Forum - View topicThe Stream - Winds of Amnesia
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getchman
 He started itPosts: 9121 Location: Bedford, NH |
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guys, her life is shit. so what if those 10 minutes were somewhat unrealistic. it got the point across
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ChibiKangaroo
 Posts: 2941 |
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Although I rarely disagree with your reviews Bamboo (I guess we must have similar tastes), I definitely do not think Problem Children is an absolute mess. I certainly do agree that it is one of the most unconventional "kids transported to another world" type shows I have seen in a long while. It started off with a bang, with almost no introduction to the kids or any of the worlds they were coming from. However, just because Problem Children started off without much explanation and has a lot of stuff going on, I don't think that makes it truly messy. Another recent example of a show that started out without much explanation was From The New World, which seems to have done a pretty great job of building some kind of compelling story out of its jarring beginning. After 3 episodes, I feel like Problem Children is doing a decent job of that as well. For example, if you look at the first 3 episodes closely, you see that even among all of the action and world building being thrown at us, each of those episodes was dedicated to a beginning for one of the kid's stories. Episode 1 establishes Izayoi as a brash, confident boy with a lot of power who is somewhat reckless. However, spoiler[even with all of his power and seeming arrogance, we learn that he does have at least some hint of a desire to do what's right.] He is obviously the most flawed of the three kids as far as his personality, and that is certainly not a bad thing. I think there is a whole lot of development that he is being set up for, and I think it is going to be very exciting to watch. Episode 2 establishes Yo as stronger and more determined than she appears, spoiler[since she looks more like the quiet, helpless Moe girl we are used to seeing (and her backstory of being hospitalized for some unexplained illness certainly sets her up for that cliche). Instead, she becomes a fierce competitor and literally puts her life on the line just to win the friendship of a very intimidating and deadly looking gryphon. So far, she has been a pretty interesting contradiction to the usual Moe-like tropes she might normally fit into.] Episode 3 established Asuka as a strong willed and intelligent girl who, spoiler[even though she is rich and you would expect her to be a spoiled brat who relies entirely on her "control" power, she shows a lot of courage in protecting her friends from a terrifying beast and is forced to adapt on the fly to not being able to use her power like she normally would.] I was actually surprised by how well the writing weaved each of their beginning stories into the first 3 episodes with so much else going on, and I am really excited to see how their stories progress. Also, you can't help but love the calico cat! That early scene where he and Yo are falling through the sky and he is freaking out was so hilarious to me. The show is wonderfully self-aware of its own silly set ups like that, like when spoiler[calico cat sees the "cat girl" waitress at the cafe and starts hitting on her... that was so good. The recent episode with him in the bath with the girls, swimming around and trying to look innocent while he's clearly having a great time, I thought it was a very funny and clever use of a played out anime trope (girls in bath scene) in a very unexpected way.] There's a lot of thought being put into everything that's happening I think. Like I said, I certainly agree with you that there is a lot being thrown at us and everything hasn't been explained yet, but I do think there is some method to the madness which is being more fleshed out with each episode. Oh, by the way, on a completely separate note since I've seen you like cute animal shows, I was earlier singing the praises of Tetsunoshin in the "what are you watching" thread. I wasn't keeping up as much with the non-US released stuff back when it came out in 2006, but I happened upon it last week and I think it is one of the smartest and funniest cute animal comedy type shows I have seen in a long time (better than Sgt. Frog imo). You might want to try the subs if you haven't seen it before. |
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RAmmsoldat
 Posts: 1261 Location: North wales coast |
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I dont have any comment on the anime mentioned in the article but the title of it made me nostalgia hard
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ANN_Bamboo
ANN Contributor
 Posts: 3904 Location: CO |
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But here's the thing-- not every human is going to behave the same way. Neither of us have ANY IDEA what it would be like being a telepathic little child. By the mere virtue of the fact that she has a super power, EVERYTHING we know about human behavior flies out the window. You cannot distill human behavior down to, "When X happens, people do Y." Otherwise, the world would be a much, much more simple place. |
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ANN_Bamboo
ANN Contributor
Posts: 3904 Location: CO |
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Yeah, you're right, children would never be abandoned by their parents if they just learned to be meek and avoid making anyone unhappy. Children would never have to deal with their parents' broken marriages if they just avoided trouble. Kids would never get bullied in school if they just stopped being oh so weird. Genius. You've solved bullying. If everyone just shut up and pretended to be someone they're not, no one would get picked on ever again. I still sympathize with Kotoura and her "self-inflicted emo suffering." I guess I'm just not as stoic and tough as you. Let's just get rid of social services and child counseling all together. Let's just send all the kids to your door and you can tell them how to deal with their self-inflicted problems. |
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dtm42
Posts: 14084 Location: currently stalking my waifu |
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Bamboo, I've said all that I can say about her humanity, I'd just be repeating myself.
