Forum - View topic1992 All Over Again
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Craeyst Raygal
 Posts: 1383 Location: In the garage, beneath a 1970 MGB GT. |
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Well folks, for those of us who like our romance served up with a heavy shonen side, this was a year of old friends returning.
In fact, the two highest profile romantic comedies from the 90's - oddly enough both OAV's and both from the year 1992 - made splash returns in the states; the 3rd Tenchi Muyo OAV and the Oh! My Goddess TV series. There was controversy along the way to be sure. Newly cast characters, new artwork and animation that clashed with the old, new distributors handling the franchises.... All in all, it was cause for worry, alarm, and yet celebration amongst fans. So, now both new incarnations have seen release, and both Media Blasters and Funimation have risen to the challenge of new properties even with the weight of hugely devoted (and easily upset) fans. So what's everyone's take on 1992 revisited? Was Oh! My Goddess's take on the original manga worthwhile? Was Kajishima finally starting to take on the penultimate ending of the Tenchi Muyo storyline worth the wait? Who came out on top? Was there really competition? Was it all for naught? Let's discuss. |
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one3rd
 Posts: 1820 Location: アメリカ |
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I really liked the Oh! My Goddess TV series. My only real complaint is that the show gets too bogged down with the side characters, as is par for this type of show. I felt that the show was at its strongest points when focusing on Keiichi and Belldandy and at its weakest when characters like Skuld put themselves in the way. Based on what I've heard about the manga, though, I should expect only more disappointment since the story really hasn't gone anywhere in 15+ years.
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Craeyst Raygal
Posts: 1383 Location: In the garage, beneath a 1970 MGB GT. |
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Except that Skuld is not a side character.
A common mistake made by people new to Oh! My Goddess is that the story is about Keiichi and Belldandy. It's not. The story is about everyone. Skuld, Urd, Peorth, Marller, Megumi, Hasegawa, the sempai, Sayoko, everyone is part of the circle of friends and family that K1 and Bell surround themselves with. The story of Oh! My Goddess is a story of how a man and a goddess coming together brings together this ersatz family, and then how they cope with everything from the mundane to the extraordinary. Belldandy and Keiichi's love for each other isn't in question. It's made clear very early on that they're 100% devoted to each other, and the "threats" to their relationship are really trivial. So if it's not a point of conflict in the story, it's not going to be the motion in the story. What is the motion is what happens to this cast of characters in their everyday life, and that's why Oh! My Goddess is such a long lived series. |
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one3rd
Posts: 1820 Location: アメリカ |
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In other words, it seems that what you like most about the series is what I like least. I'm willling to agree to disagree.
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hentai4me
 Posts: 1313 Location: England. Robin is so Cute! |
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well I've seen one of them. It's either Oh! or Ah! so this may be irrelevant...but it was a 26ep series.
I'll freely admit I absolutely love romance stories, so things like koi kaze, Kare Kano etc are great. I then heard about 'X' my goddess and thought "Great, a series so popular its being redone!" to me watching it(this may seem odd) felt like watching Gantz. I sat through it just wishing for the characters to do something, to become something more. In Gantz they spent the majority of the fights talking about wether or not they should kill the aliens or let themselves die, fine once or twice but not EVERY time. Same with this, Ok Skuld doesn't like the two of them getting together and she inteferes, once or twice I dont mind, but not EVERY time they are on screen together. and if what you describe Craeyst is how its meant to be then thats just really annoying. 26 episodes before they actually kiss each other!(properly) and it lasts for about 3 seconds. My crazy French neighbour kisses me good morning longer than that! |
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Tenchi
 Posts: 4665 Location: Ottawa... now I'm an ex-Anglo Montrealer. |
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Eh, honestly, I tried watching the third Tenchi Muyo OVA DVD and it was really straining to hold my attention. I hate to admit it, but I found the first three episodes to be rather plodding, with lots of exposition but little of the fun or excitement of the first OVA series. (The second OVA series was somewhere in between; storywise, I find it to be a big mess compared to the tightness of the Kagato arc, but it had a lot of enjoyable moments, like the entire baby episode.)
