Forum - View topicHey, Answerman! [2009-03-20]
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Teriyaki Terrier
 Posts: 5689 |
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What I like most about Toradora is its more intelligent than anyone would have guessed it would be. When the first episode was released, most people thought it would be nothing but ecchi and fanservice and the characters would be bland.
I am more than happy to that is completely wrong and the series has only had a tiny bit of fanservice. In my opinion, Toradora was the best anime released in 2008. So much depth and orginality, I am still surprized the series is a great as it is. On a side note, Code Geass isn't garbage. While I've only watched snippets of it, since Johnny Bosh is the voice of the main character and how the series ends, I can tell anyone its anything but garbage. |
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GATSU
Posts: 15321 |
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They interviewed the girls from Hangry and Angry in the new Shojo Beat, and I couldn't believe the "oyaji" stuff they listed as their favorites.
It's actually more than that. Americans have a shorter attention span than the Japanese; and so they're more willing to ignore older stuff than us.
You sure about Macross? |
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dtm42
Posts: 14084 Location: currently stalking my waifu |
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I'm amazed at all those people who cited Gurren Lagann as an example of a Mecha show that is refreshing and going against the established formulas. Hello? Did they somehow miss the ridiculous and blatant fanservice, the overdone Shounen formulas, the traditional leads, the Super Robot physics, the sheer absurdity of it all? Far from being refreshing, it is the prime example of how stale the genre has gotten. Almost everything that is wrong with modern Mecha Anime can be found in this piece of hyped crap.
There, I said it. Last edited by dtm42 on Fri Mar 20, 2009 2:20 am; edited 1 time in total |
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billborden
 Posts: 73 |
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Anime is a visual medium; "better visuals don't always make a better anime" may be true, but bad visuals really do tend to make a bad, pardon me--artistic/independent, anime. It's not the CG, but the actual character designs. Say what you will about the big eyes, they're far more realistic than, say, a bulbous nose the size of a small cucumber or arms and legs that bend at sharp right angels. Heck, I agree with you about the added quality of hand drawing; I love it myself. It is, however, considerably more labor intensive and so equally more expensive. I love reviews like this, "Old is good, new is crap" (not an exact quote, but definitely the correct spirit). People have been writing them since the Renaissance; Shakespeare spent much of his career getting panned by the critics. Francis Bacon was really the darling of the age, although Johnson was popular too; odd how the "obviously superior" works in the "Classical style" are only studied in Graduate level Lit and Theater courses. Fortunately, Shakespeare ignored the critics and (like any good businessman) continued writing and putting on what people wanted to see. On an entirely different note, our author has, it seems, never heard of Yen+, Yen press's new Manga/Manwha monthly. It's not quite a year old and doing well. Yen is also getting into the Light Novel field with their release of the "Haruhi" LN series (aimed at the older teen market, where most Light Novels are targeted "romance novels written for men"???). Hopefully, they will be able to fill the hole left by Seven Seas when they dropped their line. |
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Charred Knight
 Posts: 3085 |
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Its supposed to be Like Gaogaigar was an answer to Evangelion by Reconstructing it, Gainax "apology" for Evangelion was Gurren Lagann. Its kind of like how after Allen Moore was saddened by people copying Watchmen badly he created an arc of Supreme (one of those who copied Moore badly) where he completely rewrote the character to basically be the silver age version of Superman as an apology. |
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enurtsol
 Posts: 14773 |
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This week's Question of the Week (What's one anime cliche or trope that irritates you every time you see it?) is kinda similar to one not too long ago, so I'll cheat and just use my response then:
Another such cliche is this "pre-arranged" thing: situations are always pre-arranged - marriage, succession, destiny, whatever! Arrange this, arrange that! Why make a situation already set?! Why not just let things develop on its own?! Why is he/she already her/his fiancee? Why not let them earn it first?! It's like they're letting other people take responsibility of their own lives without them doing anything! Too lazy to write a decent build-up plot? Pre-arrange it! 
Oh, here's another: the Japanese preoccupation with rich folk - there's always at least one character who is super-rich beyond belief! Whether it be a Fortune 500 company president, rich inheritance, celebrity, whatever! First of all, only 2% of us are that rich - and rich people most often only associate with... dun dun dun.... other rich people! They don't associate with commoners! Yet there's always someone there! One in every class, in every school! Why do you always need rich people to move a plot along?! Isn't the vast variety of middle class enough?! Do you secretly obsess to be included within the rich folk circle so much?! 
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kyokun703
 Posts: 2505 Location: Orgrimmar |
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I'm going to have to defend Toradora! here and agree with everyone else in this thread: Toradora is NOT your standard romantic comedy. I'd say it's more of a dramedy. And it is most definitely not ecchi or fanservicey (with maybe the exception of Ryuuji's mom)... otherwise I wouldn't be watching it at all. This has really been an excellent anime to watch and I wouldn't say it's predictable.spoiler[.. or if it is, it's taking a really long twisty way to get there.]
