Forum - View topicREVIEW: Gunslinger Girl BLURAY
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edzieba
Posts: 704 |
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The idea of using children could stem from the (prior to advances in the research of neural plasticity) idea that children can learn new motor skills with much greater ease than adults, allowing them to adapt to the different responses of their artificial muscles and senses where an adult could not. A secondary reason could be indoctrination from an early and impressionable age (especially prior to puberty and prior to full development of the prefrontal cortex and corpus callosum) before the brain is fully capable of detailed moral analysis of situations.
There is a neurological basis to the idea of using children, but not female children specifically. That could stem from either a psychological desire to put targets at ease in their presence, or simply to elect further sympathy from the audience, most likely the latter.
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Sanosuke_Inara
 Posts: 1662 |
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Ya know what, I've been pretty curious 'bout this series for the longest time but I haven't purchased it yet...well, I just ordered my Red Garden Box Set last night so I don't think I'm gonna jump into this one ATM, but I'll definitely pick it up somewhere down the line.
Apparently it'll be worth my time, going off of the review and the series responses to said review that have been given. Sounds right up my alley. 
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vashfanatic
 Posts: 3492 Location: Back stateside |
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Yeah, but parts of it actually redid sections of the first series. For example, spoiler[the girl who died at the end is suddenly alive... somehow], and we wind up repeating some of the same incidents as a result. My understanding was that the second season was partly to satisfy fans who felt that the first didn't do it "properly." |
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DKL
 Posts: 1956 Location: California, USA |
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I couldn't sit through like 2 minutes of the second season... along with the disappearance of Morio Asaka from the director's chair came the disappearance of the show's taste.
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Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 23884 |
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Wow, that was a friggin' great review. I feel it captures both what is great about the series, what is squirm-inducing about the series and gives both their proper weight.
I have a few minor quibbles:
Notwithstanding Carl Kimlinger's spectacularly off-base interpretation of Death Note, it is far from "morally apathetic." It was clear, at least to me, that Light was being presented as a pretty detestable character and that one of the central themes of the show is that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. The fact that the people chasing Light did detestable things themselves doesn't make the show "morally apathetic." It simply makes the show a little more nuanced than the usual anti-hero versus the white hats set-up. Also, the fact that some viewers might admire Light and come to identify with him says more about them then it does about the intentions of the show's creators.
I would respectfully disagree with this. It's true, the show never takes a super-explicit North American TV network black-and-white stance, but one of the things I found interesting about the series was that my assumption that the Social Welfare Agency were the "good guys" at the beginning was slowly but very surely changed by what I was watching so that by the end, I really found them no better than the terrorists, criminals and corrupt politicians that they were targeting. |
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GeorgeC
Posts: 795 |
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Not worth it. Keep your old DVDs and save your money. Most of the Funi-licensed shows being released on Blu ray WERE NOT made in hi-def! As of a few years ago, most anime series were still being produced for standard def. It's still a practice to upscale these shows for 720p/1080i broadcast but they DON'T LOOK GOOD that way! (My guess is that the reason the shows aren't being properly redone for hi-def is because the original computer files were only mastered for 480p at best. The shows would have to be literally redone for hi-def. If anybody's every blown up a low-res picture in PhotoShop you know what happens when pixels get stretched -- OUCH!) The only shows that look good on BD were those produced for hi-def broadcast. Upscales inevitably blur lines, lose details, and just look crummy in general on HDTV. And yet Japanese and American companies are still doing upscales for for quick BD releases! This practice just hurts BD adoption and gives anime hi-def releases a bad name. It's making me really, really upset at Funi in particular. My own rule of thumb is not to bother with most anime BD releases unless they're brand-new OVA series made for hi-def or BD releases of theatrical films. It's just not worth it in general to get anime TV series on BD because of upscale practices. You'd be better off watching the older Gunslinger Girl DVD release on an upscaling DVD player at 480p or Blu ray player. 480p is fine for playback but the video will definitely still suffer a bit at 720p and 1080p playback on HDTV. Funi continues to disappoint with its video mastering on a lot of its releases at any rate. I don't know who's mastering their DVDs or if the Funi CEO's even care at this point in time as long as people continue buy the latest remixes of Dragon Ball....! Funi's not the only company guilty of releasing upscaled standard-def video on BD. The BD release of Yukikaze by Bandai Visual was also another upscale. There were comments about visual details/blurring on the video for that BD, too. Makes me glad that the set went out-of-print before I could buy it! The series in general isn't worth more than the cost of the DVD re-release at any rate... |
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Bored_Ming
 Posts: 242 Location: The Edge of ...... |
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I can see where you are coming from with the early Angelica episodes from season 2 seeming to be a reboot. However its really a lot of flashback giving her handlers background story more depth. While also bringing closure to the story of the breakup with his girlfriend. This was same way the story was presented in the manga. Right after that arc you start getting into the Triela/Pinocchio arc which is def all new material. So if you liked the first season I would recommend revisiting season 2. |
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PetrifiedJello
Posts: 3782 |
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The CEO does care, and has announced they will be providing the information on the case so consumers can make up their own mind if they want an upscale version or not. The only beef I have with BD is wondering how in the world it gets released at such a lower price than the DVDs. I've read mastering them alone is tedious, so why the low cost price? Claymore is a perfect example of this. The entire series, upscale, can be had for $30 while the rest of wait for the price of the DVDs to come down even close to this amount. I don't like this new pricing scheme. $80+ for two-part releases, but in a few months, the entire thing comes out on BD for $30. What in the world is going on. |
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varmintx
 Posts: 1210 Location: Covington, KY |
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I hate to sound like a broken record, but I feel compelled to point out once again that video is NOT THE ONLY BENEFIT OF BLU-RAY! This is of particular note in the case of Gunslinger Girl because its TrueHD track is, much to my surprise, a vast improvement over the lossy Dolby Digital of the DVD.
