Forum - View topicShelf Life - World's Greatest
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pachy_boy
Posts: 1329 |
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I tried the first episode of Toriko, but it wasn't for me. I'm not a foodie, and there was nothing entertainingly appealing about watching the stereotypically-muscled shonen hero gorge on food all the time and speak dialogue that sounds along the lines of the 'manliness of finding food' or whatever.
I saw the anime of Chrono Crusade first, which I genuinely liked despite its bittersweet conclusion. That just made reading the manga version a breath of therapeutic fresh air, where the characters aren't made to cruelly suffer like everything was against them, Rosette especially. But because I saw the anime first, I still have an appreciation for both versions of the story. I think I will always be a Tales from Earthsea fan, which believe it or not I watched three times already. I know I've written this in places before, but for all its imperfect flaws (and I realize there are many) I find it to be a gorgeous film with its characters, music, visuals and deceptively simple story. All things considered, Goro did not do as bad a job as one would think from a first-time filmmaker--full kudos to him for the beautiful songs in the movie. Of course, this movie is famous for its notoriety, and I can't help but feel it's reflected in Disney's awkward DVD release of this title. As far as special features go, we get a four-minute making-of featurette, and that's it. No 'Behind the Microphone,' no second disc with a storyboard version of the film or anything similar on prior domestically-released Ghibli DVD's. It's like the people of Disney watched it, realized it would be the least well-received Ghibli film, and didn't even try with its presentation here. Aside from the brief featurette, the DVD is laced with trailers for Disney movies, none of which belong on this disc. Considering Tales from Earthsea is a two-hour long slow-paced human drama with some morbid moments (I really wouldn't call it family-friendly), what in heck are trailers for Cars 2 and Tangled doing on there? Reminds me of the Veggie Tales movie trailers I remember seeing on my Ghostbusters VHS. In short, I'm relieved/thankful enough Erin deemed this 'Rental' instead of 'Perishable.' |
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dennieangel
 Posts: 1 |
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ha my collection made it....its more like table life than shelf.....its hard to find a good book shelf that isnt expensive...i should have put a pic of my TMNT bowls from the cereal i got when i was a kid
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here-and-faraway
 Posts: 1528 Location: Sunny California |
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I love Chrono Crusade, but both the show and the manga broke my heart.
Last edited by here-and-faraway on Mon May 09, 2011 11:16 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Crisha
Moderator
 Posts: 4290 |
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OH HERE WE GO!
Did someone mention the Chrono Crusade anime? With a force I can only describe through song, I'm drawn to this page to share my opinion. For you are a magnet, and I am steel-coated-with-knives-and-nails-whirling-on-a-chainsaw-set-for-a-path-of-pure-destruction-RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWRRR Some people might remember a long-arse post about the Chrono Crusade anime for an Answerman about your greatest disappointment for a series? Yeah, that was me. Seriously, the ending of the anime (past the flaccid, anti-climatic battle) is the only really worthwhile and emotional part of the series, and other than a few episodes at the beginning, the rest was crap. The biggest disappointment was the character buttr43p. To see what happened to Rosette sent my blood boiling to extreme levels. A majority of the other characters didn't fare much better. I wanted to strangle something. The anime couldn't live up to the manga. |
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neocloud9
 Posts: 1178 Location: Atlanta, GA |
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Yup, that was my experience with Chrono Crusade exactly. |
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erinfinnegan
ANN Columnist
 Posts: 598 |
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That battle was crazy anti-climatic! I actually missed spoiler[the killing blow] because it was so down-played. I was like, "Wait, when are they going to spoiler[defeat Aion]?" and my husband was all, "That totally happened already." I rewound it, and sure enough we'd watched that scene, I was just expecting a much bigger fight, or some other kind of combat, or something. The genuine emotion in the last episode was very touching. It's unfortunate that the manga fans don't seem to like it, because that ending is one of the very few genuine emotional scenes in the entire series. I could see how you might consider it a slap in the face if the manga is so much better, though. |
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Crisha
Moderator
