Forum - View topicA Lull in the Sea (Nagi no Asukara) (TV).
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leatherhead333
 Posts: 1187 Location: Kansas |
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I believe the fact that they are children gives a little bit more of a allowance for them to react so strongly to everything. I did find myself annoyed by it at times but it was still perfectly understandable.
Now if the kids were in high school or college and the show stayed the exact same THAT would be a true artificial melodramatic soap opera lol. |
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TsunaReborn!
 Posts: 4713 Location: Cheltenham UK |
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I think sometimes people forget that kids act differently to adults, that's why there is quite a bit of hate for characters like Renton and Shinji. I think they act like normal school kids. The way the deal with situations and feelings... At times I feel that some of their actions, especially Hikari's are something is expect from someone who's older and maturer.
A year or so ago me and my old social group from school met up for a few drinks and it came out that we all liked each other at one point or another. I blame the hormones. For me this makes the relationship side of this show more believable, because it happened to all of us but none of us knew. |
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rheiders
 Posts: 1137 Location: Colorful Colorado :) |
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"Soap opera" is just a genre--having that term in the genre description does not, in itself, determine whether or not a show is good. Some of my favorite anime dramas (NANA and Fruits Basket's manga, for example) are stories I would classify as soap operas, but that doesn't make them not great stories; it's just a genre.
That said, while I would definitely classify NagiAsu as a melodrama, I'm not sure I would call it a soap opera. But the fact that it's melodramatic is a stylistic choice (Mari Okada's favorite xD), and not inherently a bad one. In this show's case I think it works quite well. Personally, I was able to buy the heightened emotions pretty easily while watching the show, especially, as others have noted, because the main characters are in middle school. But that's a highly subjective point, of course, and tends to be the one on which melodramas and soap operas live or die. |
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MaxSouth
Posts: 1363 |
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Now I am finished watching all of the episodes. The main complaints are:
1) with all of the characters being heavily in love (and almost never loved back), this setting looks artificial from the get go; 2) scenario vehicle, including multiple spying/eavesdropping on each other, as well as random "accidents" are fully transparent seams of story-writing, other things that happen in world authors create are not consistent and make no sense other than to move story forward in way that writers need for a moment; 3) characters always overplay like bad theatre actors. Though this is a lesser issue, coming from "soap opera/melodrama" style of this project. Those drawbacks cause me to significantly lower down the rating I give to the show, because they tamper with many viewers' ability to submerge into the world and story that authors create. If this anime would not have those lacks, I could have given this anime even "Masterpiece" rating, but now it is only "Good"/"Very good". Only on scenario/characters, this show would get "poor", but visuals, music, theme with trick in the middle of the series push overall ratings much higher. Though this is obviously distinctly positive rating anyway, too bad that show unnecessary lost in the score. |
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Chiibi
 Posts: 4828 |
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I honestly see nothing "poor" about the characters in this show....but it looks like talking to MaxSouth is like talking to a brick wall. >_>
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HaruhiToy
 Posts: 4118 |
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I wouldn't go that far but some of his complaints leave me to wonder exactly what it was he was expecting or what he would have preferred. For example, about the characters. Personally I found something to dislike about each of them and often posted about it in this thread as did overs. Yet most of us ended up loving them all. Those character flaws that Maxsouth seems to think someone ruined the anime actually were critical assets into getting the rest of us to like them. So the critique leaves me scratching my head. NOA would be a masterpiece if only all the characters didn't have those annoying flaws and were all invariably likable? Doesn't sound right to me. Same for all those unrequited loves flying around. Well, we are dealing with middle-schoolers (mostly) here. Isn't an all mashed up love life more or less a normal experience? Is the only happy ending where everyone ends up happily-ever-after with their first crush? Disclosure: compared to me at that age the NOA kids were as steady and serene in this regard as buddha statues. |
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Chiibi
Posts: 4828 |
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LOL same here; I was a total nightmare. I wish I could go back into my past and smack 13-year-old me. :'D
Characters absolutely need flaws to be likable. Yes. |
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Animegomaniac
Posts: 4074 |
