Forum - View topicAnime in America: The Best (and Worst) of 2013
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Angel M Cazares
 Posts: 5424 Location: Iscandar |
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This "if you watch something, and you like it, it has to be good" is probably what causes amazingly well crafted series like Utena (tv series) to receive very negative (ANN) ratings. This voting with you heart (instead of with your brain) business also rewards pieces of shit like Freezing in the form of positive ratings.
I am with those who think that affection for an anime does not automatically translate to high quality. I feel comfortable admitting that I enjoy watching Great Teacher Onizuka more than Madoka Magica, even if the latter is a better written, directed and animated work. Last edited by Angel M Cazares on Mon Jan 06, 2014 2:20 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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RyanSaotome
 Posts: 4210 Location: Towson, Maryland |
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While I haven't watched Utena, I do think that if a show is "well crafted" but not enjoyable to watch, its not a good show. It doesn't matter how well something is made if you don't have fun watching it... |
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tehyar
Posts: 35 |
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I don't normally pay attention to, let alone remember, who is the VA for what. That kind of stuff reduces immersion for me so I ignore it. However, I've been a bit of a fan of Luci Christian ever since her Yukari in Azumanga Diaoh and can usually recognize her. She's my second fav after Wendy Lee, who's Tina Foster caught me, and I've been picking her out ever since.
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Tenchi
 Posts: 4469 Location: Ottawa... now I'm an ex-Anglo Montrealer. |
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My series of the year would easily be Studio feel's Minami-ke Tadaima, the triumphant return of the three Minami sisters, the brothers and tomboy of the other Minami family, and three levels of crazy classmates, after four years in limbo. If the original Studio Daume Minami-ke series from autumn 2007 was a perfect 10, Minami-ke Tadaima would be at least a 9, with character animation that was a lot more consistent than Asread's two series, and some scenes that would easily make my "Top 10 Minami-ke moments" list should I ever do one, such as Kana Minami pretending to be "cute" while practicing her interview techniques, the scene where cousin Takeru takes them and several friends out for dinner to a restaurant and Kana starts with the lowest-value dish and trades up to the highest-value dish while Chiaki eats twice as much as she's supposed to and blames it on Fujioka (the bear), Hayami enlists Maki and Atsuko to visit the Minami residence and find out whether Haruka has any flaws (only to find out that speaking ill of Haruka may lead to a cursed outcome), and the entirety of the barbecue/vegetable episode, where Hosaka misses out on the perfect opportunity to get close to Haruka, and then nearly everyone gets brainwashed into liking vegetables and you get another supermarket song with "Curry Fairy" Hosaka and Chiaki.
Also, the final scene of the final episode of Minami-ke Tadaima at the cherry blossom viewing party where most of the supporting cast got at least a small moment on the screen would be a decent send off to the entire Minami-ke franchise if nothing more was ever made (though I know there's been at least one OVA since then and I certainly hope we get more Minami-ke TV shows in the future). My runner-up series would be Kotoura-san, from the director of the original Minami-ke TV series, Masahiko Ohta, which I enjoyed despite the over-the-top angst in the first ten minutes of the first episode and the clumsy three episode arc with the mystery attacker that went on about two episodes too long. I really want to see both Non Non Biyori and Free!, but for both of them I think I'm just gonna wait for the physical media releases and enjoy them "fresh" (not that I haven't already seen extensive screencap galleries for both). |
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FenixFiesta
Posts: 2581 |
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It might have more to due with the nature that the intended audience is catching it and the non target audience is (usually) smart enough to avoid things that they know they won't like. |
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jl07045
 Posts: 1527 Location: Riga, Latvia |
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You equate good with fun, others equate good with something else, that's it. That's all the discussion there is. |
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cloud8100
Posts: 550 |
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Best anime for me was Attack on Titan & Kakumeiki Valvrave.