Posts: 4290 |
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I give credit where credit is due. The ending did greatly pull on the heartstrings, and I thought it was handled quite well. I also loved the BG music and the opening and closing endings. I will also admit that the first 6 episodes are decent (I particularly like 5 for capturing the creepy atmosphere well). But I couldn't get over what was done to the characters I fell in love with in the manga. Not because they were given such despairing, unfortunate endings, but as to their shallow characterizations. I'd type up my own rant about it (I have done it many times before), but I think I'll just yoink this bit from someone who typed it so much better before me: Anyway, the real problem was not that the plot of the anime was completely different from the manga: the thing I seriously hated were the character's lack of depth/personality. Forget all the plot holes, fanservice, absurd dialogues, etc. The characters are what absolutely ruined the show for me. spoiler[The characters are completely two-dimensional. Azmaria is nothing but an annoying (and rather useless) brat. She also HAS to appear in almost every frickin' episode, even if everything she does is tripping, crying or just being a royal annoyance. Satella is a humorless, arrogant witch (no pun intended). Fiore is an emotionless robot programmed to take care of Joshua, who is a permanently retarded psycho completely disconnected from reality. Everything Sister Kate did in the entire series was either worrying about something or looking outside the window looking worried. Same goes for Remington, who was reduced to a pathetic, homeless bum incapable of doing anything. The Apostles were nothing but extras, we never even get to see their faces. The Sinners were all diabolically evil, with no real motivation to their actions other than following Aion's plans. Magdalene was an "empty vessel" (more like an "empty character" if you ask me) with no memories that only appeared for about 15 minutes in the entire series and was forgotten almost immediately. The three nuns probably had a little more personality than some of the characters already described, strange, since they were only incidental characters without any real purpose in the story...] spoiler[And I haven't even begin talking about Rosette and Chrno, the two protagonists. Rosette at first looked like a very strong and complex character, but she got later reduced to the role of damsel-in-distress and became a weak, mindless puppet without any will of her own. She couldn't even shake herself out of her pathetic state, not even after seeing Chrno, who was supposed to be her true love (how could she ever forget about him?! ARGH!!!). Chrno was a perfect saint, always kind, always patient, always submissive, etc. He had no real edge to his personality, despite being a demon with a very dark past.] So there's my beef. I could handle most everything else (fanservice, different plot, character designs that looked uglier IMO than the manga, plot pacing), but it was the characters that ruined the series for me (especially Rosette). And as emotional as the ending may have been, the anime completely screwed up something that was as equally emotionally powerful in the manga... which is the Mary Magdalene arc and Rosette and Chrno's cathartic moment afterwards. |
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zaeris
Posts: 102 |
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Or you could be putting the manga on a higher peddler stall than what it is actually. I did read the manga and watch anime but found myself skipping most of the manga material until it starts diverging. Was it a good 5 volume that I felt was identical in every essence. Character designs are opinionated and are the norm when anime studios downgrade such quality as long as it retains the basic design it is acceptable, however I found chrono crusade design to be acceptable or good rather. I have always found opinion from manga reader comparing it to the anime to be inadequate vs. an anime only watcher who is actually finding real flaws besides saying the manga is better which would also apply to most adaptation out there. The divergence probably came from the manga being unfinished at the time. And anime are usually finalize before at least a month on script. Unless you're talking about shaft that seems to do work last minute. |
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ss-hikaru
 Posts: 269 Location: Western Australia |
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My 'new' policy (after watching Harry Potter movie 4 so it's not that new) was to never watch a movie adaptation of a book I'd already read  Reading the novel after watching the movie is fine (like Howl's Moving Castle, I watched the movie first and then read the book, which I ended up liking wayyyy more). With anime adaptations of manga though, I always try to watch the anime first, then read the manga. Works best with Shonen Jump, when the fillers get too much you can just bail and not lose any of the story (in fact, you'll probably end up ahead in terms of story) while enjoying both mediums!