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1) Complaining about how the undersea environment looked and acted artificial is valid, complaining about a four person middle school going through puberty isn't. Yes, the main cast is close but the initial plot isn't "boy meets girls meets boy meets girl meets boy", it's "boy meets group of seafolk". Also, "seafolk", so don't take the world so literally. 2) I'm still reading this one and the only thing I get is "stories are written and things happen that are contrived to present a narrative, which is too obviously done here." Look, everything past "once upon a time" {and there is one of those kind of stories} is staged by the narrator and you the viewer/reader are under his power. These characters talk normally underwater {Water resistant clothing too? Weighted skirts? How the hell do they walk normally on ether land or seas?} but if you accept the validity of the dual world being possible, you can't complain about "sudden abilities/convenient eavesdropping" taking you out of the story. 3) They also got big eyes and funny hair and eye color. Why would having ena have any effect on eye color in the first place? "Blue eyes have the color of the sea and it's easier to see underwater" which is the metaphorical answer while the plot answer is to make the seafolk stick out without giving them gills, scales or a tale ... probably has less of an effect outside of Japan. Come to think on it, their eye color isn't too different than the gang from Please Twins!, yet makes more sense here. Oh right, teenage angst combined with first love multiplied by a five year split creating emotional distress in majority of the cast. When you get right down to it, their reactions are really subdued not only for the genre but the situation; if Chisaki went "Kanon" some point during the timeskip {hint: 101 uses for box cutters}, I wouldn't have been surprised. |
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MaxSouth
Posts: 1363 |
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1) I never complained about going through "puberty"; please see the corresponding #1 point above.
2) "water-resistant clothing" and other technical aspects have nothing with the essence of my complaint. The quality of storytelling is low because you see the rough seams authors leave after patching the scenario, making it move forward. 3) Having "big eyes" and other technicalities have nothing to do with my complaint, which is about characters being overly theatrical in way they express emotions -- what cheapens the presentation. |
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Chiibi
Posts: 4828 |
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Nope, not really. |
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MaxSouth
Posts: 1363 |
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Yes, alas. This is why no one can dispute with those concrete drawbacks: animenewsnetwork.com/bbs/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=4239447#4239447
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Chiibi
Posts: 4828 |
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No, alas. Animegomanic just shot you down...or did you miss the post? "Concrete drawbacks"...."concrete" he says...LOOOOOOOOOOOL. 
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MaxSouth
Posts: 1363 |
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No, did not shoot my point down as they were misrepresented as shown in my reply above. An old trick to win an argument is to invent position for your opponent and then defeat it -- instead arguing with real position. So, do you have anything concrete to dispute my actual points?
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Chiibi
Posts: 4828 |
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Life is full of unrequited love and it's a big deal when you're a teenager. If you hate this kind of stuff, I say you probably want to avoid anime that has romance among anyone younger than 18.
I really don't understand this one but I don't agree with "make no sense". What didn't make sense? What wasn't consistent?
That's a matter of taste. I thought their emotions were moving, genuine, and heartfelt. I did not feel like I was watching a corny play with overreacting characters as you put it. I felt like I was watching real kids feeling real things. |
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Animegomaniac
Posts: 4074 |
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You misunderstood my post just as much you misunderstand the show. My first counterpoint was the close group of four childhood friends forced into a new environment and the joining of a fifth friend while all of them were children turning into adults, this is the artificial part {a four person school of kids all the same age split evenly between the sexes?} but the "unrequited love" part would be a natural aspect of such a close knit group at that age thrust into new conditions. The second counterpoint is about settling an argument against all works of fiction. You, the audience, either accept being led by the nose or you don't but if it works for the story, I say "why not?" The things you complain about are present in most stories, the concrete examples I mentioned are unique to this show. My third counterpoint is that tears and emotional outbursts are a standard part of anime just as much as big eyes, funny hair colors and funny eye colors. I can understand complaints about the first half being too slow or the plot of the second half being too convenient for that ending to happen. I can also understand people who don't like the show because they don't care for the "slice of life" genre or its half-hearted science fiction setting. The closest example I can think of to these complaints is criticizing an emotional painting based on its line work and choice of that particular shade of red but in the process, quite literally missing the big picture. |
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