Forum - View topicShelf Life - MMMHolic
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Quark
 Posts: 710 Location: British Columbia, Canada |
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Well, I think this has made up my mind. I've been on the fence about whether or not to get this show, but after having read what you said about it...I'm thinking I'll pass. I could handle some jokes about homosexuals, as long as they weren't mean spirited (but it sounds like the jokes in this show were just that). But rape? Rape isn't funny. From having read your previous posts, our tastes run pretty close (except for Koi Kaze - you hate it, I adore it) so I put some stock into your opinions on shows. I'm going to trust you on this one. No Maria-holic for me. Edit: Don't get me wrong, I enjoy some really sick humour, but I think the difference is in how it's dealt with. Although I feel slightly guilty because I love Todd Solondz movies, which are disturbing, and could be very upsetting for many people. But then again, he never plays up his subject matter as being 'cute' Last edited by Quark on Thu Mar 11, 2010 9:47 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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championferret
 Posts: 765 |
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I honestly can't believe that people can get so riled up, so passionate, and invest so much energy into bad-mouthing this show. It literally boggles my mind. Not that they hate it - hate what you want, I can't stop that - just that they feel the need to go out of their way and pour this emotion out everywhere. It's an anime. It's not a new political regime or a drastic rise in the cost of commodities or The End of The World. It's a series of drawings arranged in a certain way to create the illusion of movement, with music and voices added, that some people -heaven forbid! - happen to find quite humorous, whilst some people do not.
I probably hate shows other people like. I don't go finding any threads that have anything to do with them here and typing up furious posts about how they offend my values and implying that i have lost faith in humanity that there are people that enjoy them. I do not insult the creators of the shows, calling them things like misogynist (or worse, comparing them to Stephanie Meyer). I do not question their values, think they have no morals, and make assumption about their personalities and views. I do not post in a way that makes it seem like My Opinion is Supreme and therefore anyone who disagrees with me, being the party Those Who Like and Defend This Show, are obviously Wrong. (as an aside, I see people continually backing their claims for hating the show with the fact that they were bullied at school. Being bullied does not make you a special snowflake. I was also heavily bullied right through all of junior and senior high for being 'different' - and i can hazard a guess that no small number of MH fans (and anime fans in general - meaning no offense to anyone, it's certainly this way where I was from) were too. Luckily I am capable of setting apart reality from fiction but that's neither here nor there) |
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Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 23769 |
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 You crack me, championferret. Anyway, one thing I forgot to do in my last post was apologize to vashfanatic. It seems likely you would never have watched Maria Holic if I hadn't expressly invited you to do so. Obviously, if I could have forseen the impact it would have on you, I would never have done so.
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Joketsu
 Posts: 23 |
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Except there's a damn good reason to compare fiction and reality; a lot of people are too stupid nowadays to tell the difference. I compare the creator to people like Meyer because Meyer's work has an incredibly sad range of influence, leading a lot of kids, teens and even adults to believe abusive/stalkerish/dominating behavior is "romantic" and "desirable." Fictional media has incredible impact on people, be it a positive or a negative way, and nothing can change that. There are things out there that make me want to be a better person, even if the people who inspired me to do so don't exist.
The opposite can and does happen. People will believe the hate and stereotypes they are exposed to in things like this and see it as the equivalent of the real world and be tremendously foolish and treat people the same way they saw in a game, or tv, or whatever. And it's terrible. This is one show I have actually seen elsewhere have influence in how people treat me as a lesbian, which I had the common sense to stop talking to such morons. My own little brother, whom I adore, is sadly very easily taken in by media and will often come off with some nasty quip and I will ask him who taught him that was okay, and it's always some cartoon or whatnot, and I have to teach him the difference. You have every right to enjoy this series on your own terms. I don't think I'm uber-special or some tragic figure because of a crappy childhood and whatnot, it's just my own terms speaking forth as yours are. To me, all I can see is a "blame the victim" show, and it triggers horrific memories for me. It would trigger these as well if Kanako's plight was portrayed as tragic, but at least I would have respect and sympathy for the series and creator then for portraying the acts as they honestly work out to the victim instead of going for the cheap laughs. You can also tell a lot about a person by what they create and how they present things, and unfortunately if the creator sees humor in such situations, she has something wrong with her about processing blame. Quite possibly problems dealing with romance. Do I hate her? Do I wish ill of her? No, I just know she is someone I should never meet. I find a lot of dark, sick humor to be utterly hilarious. (Speaking of National Lampoon magazine, my dad gave me a huge box of his from the 70s and 80s when I was about 16 and fell in love with it. I still have the box to this day, as example). I'm one of the sickest people a lot know, but I also know when too much is too much. I can tell fantasy from reality; it's when others can't that it sickens me, and as I said, this show has directly caused some insults towards me. And they, by far, are worse than anything the show has to offer. However, would they have done such things without the show existing? I don't know. It's highly likely, but it may have also been a trigger in a different way for them. I can agree to disagree; I'd much rather live and let live than have this wind up with us all at each others' throats. Nothing good could ever come of that. But please do understand that even if something is not real, it can remind us of real, terrible events and we would rather steer clear of it and possibly even tell others in similar situations to do so so they don't get upset. |
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The Human Spider
Posts: 334 |
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Yes the B&B comarison is accurate--it's something like a cross between B&B and JACKASS. I thought PING PONG was "ickier" than PUNI PUNI--the worst offenders to me were Maeno's turtle trick, the peep show, Tanaka's interaction with animals, and the fact that Arisa, the 80-something year old ping pong master had more nude scenes than the two main female characters. |
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter Posts: 23769 |
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*desire to see The Ping Pong Club...fading* 
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erinfinnegan
ANN Columnist
 Posts: 598 |
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I don't remember that at all! Either my brain successfully saved itself, or you just made it up. |
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TheTheory
 Posts: 1029 Location: Central PA |
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How can you forget Arisa spoiler[pulling her boob out and holding it to her ear like a telephone]? Classic scene! |
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dragonrider_cody
Posts: 2541 |
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Actually, TAN just started streaming Maria-holic recently, as was previously mentioned by other posters. It will probably make it's way to their VOD channel in the coming months as well. http://www.theanimenetwork.com/Anime/Maria-Holic/Watch Most Sentai shows have one or two episodes up for free viewing, however it appears that Maria-holic is strictly for subscribers right now.
