Forum - View topicShelf Life - K-On Flux
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ArthurFrDent
 Posts: 466 |
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interesting opinions for those that espouse interest in science fiction... could it be that the central piece of chobits is that persacoms [and by extension A.I.] are actually, entirely different than humans. Hideki doesn't raise a child, she is a malfunctioning persacom. She has to be reprogrammed, which is different than her being a child.
The interplay between programming an inanimate object, and dealing with the physical object that is designed in the form of something cute and familiar is what the story is all about. The vignettes about never falling in love with one. what can drive the interest in posession... what happens if they were to all suddenly shut down... what would you do if suddenly your cell phone stopped working. and every other cellphone in the area stopped working? I would agree that the pace is not everyone's cup of tea. For the kind of show it is, it's remarkably polarizing... But I think many people miss the most interesting questions the story is trying to pose, because they are hung up on pantsu, and where the off switch is. Is the story a failure because it doesn't hit you over the head with it's point? because it asks questions, but not much with the answers? somebody mentioned DearS uptread, but questioned the 'slave' part of it. This is an interesting similar question, because it present you with a SciFi question that is outside what most people will think about. How would a person react to meeting a being whose very existence is outside of their understanding, and maybe even opposite of it. What does it mean to be free? What does it mean to be loved. Who is in control. How do you deal with loss? Chobits is all about loss. DearS is all about freedom, but both see their questions as a contiuum, not as an absolute. While not masterpieces of storytelling, both do pretty well with the best ideas of science fiction, IMHO. |
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Aylinn
 Posts: 1684 |
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It is not like these questions make this anime great. The machine looks like a cute girl and the guy is attracted to her. You don’t have to be a genius to figure out that in this kind of series the answer to the question whether robots are the same as humans, in terms of being able to feel love etc is ultimately bound to be ‘yes’, so both can end up together. It can be seen coming from a few thousand miles away. The first movie of Ghost in the Shell asks very similar questions and does it much better. Last edited by Aylinn on Wed Jun 01, 2011 1:08 am; edited 3 times in total |
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grooven
Posts: 1424 Location: Canada |
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I honestly fail to see how K-ON makes it to shelf. I really hope we get a new person to review some time soon. Someone like Bamboo who knew how to review.
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ChibiKangaroo
 Posts: 2941 |
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One of the reasons I come back to Shelf Life again and again is because of the high entertainment factor of seeing bad or crude anime ripped into, and then seeing the ensuing rage of fanboys/girls. Without fail, it brings me great laughter and joy every time. Thank you Erin. Please keep it up. It is so refreshing to see a reviewer not hold back well deserved criticism just because a show has a large following. I think fans of anime owe it to themselves to keep holding the industry's feet to the fire, even when the stuff they're producing is enjoyable to a certain fanbase, in order to get even better works in the future.
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erinfinnegan
ANN Columnist
 Posts: 598 |
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Just reading the descriptions of DearS (or watching the trailer) grossed me out because of the implied sexual politics.
I love Haruhi Suzumiya as well, but the continual abuse and otherwise sexual harassment of Asahina throughout the show really grosses me out. It also prevents me from recommending the show to as many people as I'd like. |
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ptj_tsubasa
 Posts: 129 |
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To this day I don't see why people feel the need to compare K-ON! to Beck, even though they both feature guitars in their promo art.
