Forum - View topicThe Fall 2005 Anime Preview Guide
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xanbcoo
 Posts: 245 Location: Houston/Austin Tx |
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Just watched Paradise Kiss...
The SD moments are very bizarre - but the whole show is quite stylistic. It does seem really slow paced, so maybe that's why it didn't hold my interest. Either that, or because it's about fashion ~_~ Also (off topic), Watership Down ruled :p, and is not a "kids" movie at all. I also loved "Do you want to" as the ED. 
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Bruce Lee
 Posts: 715 Location: Seattle, Washington |
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The picture of the girl from the Paradise Kiss promos that ran after the credits of Honey and Clover just gave me the creeps for some reason. Not looking forward to it. I also never got into Mai HIME, so don't really care about that one. Not a lot looks that good to me.
I didn't really dig anything from the summer season. And now, the only two shows that looked even remotely interesting - Noein and Angel Heart - weren't even covered. |
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mufurc
 Posts: 612 |
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Maybe it's because I had high expectations for it, but I find Jigoku shoujo very disappointing. It's a lot less stylish than I expected it to be, and for a show like this, it's a big flaw. After three episodes it's already boring and repetitive, and it doesn't have enough style and atmosphere to balance that. It doesn't even come close to Requiem from the Darkness.
The ending theme is.  Cluster Edge is one of those shows that may be crap, but at least they're fun to laugh at. (I hope it won't end up like Meine Liebe which was so bad I couldn't even laugh at it after 5-6 episodes.) I wonder who is the primary audience for Cluster Edge, though. I can't imagine this show being interesting for anyone over 14...
Not being a fan of City Hunter I don't really care about Angel Heart, but I agree with you on Noein. It's probably the strangest anime since Gankutsuou (at least visually), and definitely the most interesting one to come out this season. (Even if the protagonist, Yuu, grates on my nerves almost as much as Shinji did.) And cliche or not, I like Ginban Kaleidoscope. At least it makes me laugh. Last edited by mufurc on Fri Oct 21, 2005 11:54 am; edited 2 times in total |
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hikaru004
 Posts: 2306 |
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Bruce Lee wrote
Well you can always do a blog search to get a synopsis of an episode of a series that you are interested in and decide. http://blogsearch.google.com/ |
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DanQ
 Posts: 114 |
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Why I watched Mai-HiME and probably will watch Mai-Otome?
Well - cause Mai-HiME has pretty good animation, average music, average charakter design, well-written script, but all that is about fanservice story - i don't mean fanservice like boobs and so on, but it's the whole conception of series - try to pleasure everyone - there are archetypal girls, anyone can pickup his/her favorite, it's plot that's simple a clear, no heavy philosophy or psychology, everything goes tap-tap, and you can just turn off your brain and relax. Maybe it's sounds silly, but it's hard to find good "turn-off-brain" anime show - there are a lot of stupid and annoying anime. |
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wao
Posts: 224 |
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Excuse me while as a drooling Satelight fangirl I sadly sigh that one of the season's best jewels, Noein, wasn't included. Really quite unfortunate - and it would have probaly passed the first ep review too, IMO.
Can't have everything, though! I do agree though, that while the writing and all is good, I think it would by all means be more useful to people if it was based on perhaps 3 eps rather than 1. Okay, it will be harder on Zac, but I think it could only make the thing *better*, not *worse*... And Cluster Edge can be fun if you just turn off your brain, like with Aquarion (well, Aquarion was slightly different - it purposely made a huge jab at all those Eva-esque anime with truckloads of symbolism and intricate plots with a complete spoof of it. I don't think Cluster Edge is really trying to spoof anything, it's more like Gun X Sword maybe...) |
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Nagisa
Moderator
 Posts: 6128 Location: Atlanta-ish, Jawjuh |
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The Wing remark was not Zac's doing, and it was not simply dismissed for being Gundam. It was dismissed for being ugly-looking, having godawful animation, and for being extremely derivative of the original series. And despite turning out really well in the end, all of these criticisms are 100% valid. You've got Hirai doing character designs in an opening episode that presents so many tired Gundam clichés that it honestly does make your head spin; the masked enemy leading the assault on the neutral colony, the Zaku-looking enemy mobile suit, the civilian computer whiz stealing a Gundam, the Pegasus Class ship, etc. are all present and accounted for in the first episode alone (and let's not even get into later, with the obvious Artemis/Luna II and Andrew Waltfeld/Ramba Ral parallels). And that remark about the early animation looking like Colorforms or Flash animation? Eerily spot-on. It's just as stated in the opening to nearly all of these previews; they're based on impressions garnered from the first episode alone and nothing more. Just because a show turned out great in the end does not mean it necessarily had a strong opener, and just because a show sucked royal doesn't mean it didn't have a strong start (Destiny comes to mind, while Gundam SEED is still fresh in my memory). To call someone hackneyed and biased because they haven't gotten the first ten episodes off of the resident speed-subber and obsessively seen half of each series before commenting on them is a little unfair, really. And as also stated, it's all one guy's opinion. Oh no, he doesn't like the shows I like? Scandalous!  It's no big deal. If you disagree, you disagree, it doesn't make the reviewer any more biased/ignorant/unqualified/Welsh than the next guy.
