch Tamako Market or wait until it hits Hulu...) I watched a couple episodes of a couple other shows, but probably won't keep up with them. It appears that my favorites this season are the continuing shows: Psycho Pass, Robotics;Notes, Blast of Tempest, and Pet Girl of Sakurasou. Once CR gets Little Busters up to speed, I'll probably spend a weekend to catch up on that as well. And some day I really should marathon a bunch of Space Brothers. My son keeps telling me I should... |
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FD2Raptor
 Posts: 100 Location: Viet Nam |
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I've read the manga up to the point of not spoiling myself on future developments and Kotoura's past occupied exactly 1 panel (which depicts her parents' denying their cheating behavior) so the 1st half of ep1 was most likely the anime staff's work; but then again at that point in the manga, Kotoura's grandpa hasn't made his appearance either... So until someone else willingly spoil himself on future developments...
MDJ does the most important part that is keeping its eyes on the goal. It's not to form a club with 3 troublemakers + Black Bunny + Leader guy, solving each character's personal issue/past so that the group can do sth else (to Nationals, perform at some place, etc). In its first 3 episodes, it gave you a basic understanding of how this universe work, establish the main goal of the group, established the actual Gift/Supernatural abilities of the 3 troublemakers and a basic outline of each of the 3 troublemakers' background. Drag it down with too much characterization early on would be putting emphasis on the wrong part of the show. And the detailing about the Gifts are more important than characterization as it'd become "Ass Pull" or "New Power As The Plot Demands" which reflect bad writing if left till later in the show and characterization done right does not require that it has to be done at the beginning. Last edited by FD2Raptor on Wed Jan 30, 2013 1:09 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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yoshiyukiblade
Posts: 305 |
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I'm pretty insensitive to spoilers, so I wouldn't mind hearing about future developments. However, reading the original source material makes watching an anime adaptation extremely distracting. I find myself constantly comparing/contrasting the two media and can't really enjoy how the adaptation presents the story on its own. Anyway, Kotoura-san definitely caught most of us by surprise and I hope it doesn't disappoint later on.
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Rainrix
Posts: 26 |
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1. Space brothers
2. Chihayafuru 2 3. Magi 4. Ixion Saga DT 5. Blast of tempest maoyu looks promising... [EDIT: Please avoid pure listing. That's generally not tolerated around here. You are expected to explain your picks. - Key] |
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FD2Raptor
Posts: 100 Location: Viet Nam |
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This season's favorites:
MaoYuu (ep04): The comparison to S&W is weird as they aren't really alike beneath the superficials (the economic and the staff). S&W has never gave me any impression other than the "Let me tell you my story, the personal story between Lawrence and Horo." while Maoyuu is "Let me tell you the story of the world." kind. Storytelling wise I feel that it is closer to Shin Sekai Yori than S&W. It is entertaining and always guarantees a "Where did my 20 minutes go!?" response every time the ending starts playing. (this is with some prior experience with its manga versions) +Bonus point on combined visual & audio for OP. +Personal bias bonus point on Sawashiro Miyuki. Sasami-san@Ganbaranai (ep03): Season's favorite materials. +Super bonus point on combined visual & audio for OP. I like its OP the most out of all shows aired this season. Started this season but may get dropped soon: Amnesia (ep04): ??? on costume design. Wasted Nazuka Kaori's voice for the empty lead character. Orion is annoying both in its tone and what it says.spoiler[ The part about how it keeps looping back to Aug 1st might be interesting.] This get 2 more eps to prove itself. Love Live (ep04): In a season filled with Entertaining & Intriguing, it hasn't really put itself above the rest. This get 2 more eps to prove itself. OreShura (ep04): Take back the initial bias bonus point for Kayano Ai. It is just far too average. Plus I have problem with Masuzu's hair. It just looks like a plastic hair piece slapped on her head. With no bonus point remain, this get 1 more ep to prove itself. (read the 1st chapter of the manga months before didn't really like it, the anime version is somewhat better but that's not enough). Senran Kagura (ep04): Stop the "we're only testing you" already. This get 1 more ep to prove itself. Others: Vividred & Mondaiji as pure entertaining watch. Kotoura: 1st half of ep 1 was ok until the cat, then it was overdone; otherwise good balance of drama & comedy. It was altered quite a bit from the manga version but arguably for the better. Chihayafuru 2: bonus point for the reason why Chihaya wanting more 1st-year to join. +Double bias bonus point for Kayano Ai as Ooe. But just as Saki didn't make me feel like playing mahjong, Chihayafuru doesn't make me feel like playing or watching karuta either. It did raise my interest for the poems and their meaning though. Haganai NEXT: It's OK. Episode that have less Sena is more entertaining for me. Tamako Market: Watching this is a joyful way to past the time. I usually don't have issue recognizing character but I couldn't tell the difference between Asagiri & Tamako in the bath scene. Within these, Mondaiji & Kotoura were the one that really surprised me. Kotoura misled me with its short web animation and Mondaiji was just me judging a book by its cover. So, great. These surprises are welcome. Keep 'em coming, Japan. Continued and still followed: Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo: It has proven to me that time fly when you're having fun. +Bias bonus point for Kayano Ai as Mashiro. Shin Sekai Yori: Leading the pack in the intriguing department. Comparing to PP, despite having established the system more than 200 years ago, meaning that human should be in the recovering period yet in the 2nd arc where Saki & Satoru was running the stretch of lands but the only things we see are forests and other sentient beings. The system in SSY is not perfect, but you can see that it had to be put in place otherwise mankind could have gone extinct. Uchuu Kyoudai: Not much to say about this other than I'm still enjoying this. Continued from last season but may get dropped soon: Little Buster (ep16): This desperately need an answer for "where exactly is it leading us?" This get 1 more ep to prove itself. Ixion Saga DT (ep16): This has been a hit-or-miss on a per-episode basis and the miss has been more common lately. Very likely to be dropped soon. Dropped: Psycho-Pass (ep14): This seriously has become a bore-fest...
