Forum - View topicKids on the Slope (TV).
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Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 23888 |
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Gosh, thanks for the advice, Diaper-Boy. 
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Chagen46
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I'm starting to find your little "nickname" almost endearing in an odd way.
(TL;DR: your insult backfired) |
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Svidrigailov
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I think it's pretty legitimate criteria for such a series, as I wouldn't judge Dawkins on his narrative qualities but the substance of his hypothesis. I made the criteria so that you may either instantiate your claims or reveal them to be rather hollow value judgments.
No, certainly not. However, as soon as you criticize a series, your dissent is a criticism. I merely asked you to validate it.
Wonderful, I've never seen it and probably won't. My point was for you to show that there was a legitimate reason--i.e. citing an extensive list of incredibly similar anime--for you to imply this series is cliche.
I actually did, but that wasn't all I noticed. Let's take a look. 1. "They may to mask it with jazz, but that's just not enough for me." Here, though you certainly identify that what you presume to be a topical theme (jazz) is not enough for you to be interested, "try to mask it with jazz" is presented as empirical. 2. "What you're trying to say, is that supposed refinement would win over its mundanity and turn it into something else." Do you mean to say your opinion is implied here, because it's by no means expressly noted. 3. "Nor do I care that much about its supposed realism (which is more of a negative in animation anyway)." The italics are identified as opinion. The underlined parenthetical is not. Anywho, enough with the pedantry.
Perhaps on this forum, no. But on the contrary, I've read quite a few quality posts here.
Hmm, I've been arguably elitist in my criticism of other series, but I don't really see it here. Care to identify what specifically ruffled your feathers?
Yes, you did say "Not particularly exciting either."--but as an afterthought, your main objection being that implication of cliche I keep yammering about. Still, "interest" (or rather lack thereof) is another aspect of the mundane and seeing as we agreed excitement (read "action") is not a fundamental theme*, should we not then judge how mundane a given work may be this other aspect? Point being its target audience (call it josei if you like, but I happen to be a male in his early twenties) is not the same as say, Blame!--though I do thoroughly enjoy both. But does this mean it lacks interest, or that you aren't interested in it? The distinction is important, since banality is an intersubjective (that is to say a significant portion of the observing body--contra individual--is in agreement) value whereas an individual being disinterested is purely subjective (affected by the consciousness of the observing individual). It does appear from your last post though that you're using a secondary definition of mundane, that being "of this world," and in this sense you are certainly correct. We would've avoided confusion had you clarified that in a previous post. (You don't really hint at this definition until: "I'm not hot for animation to make things appear worldly and normal.") *- I'll grant you the fight scene, though I thought reasonably well choreographed, was too brief and isolated to be a major thematic element. It was noted that Sentaro gets into fights often, so who knows. Perhaps this will be a recurring element? Honestly, I could do without it.
Eh...
Eh...
I believe there's quite a bit more to it than the 'turmoils of youth'...perhaps you'd take the bother to read some of my long posts?
Always good to try to broaden our horizons. Would you mind sharing your anime list? I'd be interested to see what you like.
My apologies, you write very well. |
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naninanino
 Posts: 680 |
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What's up with all the quotes?
As for what I said in the first post, it just means what it says. What did it present to us exactly? Music and a school story. Jazz is just music, like any other. I don't care if the music of choice was jazz, country, blues, pop or metal. Nor do I care was the the whole thing happening in 60s or 00s. What you were talking about in your posts, was detail presented in its musical aspect and what it reminded you about in a meta-anime sense. You see it as a reason, something with depth. I only see it as the surface. And why wouldn't I? If my top priority is to listen to jazz, then I won't watch anime to do it. The setting or genre of this anime is not jazz. It is a coming of age story about youthful schoolboys, living out their lives and loves (to some extent probably). Is that a flaw in itself? No, but I wouldn't call it something oozing out style or other qualities of being unique either. |
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Svidrigailov
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Firstly, am I watching this purely to listen to jazz? No. Here's how it works: jazz is an interest of mine, as is anime, and when I watch anime, I prefer dialogue that doesn't sound like this. Therefor, if there is an anime about high school kids playing jazz--which happens to be something I can relate to--with dialogue that doesn't suck as a result of the development staff gambling on your being too stupid &/or lazy to notice that all the action, dialogue and plot have the substance of a vacuum (not to be confused with 'vacuum cleaner')...yeah, I'm going to watch it.