Speaking of Shonen Jump (I'm a huge fan), I totally though Toriko would be my type of thing and was going to buy the manga. I watched the first episode of the anime adapatation though...and it wasn't very fun. It was actually really boring (although I'll admit it DID make me hungry). I'm glad I kept to my policy, saved me money to spend on something else Viz =P I also noticed a lot of Shonen Jump in this week's Shelf Obsessed. Yay! I love looking at people's manga collections, there's just something nicer about seeing a row of manga volumes than a row of DVD singles, imo anyway. I read the Chrono Crusade manga a couple of years ago and it was weird. The drawings were nice though... |
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koinosuke
 Posts: 271 Location: Fukushima, Japan |
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Just want to voice my agreement with those who think Tales from Earthsea didn't deserve all the hate it gets. Is it the worst Ghibli movie? Definitely. Is it nothing like its source material? For sure. Does it make little sense towards the end? Yessir. But it's still a very beautiful and in some ways haunting movie. I actually really enjoy Earthsea, despite all its flaws, and have to add that the soundtrack is one of my favorite of all time. I'm really looking forward to seeing Goro's new movie this summer, From Kokuriko Hills. Hopefully his second directorial outing will prove more charmed than his first.
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glitteringloke
 Posts: 160 |
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I'm running late for work but wanted to share a few thoughts (since I just met moriyama-sensei a few weeks back
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Chrono Crusade anime was started as he was only 4 volumes into the story, so the studio was given a lot of freedom. at the time, even he didn't know how it was going to end. That being said, I agree with most of the people here who are complaining about the characters, because different plot aside, the characters were totally ruined  Where's my Aion making weird faces at fi when she corrects his analogies? What on earth did they do to shader? it was just bad all around. But i liked the seiyuu, so that was one saving grace...
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Toriko36
 Posts: 205 Location: Hoboken, NJ |
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You're telling me that after only 2 years of being into anime and manga, you have amassed all those dvds and tankobans?? WOW! You must have spent a fortune over the last 24 months buying all that. Your collection is absolutely massive and I bet your friends really enjoy having your library to borrow from. I know I would!
Regarding Shelf Life this week, only thing I have seen is Toriko and I think that it's a really fun Shonen anime/manga. Maybe it's because I enjoy the real manly man anime/manga, Hokuto No Ken, Berserk, Ninja Scroll, Sword of the Stranger, but I think it's a fun series. It's not your typical teenager with special powers, powering up for 6 episodes and having a cast of 30+ characters, making it enjoyable and if you're a foodie, even better. |
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Crisha
Moderator
Posts: 4290 |
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In my original argument before I posted, I was putting "IMO" in several different places, since I realized that my opinion is biased. But I thought it sounded strange to say it over and over again, so I just removed a majority of them, assuming it was generally understood that my ranting was my opinion. I read the manga and I thought it was perfect. It just clicked with me, and it still does to this day. After 12+ years of being into anime/manga, it's still my favorite manga. So of course I'm harsh on the anime. I'm normally pretty lenient with adaptations, but this one just seriously touched a nerve within me. Frankly, I should just learn to stay away whenever it is mentioned -- I need to learn to tone down my fanbrat-ness. 
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ladykibble
Posts: 23 |
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Getting three BAR on a slot machine is typically one of the highest payouts (usually just below jackpot) on most slots. Three cherries (or two, sometimes the machine takes pity on you) are typically the lowest possible payout. That analogy was driving me nuts, sorry. Carry on. 
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belvadeer
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I've already declared Toriko to be too stupid for me to even consider, so that gets the boot. What? Don't cry Toriko, your mangaka just doesn't know any better, that's all.
Chrono Crusade, I tried to get into, but for some reason it kept falling off my list without me even knowing it. It ended up becoming an afterthought more than anything in the long run. I don't know if I want to watch it now. I remember all the funny discussions that went on with people assuming the title meant it had something to do with Chrono Trigger. 
Tales of Earthsea, hmmmm. Well, the dragons are at least pretty cool in design, but from what I've seen, people just say, "Read the book, nothing else," and that should be enough. Is the story heavily reliant on dragons? |
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