You know what also would have gotten the point across? A black screen with white text that said: spoiler[Kotoura has the ability to read minds. She has caused everyone who was ever her friends to hate her by revealing their secrets. She caused her parents to disown her and divorce. She even lost her cat. Now, we pick up her story in high school . . .] That would have gotten the point across too, but it wouldn't have been effective either. Getting the point across is not good enough. We were obviously supposed to feel sympathy for her, but all I felt was irritation. Those ten minutes were trying so hard to manipulate our emotions (instead of just laying her story out on the proverbial table and letting us be drawn in naturally to her plight) that it came across as almost a parody. It certainly didn't let me suspend my disbelief. I hate it when the writing is so in-your-face about how manufactured the drama is. This is possibly how it went down in the meeting: spoiler[Director: You know, she's lost her friends and her parents, but that's not quite enough to hammer in the point that this is a TRAGEDY and that Kotoura is SAD. We need to crush her spirit completely, to make her even more sympathetic than someone who has lost her friends and family already is. Writer #1: Maybe take away her sanity while we're at it? Director: Exactly. Now, how do we do it? I need ideas, people. Writer #2: I know. Everyone loves cats, right? Everyone else in the room: Yeah . . . Writer #2: Well, let's give her a kitten. But she won't have it long, a CRUEL old lady will take it away and Kotoura will be so SAD, you know? Writer #1: You can't have a SAD scene without rain. It symbolises the TEARS of her HEART. Director: Genius you two. Genius. Make sure you add a big screaming scene. Remember, I want RAW EMOTION. Sound Director: If we have her screaming in silence while music plays in the background, it will increase the scene's EMOTIONAL power by approximately twenty percent. Fifty-five percent if the music is violins. Producer: Plus I'll avoid having to answer to Kanemoto-san's agency. Too much screaming cannot be good for her voice, and it is only the first episode after all. We don't want to tax her too soon. Director: Agreed. Now, everyone know what they're doing? Good. See you at the next meeting.] Okay, it probably didn't go like that, but that's how manufactured it all is. There's no genuine creativity, just a bunch of tragic tropes haphazardly piled on top of one another. |
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dtm42
Posts: 14084 Location: currently stalking my waifu |
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Um, was there supposed to be a point to your post? Or do you attend the Fence school of one-liners? My point was thusly: the first ten minutes were awful, they are the reason why I do not find Kotoura to be sympathetic, and they damaged my suspension of disbelief. Of course I'm going to be pissed. Luckily, those ten minutes are not representative of the entire show, which is actually pretty good. Edit: huh, getchman's post mysteriously disappeared. Last edited by dtm42 on Mon Jan 28, 2013 11:16 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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getchman
He started it Posts: 9121 Location: Bedford, NH |
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so it didn't work on/for you, oh well. why not just let it go?
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TotalPotato
Posts: 15 |
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dtm42, I think you've misunderstood how Kotoura's ESP works. She can't just rootle through every single thought that a person has at any time. She just picks up surface thoughts without doing anything. Using her ESP to find out how people feel about her and her powers is impossible unless they happen to be thinking about that kind of thing on the surface.
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Nocturne123
 Posts: 268 |
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Hmm, no Haganai NEXT? Not sure what your thoughts on the first series was but the second series (though I liked the first) is actually much better. The humor and situations so far have been top notch.
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dtm42
Posts: 14084 Location: currently stalking my waifu |
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@TotalPotato:
I don't know about that. In episode two while spoiler[doing the fortune-telling she did have the ability to zero-in on a specific person. She also seemed to uncover things that didn't seem to be on their mind.]
I don't know if Bamboo has seen it, and even if she has it isn't to my knowledge being legally streamed. |
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halochief_90
 Posts: 466 Location: Canada |
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This season is not too great for me. I'm looking forward to Sasami@Ganbaranai and Kotoura-san each week, but most everything else I'm watching feels pretty disposable. The Unlimited is surprisingly one of the better of those. It's like Code Geass with psychic battles instead of giant robots.
I don't know what some see in a show like Maoyu. I found it really a slog. I was surprised to see Bamboo say it was more about characters than economics, because I had almost the opposite reaction. |
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Tuor_of_Gondolin
 Posts: 3524 Location: Bellevue, WA |
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Well, if someone was reading my surface thoughts and then blurting them out to everyone else, my very next surface thought would be, "I wish she would shut the hell up!" I mean, if her ESP isn't empathic but only telepathic (that is, she can read thoughts but not emotions), then how is she missing people thinking how nice it would be if she kept her mouth shut. And if she *did* sense feelings as well, why was she oblivious to people's hurt and anger when she started saying what they were thinking? It's mindboggling that anyone could be so dense. We're not talking about sophisticated thoughts here, but pretty elementary thoughts, like SHUT THE HELL UP!
At any rate, I haven't seen the series, and really have no intention of doing so. I just thought that the logic was pretty hard to swallow. So, I'm inclined to side with dtm42 on this particular topic. |
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getchman
He started it Posts: 9121 Location: Bedford, NH |
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yeah, deleted it and posted something else |
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gingi789
 Posts: 56 |
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Funimation has it. And considering it's all over the ANN webpage (for advertising), I'm gonna go out on a limb and say they're streaming it. |
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