Forum - View topicShangri-La -- discussion thread.
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DangerMouse
Posts: 3984 |
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No problem. 
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Mad_Scientist
 SubscriberModerator  Posts: 3011 |
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Oh, wow, after episode 4, I'm not even sure how to comment.
 Momoko's new outfit, and the three old men at the end, and... words fail me.
In all seriousness, this show is certainly nothing like I expected it to be. I wasn't super impressed with the first episode, but I continued watching. I'm still not super impressed, but I can't help but find myself wanting to watch more of it. |
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AJ (LordNikon)
 Posts: 504 Location: Kyoto |
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It's growing on me. I'm enjoying it a lot more than my last two Gonzo series, Saki, and Linebarrels. The non-action story so far is more interesting than anything else.
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Analog_Now
 Posts: 211 Location: Montréal, Québec |
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It's the same for me too, I like the non-action parts more than the action I don't know why but it's better. I'm not saying the action is bad it's just with a story like this I find the story is more interesting the some fights. |
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the Rancorous
 Posts: 2248 Location: Hunting the Dragon in Gransys |
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Ahh, the 'converging paths' plotline shows itself. I'm a fan of that plotline, so this show still has me as a fan.
spoiler[It looks like Kuniko has caught Karin's (that's her name, right? the one with the Medusa program?) attention, and the subject of the resonating knives is being addressed.] Plus, Kuniko's plan to bring down Atlas seems pretty cool. Things are definitely getting more interesting. And damn, that Mikuni scares me. All creepy kids scare me!
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rainbowcourage
 Posts: 1216 Location: what is commonly known as "hell week" |
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Episode 8
wow can we just take a moment to appreciate the sheer guts of the ending? spoiler[we have Kuniko, happily escaping in another of her crazy happy-go-lucky plots...and then all her friends are massacred. I have a feeling that's going to turn up later to be a big surprise for Kuniko, although I'm wondering if they saved a few of the key prisoners such as Rena because they didn't show us the actual shooting (although they might as well have).] And FINALLY we have a real reason to hate Ryoko (I mean she's not evil just because she shouts a lot and slaps around pre-pubescent boys). I hope they continue to make her really awful. Still not sure what roll Karin will play but I still think she's Ryoko's daughter. That ending was brilliant. spoiler[So it seems that for some reason Mikuni can't be out in the sunlight, and she's waiting for a cure. I wonder what will happen during her visit to Atlas. There's something very poetic about a princess who can only come out by moonlight.] |
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Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 23832 |
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Wow...no posts in this thread since the end of May. Strange that it seemed to be a relatively popular thread and then just died. Anyhoo, finished the series this morning. This one started off reasonably well with me, but definitely seemed to lose steam as it went on - which may explain why this thread died out. I guess a lot of people may have had the same reaction.
I enjoyed the slick production values, and several of the characters including Kuniko (girl in school uniform with wicked boomerang = win), the trans-sexuals, Karin (the adorable money-grubbing kid), and Lady Ryoko was a pretty decent villain. If an R1 dub ever comes out I could see myself potentially buying the series. |
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Shiroi Hane
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 7580 Location: Wales |
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One thing really bothers me about the ending - spoiler[Nagiko get's exiled becuase she used to work for the enemy. When it is revealed that she was directly responsible for the institution of child sacrifice nobody bats an eyelid and she and her partner in crime get away scott free. Huh?]
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egoist
 Posts: 7762 |
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Ryoko was the big villain from episode 1 to 24, she was made in a way we'd hate her, so I started wondering,spoiler[ why would they kill her off so easily?]
Rushed ending's probably the answer to all questions. |
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DangerMouse
Posts: 3984 |
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I haven't seen the finale yet but I've been quite enjoying the series.