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dormcat
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 9902 Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan, ROC |
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Turned out the old title has existed in the Encyclopedia for quite a while: Outer Zone by Shin Mitsuhara. Seems few people at ANN have read this dark yet satirical masterpiece. 
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minakichan
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OK, Zac totally screwed the Black Cat review. I mean, not that I blame him or anything (I probably correctly assume that he hasn't read the manga), but...
Would he please stop drawing inferences from very limited information? I mean, I don't really care about what he thinks about Shounen Jump manga being pointless and drawn out (because admittedly it IS at least true 20% of the time), but...come on, whatever happened to journalism? Train the superpowered assassin and Sven the detective who wants to catch him (and the word "sweeper" being defined as a psychic detective, nonetheless)? Wow, that's really creative. Where'd he get that from, the Edmonton Journal? Were they natural assumptions...I think that's a stretch. But even if so, good journalism should avoid assumptions altogether. (And I'm not saying that this is the only time that ANN has done this, but sheesh, hypocrite much?) |
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Tenchi
 Posts: 4473 Location: Ottawa... now I'm an ex-Anglo Montrealer. |
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I initially had the same knee-jerk reaction towards Zac's blanket statement regarding "talking animal" films that aren't Babe, especially in regards to a few Disney classics, until I realized that he meant live-action talking animal movies, and I can't think of a single other exception myself.
I think that short-lived Chimp Channel show from about a decade ago ruined me on live-action talking animals for life. (This parody is like the normal version of The X-Files, but Chimp Mulder and Chimp Scully are investigating... wait for it... alien bananas! Get it? Mentioning bananas makes it funny because they're monkeys... er, chimpanzees. Aren't we clever and witty?) |
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.Sy
Posts: 1266 |
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Jigoku Shoujo - Definitely sounds like it has some interesting components to it, it should be interesting to see the plot played out. Black Cat - Somehow, I don't think this is going to be another super long series, probably because Gonzo's page doesn't list and mega series. I was really looking forward to seeing it, but that all depends on how plot oriented this is. |
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Wyvern
 Posts: 1570 |
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Weed is almost comically bad, but that's really disapointing-the manga was much, much better. It was less violent and shonen-y. They seem to have messed with the story quite a bit in order to appeal more to the Naruto crowd. It's a real shame. That manga deserved better.
Plus, the manga didn't have to be burdened with those ridiculous doggie mouth flaps. I guess the dogs are actually supposed to be barking and the dialouge is being "dubbed" for us? Even if that's the case, it's still silly, because dogs don't bark at each other to communicate in the same way people use speech-barking isn't a language, for pete's sake. But then later, they seem to be able to talk without moving their mouths, like when that Dalmation is talking with the dead bird in his mouth. So why do lip flaps at all, if they have PUP TELEPATHY? Anyway, it's not like there haven't been good talking dog animes before, and there's certainly a rich tradition of animated films about animals, (I seem to be the only person on Earth who really enjoyed Brother Bear) but Weed was pretty campy. It's pretty funny how they assemble an elite strike force of pooches to go after the evil bear who wants to take over the world (or something) though, and how they do all work in the battle while the guy with the gun proves completly useless, and then Weed's dad kills the bear with Doggie Torpedo No Jutsu, which hits so hard he goes inside the bear's midsection and out the other end. Just like in the wild. I thought Aria was cute and not boring. It reminded me a little of Haibane Renmei (another show people seem to find boring) but it's probably not going to be for everyone. But who knows? Maybe in three episodes everyone starts shooting each other. Black Cat rules. That is all. |
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Taruto
 Posts: 37 Location: England |
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I'll admit that ARIA the Animation is quite an aquired taste, but to call it boring is a little harsh.. it's just a general, slow paced series, like a lot of "slice of life" series (like Haibane Renmei). Shame they only seem to appeal to a tiny audience though.