I think...hope...this'll be the last time I bother saying this. |
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unready
 Posts: 400 Location: Illinois, USA |
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Prepubescent boys and girls are more similar than post-pubescent boys and girls, but there are still differences. That's true of mammals other than humans, too. As for humans, you can check out a child psych text. |
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Unholy_Nny
 Posts: 622 |
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This is possibly the greatest review for Gunslinger Girl I've ever read. It's pretty standard for critics to like it, but Hope managed to easily detail the disturbing elements without turning on them and accusing the show as being for pedophiles.
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dtm42
Posts: 14084 Location: currently stalking my waifu |
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Oh, but it is a different emotion than what they tried to make me feel. The number one intent that producers have is that people buy their product. Well, I haven't bought Gunslinger Girl, or even watched a single episode (legally or otherwise), because I cannot - I will not - accept the premise of the show. So yeah I'm feeling emotion, but it isn't one that will put money into their pockets. |
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter Posts: 23884 |
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So you have a deeply inflexible, pedantic opinion about a show you haven't seen a single frame of. How admirable. |
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PetrifiedJello
Posts: 3782 |
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I find this rather appalling. It's very difficult to accept your position if you've not even validated for yourself if that position is carried within the actual series. Well, I believe it's safe to say we're done with this discussion. Now, if you don't mind, please head over to the playground so grown-ups can talk. |
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JacobC
ANN Contributor
 Posts: 3728 Location: SoCal |
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WHAT, pray tell, makes you so adult by choosing to watch something you know is going to shock you and mess you up? There are good reasons to do so, yes, but not to make yourself appear more mature than others. I know people who won't watch R-rated movies, even at adult age. Do I laugh at their decision? No, that makes me the child. This is entertainment. Some people don't see the merit in entertainment that is exploitative and I along with every reviewer who has seen this can ASSURE you this is grossly exploitative. Dtm42 doesn't care for that. I'm not sure this is so wrong. If the premise itself is an insurmountable obstacle for some viewers, I can understand completely. No amount of coaxing will EVER EVER EVER get me to watch Saw, much less something like The Human Centipede. Same with anime titles like Shigurui and Afro Samurai. I'm just not going to do it. I have a kneejerk reaction to violence for violence's sake, so if there's something more there, even if it's very little, as in Inglorious Basterds, or Elfen Lied (and I HATE Elfen Lied, but there's some substance there, I'll watch it,) but I have a strict cutoff point at the "being shocked just because you can is awesome" material. But everyone and their grandma tried to get me to see Kickass this summer and I wasn't going to do it, because I knew what the movie was all about and couldn't see myself gaining anything from it at all. My mother in particular seems to share dtm42's kneejerk cutoff point: pointless suffering of children. That's what this is. I can't blame people who say "That's not worth my time," and in Gunslinger Girl's case, 4 hours of your time. So I don't understand the need to ridicule. There are plenty of other great things out there to watch, so I admire it when someone can take a moment and say "I'll spare myself this. There are a million other options out there, and I don't need to compromise myself just because everyone says this is awesome." Kudos to dtm42, seriously. 
As for his actual opinion on the show he hasn't seen, he's right and wrong. He's right, guys. The writers did not reason out "We're going to make a mafia thriller, what would be the best candidates for brainwashing?" and logically arrived at little girls. The writers (or mangaka, actually) said to themselves "Let's make a story where little girls are forced to become killers so we can push a few buttons. NOW how do we rationalize it?" That's exactly what this is. Where he's wrong is that it's not exploitative in the same sense that a lot of "sad girls in the snow" shows are. About 75% of the show is honest political intrigue, character exploration, not of the girls, but the adults, the terrorists, etc. The other 25% is the melancholy of the little girls' situation and people asking "Is this justified?" The way it's explored is not sappy and heartstring-yanking, it's very cold and authoritarian. The best example of this comes in episode five. (I THINK it was five.) spoiler[Raballo is the first and only handler to realize he can't do what the government tells him to do and teach Claes to be a killer then just take her fishing on the weekends so she doesn't crack. Is there a big emotional turning point for him? Nope, all we get is a phone call to an old friend that implies he's going to sell out the agency, and a veiled goodbye to Claes as he suspects he may not see her again. What he DOESN'T suspect will happen is that the agency will cut him off and silence him before he can do anything, and this ALL happens...offscreen. No big deal is made of this at all, and Claes goes into shock and forgets Raballo completely. Nothing changes.] I don't think anyone cried at that moment either, it just goes by in less than a minute and then it's back to the main story. People who get emotional or ask questions just disappear, so we're left with a pretty cerebral experience, nonetheless manipulative, but ALL entertainment manipulates. This could have been a lot more schmaltzy. |
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