×
  • remind me tomorrow
  • remind me next week
  • never remind me
Subscribe to the ANN Newsletter • Wake up every Sunday to a curated list of ANN's most interesting posts of the week. read more

Forum - View topic
Shelf Life - The 2.22nd Coming


Goto page Previous  1, 2, 3, 4, 5

 Note: this is the discussion thread for this article
Anime News Network Forum Index -> Site-related -> Talkback
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
erinfinnegan
ANN Columnist


Joined: 31 Jan 2005
Posts: 598
PostPosted: Thu Apr 21, 2011 12:30 pm Reply with quote
_V_ wrote:
Still all in love and war is fair, they say,
this be-ing both and turn-about's fair play.

I approve of classy Shakespeare quotes as forum retorts and wish to see more of such gentlemanly discourse.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message AIM Address
Julia-the-Great



Joined: 14 May 2005
Posts: 328
PostPosted: Thu Apr 21, 2011 12:42 pm Reply with quote
rinmackie wrote:
Saturn wrote:

That's not really surprising-- whether Vampire Knight is mediocre or not, it has a much wider appeal for youngish people: it's shiny, new, and light on the braincells. Kinda the same reason Twilight is more popular than War and Peace, I reckon, or the reason most people prefer Lucky Charms to Kashi Go Lean. One's a lot better FOR you, but it's hard to resist all that brightly-colored sugar.


I know this is pointless since no one's listening, but as someone who is 70 chapters into Vampire Knight (yes, I read the scans AND buy the books), Vampire Knight is not quite the nice fluffy story people who've only read a few chapter or saw a few eps think it is. Yes, it fools you at first, I almost dismissed it after the first chapter but the next one grabbed my interest. Even though it's dragged a bit in places, I'm still reading. It gets darker the further into the story you go and even though the anime ends with Yuuki apparently making her final choice, in the still ongoing manga, she's been having second thoughts.

As for Twilight, I wouldn't touch that with a ten foot pole. Vampire Knight may have some similar elements, but as far as story telling goes, it's light years better. I do have have to admit that even though I've seen (and own) the anime, I will agree that the manga is much better. So I wouldn't have minded watching the Rose of Versailles.

If you want to know what I think the manga equivalent of Twilight is, it's Black Bird. I read about 2 volumes and couldn't get into it. And
one other thing, I am also not "youngish".


I have read the first few volumes (the first three, I believe... a friend of mine in college was really into it) of Vampire Knight, and did watch through the whole first season with the club, so I know it's not a "fluffy" series. I didn't care for the manga for similar reasons as Erin, but since this is a column about anime, I'm going to leave it at that. And you're probably right, the manga is most likely better than the anime.

As for me, watching it, it just did not click with me, and I realized after awhile that it was because I just really did not like the characters. I didn't care about any of the side characters, and of the three main characters, I intensely disliked two of them. The ONLY character in the show I did like was Zero, and by the time the second season came around, he wasn't enough to keep my interest.

And finally, to clarify, I wasn't comparing Vampire Knight to Twilight in terms of story or characters. Yes, there ARE some similar elements, but story wise, they're whole different entities. Rather, I was comparing it to Twilight in the sense of its fandom. To me, neither title is really all that deserving of the massive fan gathering they've gained. There's nothing REALLY truly awful about them, but there's nothing really GREAT about them, either.

And now that I'm thinking about it, both of these titles suffer from the same downfalls for me in that I really don't like the characters. They could have been interesting stories if I had sympathized with any of the characters.

rinmackie wrote:
For the last time, Vampire Knight is not a harem manga! It's a love triangle! Yuuki has two vampires in love with her, but she's only interested in one of them. And yes, she does chose. (Though it's only final in the anime, at least so far.) True, the human girls fawn over the vampire boys but they are not the focus of the story. But it's obvious no one's interested in the facts so I might as well be posting to the wall.