But it's mainly a coming of age story, love life, all that? Well, unless you have some mystical powers of divination, I don't see how you can even make that accusation (we've seen one episode, remember?). Let's get objective: the first scene that could be interpreted as 'living out their loves' would be the supposed yaoi one which I've clocked, from the time Kaoru yanks the sheet until Sentaro sits up and accuses Kaoru of being the thief, at 25 seconds. The subsequent fight, from the first swing til the cut to black, I clocked at 27 seconds. So far, there is in fact more action than 'love' in the series. From 11:40-12:00, Ritsuko gets blush-cheeked with Kaoru, so 45 seconds total. 15:20-16:20 is off and on, so we'll be generous and say that whole minute is lovey-dovey. And that's it for the 'love' scenes, totaling 1:45...out of 22:52. Sound like a main theme to you? I don't know, man. Despite my insistence, I'm the only one bringing more to the table than claims. Is it really worth debating with you? |
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Mister V
 Posts: 1000 |
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It's so refreshing to see a mature series. Excellent production values, good art and very appealing character designs, - yes, but the main value of it is that it takes itself maturely - very much the opposite to the 95% of bull that the industry produces (I sometimes enjoy that bull as well, but this is completely different). Doesn't disappoint so far.
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Surrender Artist
 Posts: 3264 Location: Pennsylvania, USA |
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Sweet zombie Jesus, this thread done exploded. Ah well, same old. And now, the stream of consciousness flows...
This series is coming home for me. Coming home and turning my television to thirty nine, Cartoon Network at the time, 'round midnight (well, about 12:20, but you know what I mean) on September 2nd, 2001 on a whim looking like I hadn't in at least two years for some anime led in damned short order to both my fondness for the stuff being revived and the void where I should have had a taste in music being filled. Now, eleven years... Eleven years?!? Jesus... Anyway... now, eleven years later, the people responsible for that have come back together again. Having seen "Moanin'" twice now, I really do like it a lot. It almost isn't fair, because so much of that is because all of the characters look and act refreshingly more human than I'm used to in anime. No giant robots, no machine-gun jibber-jabber exposition with too many puns, no checking off the list and not a goddamned 'aren't we naughty tee-hee' moment. Jus' folks. The whole coming of age story is a very familiar motif and I can't say as though Kids on the Slope is treading particularly new ground on that, but it walks the familiar turf just so goddamn well. It's like Cowboy Bebop that way. Those stories were all pretty familiar in kind and form, but expertly crafted and always with at least a little distinctive flair. I always, rather feebly, used to think of them as 'sketches on standards'. I've seen a lot of this before: the smart city boy hauled out to the sticks, the unkind family of relatives and the welcoming cute girl seemingly fated to be one of the terms of a Pythagorean theorem and cetera, but none of it felt as worn out as it could have. It's more familiar than fresh, at least in a larger context, but somehow, it isn't stale. I think that Sentarō is the most interesting character so far. He isn't a straight-out mean thug, not even one with a heart of gold, more of a carefree rogue cum force of nature. The dynamic he has with Kaoru is interesting. How Sentarō behaved toward Kaoru reminded me of the stereotype of the misguided way that an elementary school boy would treat a girl he liked; playful minor abuse in lieu of more genuine affection that's beyond his maturity. The music, of course, got deep in the heart of me, so deep in my heart that it's really a part of me. Do you know little fool... Sorry. *achem* I'm a wishy-washy, noncommittal, superficial, unsophisticated fan of jazz, but I do love it all the same. I couldn't intellectually appreciate anything about that drum solo, but it got my extremities going in all the right ways regardless. My own experience with any instrument ended in the seventh grade when I put my mother's (french) horn away for good because I was never any good, I didn't know what kind of music I wanted to play and our junior high bandleader was lousy (he's why my brother dropped the tuba too). The bandleader's since retired, sparing future generations at least, I found my music on the eve of my sophomore year of high school and the third's probably an incurable fact of life, but hey, two out of three ain't bad. Seeing the livened-up way that Kaoru walked down the slope at the end just made me happy and keeps me wanting to see what comes next. Maybe it'll at least get me to look a little harder at this stuff. The era in the series yielded a lot of my favorite jazz. I can at least boast to having a CD copy of Something Else by Cannonball Adderley, which was one of the Albums in the background of the record shop. Oddly enough, I kinda skipped out of Blakey, Davis, Mingus et al; I have an album a piece from each, but I hobbled out in other directions, especially toward Jackie McLean. (And there's my ongoing infatuation with Tom Waits too) This first episode felt almost like the first act of a film rather than an episode of a television show; I sure didn't want it to end and it didn't seem like it had to. At least come this Thursday it'll be like it didn't, at least for twenty odd minutes. This and Lupin III ~The Woman Called Fujiko Mine, which happens to have Shinichirō Watanabe as a music producer, seem poised to guarantee that I'll remember this season fondly. |
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aya_honda
 Posts: 920 Location: Around here |
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 and it's only one of the reasons why I enjoyed the first episode of this series. There was something particularly wonderful in the choice of music and it made me want to dust off all those CDs that I have. I could totally understand Kaoru's reaction to Sentaro's drum solo.