You don't hear people complaining that NANA should be more about the music and less about the drama, do you? K-ON! is and has never been about a band. It's about a club – a club that could be any club, really. |
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ANN_Bamboo
ANN Contributor
 Posts: 3904 Location: CO |
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For me, science fiction will always be golden-era science fiction. Asimov. Clarke. Campbell. Guys who put the science in science fiction. Guys who were just as brilliant of science writers as they were science fiction writers. A lot of sci-fi these days I think is just futuristic fantasy. I want my science back. |
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erinfinnegan
ANN Columnist
Posts: 598 |
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They're both about high school students starting bands.... and eventually they get around to practicing. Nana is about older characters in established bands. A lot of people complained about my jab at Beck, and I want to throw in here that I actually do like Beck, I just found the first half very frustrating. The theme song says "I was made to hit in America!" with photos of America. You think, from the OP, that Beck is going to be about a band making it big on a tour of America. But spoiler[that doesn't even happen until a flash-forward in the very last episode, and we don't even really get to see it]. I did much better watching Beck the second time through, knowing that the theme song wasn't uh... literal. |
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Maigraith
Posts: 80 |
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I have to say, the shelves this week are so nice. For some reason it always annoys me to see collections that are just haphazardly piled everywhere, it's like "seriously, you can afford 100+ manga but not a bookshelf"
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dizzon
 Posts: 338 |
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If you're in to the "cutesy" K-On is your heroine. I tried my best to watch it but it was WAY to over the top for me. At the end of the first episode(which is where I maxed out) I felt the urge to watch the movie "What's Eating Gilbert Grape" for some reason. That grasshopper scene gets me every time.
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Melanchthon
 Posts: 550 Location: Northwest from Here |
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I returned from a nice little vacation in North Carolina today, and I was disappointed to see that I had missed a lively Shelf Life. But never one to avoid beating a dead horse, I'm going to leave this here. Forgive me if these points have been already brought up, I was going to read all 120+ comments, but decided it would be more productive to watch six episodes of Futurama back to back on Netflix.
I have already written extensively on the subject of K-On, but let me get this straight. I hate the animation style of K-On. Sure it might have high production values, but it still looks like crap. Take the opening scene when Yui runs out of her room late. The animation is so fluid that there are no straight lines anywhere. She is the literal blob of moeblob, a lumbering shape of goo that manages to coalesce into a cute girl. I found it so revolting that I quit watching at that point, and didn't return to the show for a couple of months. And don't get be started on the chipmunk look the characters sport. There must be somebody out there that thinks gapping mouths and buck teeth are cute, but I don't really want to meet them. So even if K-On gets the little things, like guitar tabs, right, they miss horribly on the big things were it counts. But those objections aside, I will probably buy this show—when it comes out in a season set. It's not worth it singles, though. On the subject of Chobits, I found the review most enlightening, even though I wholly disagree with it. Chobits is the quintessential moe romance show. Compare the romance to the romances of shows like Kanon, Moonphase or Clannad. It's the same style, the male protector/defender/lover and the innocent/supernatural girl. I can easily see why a woman would be turned off by these kind of romances, but for some men, (myself included), this idea of the protector/lover is a powerful fantasy. And the idea of making an artificial female for sex is a old myth indeed: The old Greeks had the lonely Hephaestus building female automatons out of metal. Chobits does have it's flaws, it is too long and drags out the end, while it beats you over the end with symbolism. But it is an addicting story for any nerd. The one thing I don't get is why her name is spelt 'Chi'. My Japanese isn't that good, but I can read basic lines, and the text clearly has her name as ちい. It doesn't matter. She'll always be Chii to me. |
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Anymouse
 Posts: 685 |
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Isabela_richard2.jpg It is all in the execution. Note that Isabella was 7. Who's inappropriate now? 
They need to make an Isabella of Valois Anime. It would be Moe. |
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enurtsol
 Posts: 14766 |
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That's not harassment. Girls just wanna have fun! (Why people so easily grossed out?)
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Megiddo
 Posts: 8360 Location: IL |
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Well, that is a huge part of Beck. Unfortunately, that never got animated. The American tour is one of my favorite part from the Beck manga. They play at historic venues and that's where the story really kicks it up spoiler[with the death of a certain DyBre member]. |
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maaya
Posts: 976 |
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That's why you can like the anime series Haruhi Suzumiya and dislike the character Haruhi Suzumiya. But that part actually gets some development (as does Haruhi's character). |
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