You're right, it's NOT technically a harem. But people like to put labels on things, so I wouldn't take it too personally. If you were to equate vampirism/"I want to suck her blood!" with Lust/"I want to DO her!", you COULD make the case that all the hot guys want her, since her blood smells REALLY NICE. But does "All the hot vampires want to get their freak on with her" make it a harem show? Heck, bringing it back to the Twilight metaphor, all the hot boys in school want Bella, does that make Twilight a harem?

EDIT: Geez, I just reread my own post here. How many times can I write the word "character" in this post? Yikes.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
_V_



Joined: 13 Apr 2009
Posts: 619
PostPosted: Thu Apr 21, 2011 2:53 pm Reply with quote
Mari Makinami....was intended to be a satire. The entire point is that she feels shoehorned in, and isn't an actual character.

Compare "Poochie" from The Simpsons.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Shenl742



Joined: 11 Feb 2010
Posts: 1524
PostPosted: Thu Apr 21, 2011 2:55 pm Reply with quote
_V_ wrote:
Mari Makinami....was intended to be a satire. The entire point is that she feels shoehorned in, and isn't an actual character.

Compare "Poochie" from The Simpsons.


Unless the creators were lying or at the very least, purposefully misdirecting information to avoid spoilers.

Right now there's absolutely no way for us to tell whether or not they have bigger and more substantial plans for her.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Illusionary_Systems



Joined: 18 Jul 2006
Posts: 50
PostPosted: Thu Apr 21, 2011 3:11 pm Reply with quote
_V_ wrote:
Mari Makinami....was intended to be a satire. The entire point is that she feels shoehorned in, and isn't an actual character.

Compare "Poochie" from The Simpsons.


What with such a pretentious name "Illustrious" you may be right on that.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Charred Knight



Joined: 29 Sep 2008
Posts: 3085
PostPosted: Thu Apr 21, 2011 4:03 pm Reply with quote
Illusionary_Systems wrote:
_V_ wrote:
Mari Makinami....was intended to be a satire. The entire point is that she feels shoehorned in, and isn't an actual character.

Compare "Poochie" from The Simpsons.


What with such a pretentious name "Illustrious" you may be right on that.

Most evangelion characters are named after World War II navy vessals.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Illustrious_(R87)
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Myaow



Joined: 20 Dec 2007
Posts: 1068
PostPosted: Thu Apr 21, 2011 6:11 pm Reply with quote
_V_ wrote:
Mari Makinami....was intended to be a satire. The entire point is that she feels shoehorned in, and isn't an actual character.

Compare "Poochie" from The Simpsons.


Um, source please? I remember Sadamoto saying she was meant to feel "un-EVAlike", but I don't recall anyone involved with the movies saying this.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
rinmackie



Joined: 05 Aug 2006
Posts: 1040
Location: in a van! down by the river!
PostPosted: Thu Apr 21, 2011 6:23 pm Reply with quote
Thanks, Julia. As least someone's listening. I don't mind if people don't like Vampire Knight, but at least get the facts straight. (Not talking to you, personally.) Even I will admit that if you don't like any of the three main characters, you probably won't like it. As a matter of fact, Zero is the main reason I like the story. Though he hasn't had a lot of presence in the manga version lately. But that will change; not only is he a main character, but I personally feel he is the real hero of this story.

I just hope Zero does end up with Yuuki eventually. If she stays with Kaname, it really will be a lot like Twilight! At least, as far as I'm concerned.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message AIM Address
Illusionary_Systems



Joined: 18 Jul 2006
Posts: 50
PostPosted: Fri May 06, 2011 3:46 pm Reply with quote
Charred Knight wrote:
Illusionary_Systems wrote:
_V_ wrote:
Mari Makinami....was intended to be a satire. The entire point is that she feels shoehorned in, and isn't an actual character.

Compare "Poochie" from The Simpsons.


What with such a pretentious name "Illustrious" you may be right on that.

Most evangelion characters are named after World War II navy vessals.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Illustrious_(R87)

I am aware of the military vessel naming conventions.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Display posts from previous:   
Reply to topic    Anime News Network Forum Index -> Site-related -> Talkback All times are GMT - 5 Hours
Goto page Previous  1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Page 5 of 5

 


Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group