Not to mention the genuine enthusiasm with which Sentaro regards music that is entirely catchy. By the way, he is by far the most interesting character at the moment because of his unconventional way of behaving and his true love for jazz. He is a character with very much potential and I hope it will continue to be so. His interactions with Kaoru were fun to watch and I'm looking forward to see how their friendship will develop. I like the fact that although nothing much happened in this first episode, there are some particular moments in it which I enjoyed (the moment on the rooftop, Sentaro's drum solo). For me, it was surprisingly entertaining and I can't wait for the next episode. |
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Svidrigailov
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Good song.
Adderley's not bad, though I prefer Miles and Coltrane. And no one has a voice like Waits, though I have to admit I don't know him much outside occasional vocals for Primus. |
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Svidrigailov
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Well shit. I may have to rescind all my previous opinions. That episode was incredibly disappointing. It's almost as if they had been reading this thread and decided to side with naninanino, like "F@#$ you, Svidrigailov! This show really is for little girls!" If this persists...damn. I think I owe mr. naninanino an apology. spoiler[I mean the music-animation quality dropped significantly, the focus of this episode was most definitely "life & love," and Kaoru is suddenly worse at playing "Moanin'" after writing it out than when he played it on the spot by ear?]
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Cecilthedarkknight_234
 Posts: 3820 Location: Louisville, KY |
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homolust on the second epiosde...well now i am not sure where this heading but the huge amount of quailty drop was noticeable as well but however it's still.. aye well if you need me i will be drinking.
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Botan24
 Posts: 684 Location: Northern Michigan |
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Well, I'm going against the flow to say I enjoyed the second episode as much as the first. spoiler[As a Catholic myself, I can't wait to see how the whole Christianity angle is going to play out. Or maybe it won't, but we'll just have to wait and see. (And no, I'm not looking for a positive or negative angle on religious views either. Just impressed to see faith actually represented and not symbolized.)]
The jazz session was fun, and it still looked like quality animation to me. But, I'm not an expert in jazz or animation, so I'm probably wrong. Anyway, I was surprised that Sentaro accepted Kaoru so readily into their group. After the end of episode one, i figured we'd have at least another episode of animosity between those two. Oh well, guess you have to move things along in a twelve episode show. One other thing I found enduring: Karou running up and down the stairs trying to master the first few measures(?) of Moanin'. He's determined if nothing else. |
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belindabird
 Subscriber Posts: 134 Location: Minneapolis |
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I haven't had a chance to watch the episode yet (I probably won't until this weekend), but I wanted to add that I pretty much expected a drop in the animation quality after the first week. There was simply too much effort poured into the character movement of the first episode, and I don't imagine this series has a very high budget to begin with. I assume the quality will even-out over the next couple of episodes, though.
Er, I don't see how a show being aimed at young girls is any mark against its worth. Maybe that's not the meaning you intended? Speculation: spoiler[Perhaps he's not as good at playing "Moanin'" because previous criticisms about his lack of swing have caused him to over-think how he approaches it now? ]Again, I haven't seen the episode yet, but I know I've had similar problems with over-thinking things to the point of frustration. I'm now really antsy to watch the episode so I can get a better handle on the aspects I've seen other people criticize. |
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Svidrigailov
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No, I was more or less attempting to paraphrase by means of caricature the criticisms about the show being predominantly about love, coming of age, etc. with only a topical application of jazz. I concede it was a poor choice of words, but the intention was to mimic a condescending "salesman" voice like (disclaimer: explicit language) this guy, in an apparently failed attempt to convey how ripped off I felt after such an excellent first episode. It's not that it's that bad, but that I expected so much more.
I get what you're saying and I've had such a problem any number of times, spoiler[but I think the point here was to emphasize a classical pianist discovering 'there's so much more to jazz' than he initially thought--and I think this would have been conveyed better if he had been analyzing the fills, embellishments, and solos rather than stumbling over something we've already seen him play fairly well.] |
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter Posts: 23888 |
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Eh, it was a perfectly fine episode for me. As a non-musician, I am not terribly invested in what goes on musically. They certainly did enough to satisfy my interest on that score. It clearly is going to be a slice of life / romance show and that's okay in my books.
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