Forum - View topicFinally saw Argent Soma
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Aaron White
Old Regular
Posts: 1365 Location: Birmingham, Alabama |
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When I first heard about this anime, it was from someone who'd seen it fansubbed and described it as "Eva done right." By that standard, Passions is Twin Peaks done right.
Thank you for your time and attention. |
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Zac
ANN Executive Editor
 Posts: 7912 Location: Anime News Network Technodrome |
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Yeah, Argento Soma is really terrible. Slow as a turtle crawling uphill in wet cement, unappealing character designs and one of those labyrinthine mecha storylines that's impossible to follow. Yuck.
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CorneredAngel
 Posts: 856 Location: New York, NY |
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I wouldn't be so negative. Yeah, there's a lot about it that isn't particularly appealing, but the dynamic between Hattie and Frank really reminded me a lot of Iron Giant, so I'm willing to stick with it and see in how different a way this develops.
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Aaron White
Old Regular
Posts: 1365 Location: Birmingham, Alabama |
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I don't hate the show; I just thought it was a garden-variety giant robot show. That's fine for people who go for that; it's just not in Eva territory, nor does it seem to be trying for that.
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Vigilante024
 Posts: 578 Location: back. but not really. |
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heh...I just picked up a few vols. of it, because the name really got to me...the Greek is wrong...lost interest after about 12 eps...
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molloaggie
 Posts: 578 Location: Texas |
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I couldn't even make it through the second disc.
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Aaron White
Old Regular
Posts: 1365 Location: Birmingham, Alabama |
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Now that I think about it, though, it IS BrainPowerd done right.
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android00
 Posts: 62 Location: In the middle of the Pacific by Japan and Korea |
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I own the first DVD of the series, and all I have to say is that I wasn't terribly impressed. (I actually gave it to my little bro.)
I think it was the art that got to me. I know they say it's not right to judge something on the looks, but it is butt ugly!!! They have no noses!  
Art is very important to me, and I am sure to MANY others as well. The plot was alright, but nothing incredibly special. Medioker.(I think I spelled that wrong, oh well.) 
The whole shoujo, RPG, Scifi (done right) style comics are way cooler! I do not recommend Argentosoma to anyone! There is much better anime! Although, I will admit that the beginning theme wasn't half bad. It's kinda catchy. But the ending theme is oober scary!!!!! 
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Dan42
Chief Encyclopedist
 Posts: 3817 Location: Montreal |
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I don't know about Passions or Twin Peaks, but I do feel that Argento Soma is Eva done right. I watched it a rather long time ago, so I wouldn't be able to make a very good argument of this, but everything in that show is more realistic and consistent than Eva. Ryu's angst is intense but not so much as to be non-believable (Shinji). Besides, it's about concepts that I can comprehend (loss of a loved one; desire of vengeance). I really don't dig all that freudian stuff in Eva. As for the character designs, it's all a matter of taste. I actually like them (took a little while to get used to, though). At least it's more original than the average character designs you see in anime (e.g. Mahoromatic). Zac points out that Argento Soma moves slowly but I don't have a problem with that. While some call it "too slow", I call it "not rushed". It just seems like they stretched the story to 25 episodes instead of interspercing 10 episodes of filler among 15 episodes of story. Besides, it gives more time to absorb the storyline, which isn't even *that* labyrinthine to begin with.
Gainax may have had the genius to come up with something like Eva, but once pointed the way the guys at Sunrise were able to come up with something similar but more coherent. Ok, the main characters aren't angsty teenagers, so maybe kids can have a harder time identifying with them, but I think overall Argentosoma is Eva+. |
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Aaron White
Old Regular
Posts: 1365 Location: Birmingham, Alabama |
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The Dragonlance Chronicles are Lord of the Rings done right.
Sin: The Movie is Ghost in the Shell done right. Hello Kitty is My Neighbor Totoro done right. Okay, that's enough cheap shots. Seriously, though, it's interesting to me to see how works that are based in a genre but which trancend that genre (Eva, Watchmen, The Big Sleep) go one to affect the genre and the fans. I take statements such as the AS=Eva done right thing as a statement that one likes the formula giant robot shows, thanks all the same, and doesn't care to see a bunch of European New Wave-type concerns brought into it. That's okay, but I think it's odd to see how many people credit or condemn Eva for introducing angst to mecha anime. Of course it didn't; it just made it the subject, rather than a plot component. In regular adventure stories the characters may be angsty or whatever, but that's part of their motivation to right wrongs, win MacGuffins, etc. It's part of how the storyteller keeps the plot ticking along. Eva abandons conventional storyteling concerns to become a virtual essay on the subject of ennui itself. Not everyone's cup of tea, and I do think there was room for improvement, but a series that returns to conventional mecha anime plotting is playing a different game from Eva. |
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Aaron White
Old Regular
Posts: 1365 Location: Birmingham, Alabama |
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I've probably pontificated enough about this, but I just realized something that seems so obvious now that I think about it. Eva did at least two things that have had an impact on anime:
1. Taking a deliberately Jungian approach to the Giant Robot genre. The Mecha genre is already implicitly Jungian, but Eva used that aspect of it in a direct and explicit fashion; after all, Anno credited Jung's theories of symbolism and myth in psychology with helping him through his nervous breakdown. 2. Downloading the concerns and techniques of new wave filmmaking (Godard, Resnais, etc.) into popular anime, gradually at first, but finally opening the floodgates and abandoning traditional narrative. Some fans think 1. was was made Eva cool, and 2. was where Eva jumped the shark. I think 1. is all well and good, but 2. is Eva's real triumph. This split goes a long way toward explaining why some people think Eva's legacy should be a souped-up giant robot show, while others, myself included, think Eva's true legacy is stuff like Utena, FLCL, Lain and His & Her Circumstances. It's a matter of which innovation you think made Eva special. |
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