Maybe it'll get better, or maybe it's just my Tenchi Universe continuity preference that's getting in the way of actually enjoying the return to the original continuity. |
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Mohawk52
 Posts: 8204 Location: England, UK |
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Seeing as the rest of the non Japanese world have not been so lucky to see these yet, legitimately that is, would you all be so kind as to use the spoiler[] box please? We thank you.
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Tony K.
 SubscriberModerator  Posts: 12109 Location: Frisco, TX |
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I'm actually a bit mixed on what to think of Tenchi. I saw the first two OAV series in English a while back and thought it was Good, but I listened to the dub with the benefit of the doubt because so many people praised it. And when I was at a friend's house many months after, he had it playing in the background and my immediate impression at that time was, "what the heck is this?"
I came to a realization that the dub wasn't as good as I originally thought and that I was just trying to go with what everyone else did, which then led to turning me away from the Tenchi franchise altogether. I still have the first volume of Tenchi Muyo! GXP (with the collector's box), but I don't even know if I want to complete it given my low amount of enthusiasm for the Tenchi universe (not the series, but in the synonomous sense of the word "franchise"  ).
It's not really a matter of language preference since I know I have a choice, but I'm just trying to look for some positive feedback that might, in turn, get me interested in trying to collect, or maybe at least checking out, such a famed anime franchise. I also have never seen Ah! My Goddess, but I'm intrigued to see it after hearing some of Kikuko Inoue's work recently. She has such a majestic sounding voice, and I feel it would work best in romance titles  .
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Craeyst Raygal
Posts: 1383 Location: In the garage, beneath a 1970 MGB GT. |
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hentai4me, let me pose this question to you:
When in Oh! My Goddess were you doubting that K1 and Bell love each other? You see, if you look past the veil, Belldandy isn't Keiichi's girlfriend. She's his wife. Think about it, a couple whose life together is protected by God. Pretty allegorical for marriage, no? As such, you have to start rearranging your thoughts about Keiichi and Belldandy by thinking of them not as a modern young couple, but as newlyweds becoming the traditional married Japanese couple. (and rather unexpectedly at that) Once you start thinking in those terms, you see the pair in a very different light. It's one of the reasons why seasoned fans have always considered Belldandy and Keiichi the definitive anime romance - they're the one truly functional couple. Now, as far as how the story progresses, the story is NOT about K1 and Bell falling in love. I repeat - NOT ABOUT THEM FALLING IN LOVE. It's made perfectly clear very early on that they are destined to be together and care deeply for one another. That's why there's only a few episodes spent wallowing in the typical indecisive muck of youth. Same went for the manga as well. The story is about everyone in the lives of Belldandy and Keiichi. There are no side characters, no minor roles, and nothing is trivial. To truly enjoy Oh! My Goddess, you must be able to enjoy all of the characters. |
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hentai4me
Posts: 1313 Location: England. Robin is so Cute! |
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Clearly. I'm not that stupid you know
Yes but the lack of actual romantic events is what annoyed me. The only real reason this can be called a romance is because they love each other and when I want to watch a romance I would actually like to see it rather than just know its there.
yes they're functional, but its a bit dull for the romance story if its not really the main focus, if its only there as something they expect you to know about and leave it at that.
Hence my problem! I only really wanted to see the relationship between Keiichi and Belldandy develop, its obvious they love each other and that they will end up together and verything but in a romance series I am not looking for something where they expet you to make an intuitive(well not that hard) leap about the couple and then concentrate on the others around, I am looking for something where the romance IS the focus of the story and everything else happens around that. and the fact Skuld got so annoying was simply because it was so obvisou that they were in love and all that was needed for some kind of advancement was for Keichi or Belldandy to say something and Skuld continuously got in the way of what was so obvious. |
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theoriginalbilis
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All I know is I like both franchises.
I'm collecting the R1 releases of AMG TV and already own the Tenchi OVAs. |
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