Really? Where exactly did you see that the system has done good? The Sybil System has never been depicted as good. There was not a single episode where our team would go into office only for some idling chatting because the system has lowered the crime rates or anything. The crimes happen every episodes might work if it was just a normal modern cop/detective series but PP isn't about cop/detective and solving crimes. It did not set up enough argument for the establishment of the system, only display a series of its failure therefore making it a much weaker series comparing to SSY. ---------------------------------- The overall best: Shin Sekai Yori, Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo, Chihayafuru 2, Maoyuu, Sasami-san@Ganbaranai. Statistics: 17 series + 5 shorts remaining. |
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brankoburcksen
Posts: 126 |
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I read a lot about folks complaining this being a weaker season, but the shows I'm watching leave me ignorant to any shortcomings there might be.
The return of Chihayafuru does nothing but warm my heart. I laugh. I come close to tears. I love the show so much because of the characters love for a sport/game/art I know nothing about. It works so well though because they all have their personal reasons for loving it so much. The grandeur of the series comes from watching how their goals clash and compliment each other. Space Brothers strikes me the same way, but instead of karuta, it's the cast's love of space. Chihayafuru teaches so much about karuta like Space Brothers enlightens about the complexities of space exploration and how that impacts the characters, especially in the most recent episodes. Like Bamboo pointed out, what makes these two shows so worth watching again and again is the tight spots the characters find themselves in each episode whether it's winning a match, passing a test or surviving in the vacuum of space. Their conflicts feel insurmountable. We have no way of knowing how they'll pull through. However, we know they'll find a way because we believe in them. They're passionate, motivated people. We believe in them but we don't know how they'll make it, which ties us to our seats, desperate to know what will happen to them. In the process, we learn more about them and sense that we now know them better because of what they experience and how they handled it. I don't know how Hibito will survive in the coming episode, but like Mutta, I know he'll find a way. I'll tune in to find out. I read today Space Brothers is moving to a new time slot ahead of Case Closed on YTV. I could not be happier to hear this. Space Brothers is here for the long haul. I said before this is one of the only shows I would watch past a hundred episodes. (I wouldn't even do that with most American shows though I'm keeping my fingers crossed for House of Cards.) In some ways, I'm not too surprised that Chihayafuru and Space Brothers are so high up on your list. They're both aimed at older audiences (Seinen and Josei respectively) without otaku pandering. They're the only two shows at the moment I feel would be worth my friends and family's time, if they were dubbed. (I'm not holding my breath.) They're riskier than typical shows and succeed beautifully. I'm still watching From the New World. I don't know where it's going, and I think that keeps me intrigued enough to watch it. I like that it takes that route, yet because there's no clear sense of what's at stake as it progresses, it makes it difficult to care about what will happen. With Kotoura-san the characters are just so much fun to watch. In the third episode, how the president of the ESP club uses Kotoura's ability to communicate personal asides to her and the way the vice-president teases her seem like character revealing tactics for utilizing her ability. Manabe's devotion to her also feels like the heart of the show. The right person to give the support she always needed to come to terms with who she is. The question now remains whether she can accept the feelings of another. For all that, I'm rather enjoying this season regardless of whatever feels lower par than usual. |
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grooven
Posts: 1425 Location: Canada |
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Do you mean that 1-13 is not legally streaming? It is only one season so far. We expect a second or at least some OVAs since a large story portion is left. For whatever reason they have not uploaded the past episodes of 1-13, which makes no sense as 14 was Mio's end story.
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