It just a shame that people judge the series by what it seems to be rather than what it is - hey, even the scenario kinda hints it's not going to be massively exciting - a traditional world set in the future, where everything is manual, including travel, which is massively focused on compared to anything else in the anime and manga versions of the series (but that wasn't really that much a surprise, surely). Personally I really like the gentle, slow pace of it all compared to some of the "better" series out there (Naruto and FMA, anyone?). But that's my personal taste and the wonderous lack of hype that's affected me there - because let's face it, so many series now are shown as being fantastic by companies and fans, when in reality they're somewhat disappointing compared to what you'd heard. Aria's the opposite - not hyped at all by fans (but somewhat by the companies), and not disappointing because of it - you don't know what to expect of the series and how it flows since it hasn't been tainted by fandoms and their sudden rabidness over it all... ...But that's probably just my view of it. Bwahah.
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Zac
ANN Executive Editor
 Posts: 7912 Location: Anime News Network Technodrome |
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A few things:
1. I don't review every single new show, I do nine or ten. I also don't review sequel series to shows I haven't seen. 2. I tend to try and cover the shows with the biggest amount of buzz behind them; for me, Paradise Kiss and Blood + were the shows most recognizable and most eagerly anticipated by the most number of people. These other shows you're talking about - "Noein" in particular - I hadn't heard of and didn't see. I can't include every show, because not every show is made available and the guide does not cover every single new show. 3. This is a "preview guide" and there's a big disclaimer that these are reviews of the first episode only. I even went out of my way to include "Well, maybe this gets better" at the end of negative reviews. Those of you ignoring this by saying "Well I know he put this disclaimer there BUT.." and then going on to make complaints as though I hadn't, and then chastizing me for reviewing only the first episode, are being a little silly. Furthermore, most of you complaining about the reviews only covering one episode are then coming here and posting your sometimes quite lengthy reviews of the first episode. 
The guide is what it is, a brief look at a bunch of new shows. There's a synopsis, and my opinion, and that's it. We've been doing them in this format for something like 3 years now. Most of you are watching these shows and then coming here to post your opinion. I think that's great, people can read the guide and then the forums for even more coverage. What we don't really need are people attacking me, the site, and the article instead of simply disagreeing with the review and posting their opinion. I'm more than happy to hear your opinion on the show, but there's no reason to chastize me for not writing the article in the way you think is best or disliking a show you happened to like. So please stop with the "I know how this could have been better!" attitude. We've been doing it this way for years. As for the bit about the guide needing to cover 3 episodes of every series, simply put, the guide is a preview. It's designed to appear right at the top of the new season, not halfway through it. To be frank, the guide as it is is a Herculean task; it takes me hours and hours and hours to put that thing together. There simply is not enough time (nor is it really worth it, to be honest) for me to watch 18 hours of new shows before I even get started writing. I feel the reviews cover the essence of each show and give a general, sometimes hesitant, opinion, designed to help you decide which ones might interest you and which ones might not. That's all it's supposed to do. I'm glad many of you seem to have enjoyed the guide. We do our best. |
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kezoi13
Posts: 11 |
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I have to say...I loved Mai-HiME (except for the last 12 minutes of the ending) and when I heard about and saw the trailers and ads for Mai-otome I was completely skeptical. I didn't even really want to watch it because it honestly looked terrible. I just finished episode three and I was completely wrong. It's completely different but in a good way. The fight scene between Nina and Arika kicked so much ass. I wa slike "they're kinda violent for 14 yr old..itz unrealistic"..but of course it was great. I was into it until it had to end. The whole premise of the otome was a litlle "eh" to me at first but once you understand it itz not so bad. The otome outfit isn't really my tatse but I can put that aside. If anyone saw the 1st eps...in the OP WAS THAT MAI WHO HAD THAT YIN YANG FIRE THING AND ALL THERE WAS, WAS A SHADOW?! Itz nice to see shizuru with a less psycho role this time. As with any show (even the first season took a while)..IT TAKES A FEW EPS TO WARM UP AND GET SERIOUS..AND JUST LIKE Mai-HiME the twists come in in the middle of the serious. There's also the storyline of the princess to look forward to...I wonder how Mashiro will feel once she noes the truth.(u have to watch to understand what I'm talking about)
P.S. MIKOTO FOR LIFE! (watch the sho and you'll understand) |
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