Since Gonzo usually gets hammered I figure now's a good time for praise for them. This kind of relatively ambitious sci-fi is what I think Gonzo has always been best at and gotten too far away from over the years, if they re-focus their efforts towards these types of shows again like when they first formed that cater to their staffs' strengths they could easily re-ignite one of my favorite studios again like they have been for years even despite the hard times they've fallen on. This genre and kind of show has always seemed to be their most creative and interesting and the type the staff they gathered for their studio seem to work best on. I really hope they get a full second chance with the restructuring as they are still one of the few studios attempting ambitious but risky projects like this. While it has a number of flaws due to how much it tries to accomplish and a couple of things they probably wanted to devote more time to or longer or in some cases better explanations of but didn't have enough time to, I think the combination of the interesting and addictive storyline peppered regularly with nicely-executed excellent surprises and reveals, generally fantastic production values and one of my favorite soundtracks in a while came together really nicely. I also particularly like the ensemble style of the show and its cast and how that led to multiple events occurring simultaneously for most of the show and it's wonderful sense of mystery. And they certainly did do a really good job making you want to hate Ryouko's guts! Even if it was rushed, which is a regular occurrence I've gotten used to in my many years of watching, I hope the end of her arc was at least relatively satisfying for such a successful villain whether or not it manages to reach the heights of the utterly awesome spoiler[split-second end of Delphine's fall] in Last Exile. |
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DuskyPredator
 Posts: 15495 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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I thought it was a good last episode, we get a few suprises, the defeat of the villain aswell as the force behind Ryoko. I think it satafacory closed things up with few loose threads, aswell as there being hope for the future, which is always good. And the final thing Kuniko said was very good, gives the feeling the name has meaning.
I had fairly high hopes from the start, thinking wow schoolgirl destroys tanks with a giant boomerang. Unfortantly we didn't get a lot of that, alot was just menial survival, economics, terorism, a small amount of magic and aparently transexual means superhuman. I would say my favirout character was Karin because the range the character goes through, she wasn't the super caring character, yet she was not exactly realy evil. The show got a bit confusing at times, I lost interest for a moment but I think I still quite enjoyed it |
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DangerMouse
Posts: 3984 |
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Seeing the finale I agree, I thought it was well done and much better handled than a lot of series finales in what it covers and how it does so. And in perspective, given it's scale even "smaller scale" shows sadly often suffer far worse and more rushed endings. And the thing you mentioned I enjoyed as well.
I liked what they gave us but given how much they successfully made me hate Ryoko I would have loved more too ofcourse. You could be right, perhaps run time did make it shorter so that they could cover everything, though it was fulfilling regardless. Also, though they've probably only seen the first two eps, I found that off-the-cuff remark about Shangri-La's animation drop-off in one of the new fall series reviews very short-sighted and unfairly general in that the drop-off only effected episode 2 and the majority of episodes were actually rather gorgeous outside of one other episode that was merely decent, so while it's true that episode 2 had an obvious drop-off (which is an even larger anomaly now) the animation/art quality of the series itself, which isn't mentioned to balance that remark, is generally way above average for TV series. |
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HaruhiToy
 Posts: 4118 |
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I have been watching this on Crunchyroll, and overall it gets a pretty good rating from me. I particularly like the quirky characters, particularly the peculiarly potent transsexuals. Although Momoko is not really all that believable they take such care with the character (artwork, dialog, and acting all together) that she ends up being an asset to the story even so.
There is a flat note. The heroine Kuniko, the heir-presumtive to the rebel group Metal Age, is somehow a potent fighter at age 18 in spite of being in prison for two years, and wields a non-areodynamic boomerang that can destroy battle tanks with just the force of her arm. She wears a high-school uniform and has never seen a school, is intensely interested in the esoteric aspects of the fluctuations of the carbon markets and cares about her peers but not enough to lead their rebel group. She, and also her grandmother, and her bodyguard are all amazingly casual about her being hauled off to prison again, and then arbitrarily being sentenced to death. You get the feeling that they are all supremely confident that she will escape without much trouble, but then you see that this is not at all assured. They don't seem to feel any anxiety at all. Kuniko openly wonders "will I really be executed?" with about the same outlook as if she were speculating on a present she might get at her next birthday. Am I reading these characters wrong, or are there big inconsistencies here? |
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Spastic Minnow
Bargain Hunter Exempt from Grammar Rules  Posts: 4614 Location: Gainesville, FL |
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There is a series thread elsewhere although it did suddenly die a third of the way through the show.
The weakness for me was the psychotic villain. One of the most crazy, sadistic and plain evil characters I've ever seen in anime. Not a favorite character type for me at all but what made her worse was how you really had no idea, until the final couple episodes, why she's the leader, why anyone would support her, why she hasn't been assassinated, how it is her apparently lax support (what, only a couple of truly loyal underlings) is enough to keep her in power. IIRC the final explanation was decent but the problem with it is that there needed to be clues beforehand. It was supposed to be a big surprise but because I was kept completely in the dark about the reason it simply made me mad. |
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