Actually, I HAVE! In fact, I was repeatedly threatened with death in high school, even to the point that one guy actually brought a gun to school. It got so bad, that I ended up leaving high school and finishing up via home schooling. It wasn't for being an otaku. It was for being gay. And yes, I do at times find Maria-holic offensive, but I don't find it anymore offensive than other shows like South Park or Family Guy with their extreme stereotypes of gay characters and other minorities. But like at least one other poster, the thing that bothered me the most is the extreme stereotype that was Kanako. She was a complete pervert, and a flaky one at that. She immediately fell in complete lust with any decent looking woman that walked past her. She was also pathetic and insecure, and apparently could be "cured". Sadly, many people think all gay people are like this, and that this would be a realistic portrayal. Mariya was a sadistic asshole, and I hated him. He was needlessly cruel and hateful. He was just an all around unlikable character. I would have found his actions distasteful and disgusting regardless of of whether he were committing those acts against a man, woman, child, puppy, etc. But despite all that, there are still things I really like about this show. At times it was really funny, and at it's core it was meant to be a parody, albeit an extreme one. The art design and animation were both quite good, and the music, especially the OP and ED were amazing. This show was clearly not designed to incite hatred or violence towards any groups of individuals. Though I may have found the portrayal of Kannako offensive and in poor taste, it didn't necessarily outweigh the things in the show that I did enjoy. Once again for me, it compares similarly to South Park and Family Guy. I have a fairly raunchy sense of humor, and in spite of, or perhaps because of, I can find laughs in things many other people can't. So I can hardly criticize someone for enjoying Maria-holic, or accuse them of being homophobic or misogynistic because they laughed at it. Everyone has their own sense of humor, and I'm sure there are things I would find hilarious that others on this board would find very offensive or hateful. That doesn't mean I'm going to incite violence or hatred towards another group of people. Yes, someone may interpret it that way, but that can apply to hundreds of TV shows and movies. This show was meant as a parody and I don't think anyone should put too much thought into it. It was meant to entertain a group of people, nothing else. |
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The Human Spider
Posts: 334 |
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The spoiler[boob tricks] are classic indeed. If you're counting Kyoko's shower scene in the OP as a separate nude scene each time then I'm wrong, but I'm certain that Arisa appears nude or at least topless in the show more often than the other two girlsspoiler[boob tricks twice, in the shower when she gets one of her boobs stuck in the drain, and when Maeno tries to have sex with her]. Of course Maeno probably has the most nude scenes in the show. |
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Prede
 Posts: 388 |
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Sorry to to go off topic, but I cannot say enough good things about The Ping Pong Club. It's a must see if your a fan of crude comedies like GTO or Desert Punk. CPM's DVDs are still on rightstuf (they released this under their "Software Sculptors" lable), get em while they last as I don't see anyone saving this title. And I really loved the dub, so check it out. It's some funny stuff!! Taj Studios pumped out some amazing dubs back in the day, good ol' Tom Wayland and Anthony Salerno. I thought all the actors were top notch in the dub, but Jimmy Zoppi as Maeno steals the show. How far will this guy go ("Here comes are fart!!!") ? I think he had a lot of fun with this one. Also spoiler[ I remember the old lady's boob scene. What a CLASSIC (yet disgusting) ] . And yes... Maeno has the most nude scenes in the show. I don't think I'll ever get those images out of my mind.  spoiler[ Protruding Pecker Serve! ]. But it's a good kind of disturbing...it builds character.
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