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Jedi General
 Posts: 2485 Location: Tucson, AZ |
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What the hell? Have you even seen Toradora!, Brian? It's nothing like that at all. Granted, at times it can be a bit on the ecchi side, but it's never overblown. Actually, it's quite refreshing how the series has continuously managed to avoid falling into the common tropes you described. That said, it's also quite unpredictable at times, and it is highly entertaining. If it were more say .... Love Hina-esque, I wouldn't even be enjoying Toradora!, let alone watching it. Last edited by Jedi General on Fri Mar 20, 2009 1:11 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Mad_Scientist
 SubscriberModerator  Posts: 3011 |
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It's clear now, Brian's Toradora comments were all part of a grand conspiracy. He hasn't been generating enough rage with this column, and as a result, true flakes are rare. Zac probably threatened to fire Brian if he didn't hurry to meet his flake quota!
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midnighteve
Posts: 114 Location: Chula Vista |
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I'm kind of sad that no one bothered to answer this question, cause I've seen these type of cookies in other shows besides "Toradora". They seem to be the typical "Girls bakes cookies to give to crush" cookies and I know that I've always been curious about them in the past myself. Maybe I'm the only one that cares 
Anyway, if anyone else was curious, I think I may have an answer to that question, and they happened to be one of my favorite snacks. I think they're Sesame cookies. My aunt used to buy them, along with her favorite senbei, for snacks whenever I came by to visit. I still see them at my local Japanese market. They don't have any "cute" shapes, but the size and texture seems to be what many animes have imitated. Mmmmm...I'm totally getting a craving for them now... I just wish I could find a good recipe! Then again, this is all assuming that these "anime cookies" aren't just a big generalization on the whole spectrum of cookies and I just over analyzed the hell out of them. *shrugs* Oh well.
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Top Gun
 Posts: 4584 |
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The one thing that truly puzzles me about the (very few) people who make blanket criticisms of Gurren-Lagann is that they universally seem to disparage every single aspect of the show that myself and (I would assume) other fans view as the very elements that make us love it so much. For instance, just going down your list... --When pulled off properly, fanservice is a very good thing, as the term itself suggests, and Gurren-Lagann more than hits its marks with both the character eyecandy for males and females and the giant robot action (particularly the latter, obviously). --Yes, the show follows many traditional shounen and mecha elements, but considering it's part-parody-of, mostly-tribute-to the super robot series of the past, that's just what it should be doing. Gurren-Lagann never claimed to be any sort of revolutionary work; however, it's the general style with which it presents those elements, as well as the aspects that do break new ground, that make it something unique. --Considering that it's a super robot show itself, how does its use of "super robot physics" not make complete sense? And that "absurdity" you mention is the series' very core...it maintains a tongue-in-cheek attitude, poking fun at its own disregard for conventional ideas of how the world works even as it utilizes those same elements. Maybe we're operating on completely different wavelengths, but when I see a show that keeps increasing and increasing in scale to the point where spoiler[a robot bigger than a galaxy is throwing other galaxies around like shuriken]...well, you've essentially re-written my mental dictionary's definition of "awesome." If you want to say that you hate "absurd" shows, or dislike any and all displays of fanservice, that's your right. But criticizing a show for doing exactly what it set out to do? Maybe it's just me, but that doesn't make any sense at all. Tying this back into the original question, I don't have a whole ton of experience with the mecha genre, but I'd certainly consider myself a fan of it, and even putting Eva aside, there have been several series in recent years that have broken new ground in what they've set out to do. From the ever-twisting political drama of Code Geass to the ever-escalating super robot action of Gurren Lagann, from Eureka seveN's wonderfully-executed love story to Big O's mash-up of steampunk designs and philosophical mysteries...there's a whole lot going on out there. I have every bit of confidence that we'll continue to see giant robots beat the crap out of each other in all sorts of new and interesting settings in the future. |
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loka
 Posts: 373 Location: Pittsburgh, PA |
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aye. quite true. old anime was still escaping from the borrowed style of Disney and Betty Boop (Osamu Tezuka's fav?), and those are not good art. genres outside comedy try to capture your emotions or suspend your disbelief -- round heads and bulbous noses do neither. |
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foxia
 Posts: 22 |
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I really wouldn't say Gurren Lagann is crap. Sure it uses all the typical Cliches that's found in the mecha genre. But that's probably one of the best aspects of it. It uses so much, it's orignal in it's own right because it's PARODYING the entire mecha genre showing how big of a joke it really is. Not only was it a parody, it was paying homage back to the days older animation. By older animation I mean the shows that started the mecha genre Mazinger Z, Gigantor, MS Gundam and SDF Macross. It also pays homage right back to Evangelion at one point. Gurren Lagann might not be the first show to parody the genre but it really did a good job of it. Theirs alot of reasons people like Gurren Lagann. And It's no wonder people mentioned it through their answer to answermans question. Last edited by foxia on Fri Mar 20, 2009 1:22 am; edited 2 times in total |
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giascle
 Posts: 157 Location: Denver |
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...If you haven't seen a show, don't try to be witty about how "predictable" it is. You couldn't be more wrong; Toradora has no fanservice at all aside from the pool episode. Even then, it's still not close to how you described it. |
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PlatinumHawke
Posts: 204 |
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Too bad a lot of people don't give it the time of day because of Gonzo and the few changes they made to the adaptation. A shame, since it was one of the better series from 2007. As for bad cliches... Tsunderes, especially of the passive-aggressive and violent type that will beat on the hapless (and spineless!) male protagonist for any insignificant transgression. These characters usually invoke bad recollections of Love Hina -- the capital offender -- and they can really ruin a series with unfunny humour and being so spitefully hateful. |
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