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angieness
Posts: 162 Location: Columbus, OH |
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You can't really criticize Attack on Titan's pacing in the same category where you're praising Flowers of Evil. I wasn't in the "I'm scared of rotoscoping and ugly characters" camp for Flowers of Evil. But I could only make it through the first half of the series because half of each episode is "here's one static camera shot where someone walks down the street for 10 minutes". Flowers of Evil made Attack on Titan, Dragonball Z, and Naruto look fast.
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HeeroTX
Posts: 2046 Location: Austin, TX |
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One reason I HATE "Flowers of Evil" (and subsequently can't appreciate any of Carl's recommendations after reading this year end recap) is it always makes me think of this:
(This isn't the ONLY reason I hate FoE, the glacial pace, disagreement with stylistic choices and complete disdain for "wallowing in teen melodrama" genre are much bigger issues for me personally) Last edited by HeeroTX on Mon Jan 06, 2014 3:08 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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Chiibi
 Posts: 4829 |
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I don't really agree with either of these guys but that's nothing new.
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shi666san
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I'm honestly surprised by the fact that Haruto's death made me shed a few tears and by how sad I was when that happened.
I actually didn't like Haruto at all, he was definitely my least favorite from the main 4, yet I felt so bad for him in the end. I spent a good portion of S1 and S2 hating on the guy, and at the end I felt bad for him because he suffered so much throughout the whole series. Either way, his death was animated nicely, had great music during the scene. Also, the director was damn cruel for making his eyes full of life right before he gave his last breath. It gave me a little bit of hope that everything was going to be okay. His punch to L-elf was also a nice touch; it took him 24 episodes, but he was finally able to punch L-elf. |
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SheRrIs
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Haruto's death scene? Come on. At first I thought you were trolling the readers with that pick. From now on I just won't be able to take the opinions of you guys seriously. That was a ridiculous and badly done scene and Haruto himself was too bland, too generic and overall an unlikable character for anyone to care what happens to him.
Edit: If you wanted to shock the readers with a specific sense of humour, you should have picked Aina's death. In all the gruesomeness of it, her floating body at least looked pretty. |
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jl07045
Posts: 1527 Location: Riga, Latvia |
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I also didn't like Haruto's death scene. He basically got screwed over. I wouldn't be surprised if the runes were invented as they were mainly with the purpose of offing Haruto for a heartbreaking Jesus-ending (I am biased against those in general). I really don't think his death was thematically necessary even if writers tried quite hard to make it so.
Actually the first that came to mind for the best death was spoiler[Kiromaru] from Shin Sekai Yori mainly because of spoiler[its inevitability once we found out what the deal with the ogre was and lack of any pomp about it. It was a sacrifice out of duty instead of flowery ideals or bullshit plot contrivances (not that Kiromaru didn't have death flags hanging over him since forever).] [EDIT: Added spoiler tags. These should be used for any spoilerish death scene not discussed directly in the article. - Key] |
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Sylpher3
Posts: 85 |
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I’m happy with the many awards for Flowers of Evil. I actually have to thank you guys at ANN for why I also consider this show a masterpiece. I misunderstood the first episode, thought it was pointlessly boring and wanted to drop it. The praising previews on this site convinced me to continue and I’m glad I did. Slowly but certainly I began to realize the brilliance of the show, why it is made this way and most importantly, what the show really is about and trying to tell, things you guys already witnessed from the first episode.
The main reason why I think Flowers of Evil is a masterpiece is based on a different interpretation than Carl’s (I guess, since I don’t always understand the meaning behind his words!): Even though the show implements very realistic traits, conversations, behavior to portray its world, I deem it as one of the most “unreal” anime I’ve seen. I believe nothing in this show is meant to be real and that the whole audiovisual presentation serves as an allegory to express the dark themes of the referred books of Beaudelaire and Rimbaud. Basically every character, storyline and theme functions as a symbol to depict the titular word: EVIL. For example, Saeki is the supposed angel trying to break free of her chains by longing for evil, Kasuga lacks the necessary qualities to be more than just an ordinary person and starts to embrace evil, the panty stealing represents the seeds of evil being planted, the classroom trashing the gradual evolution of this path. I believe the romance, psychological problems, teenage insecurity, the music and rotoscoping are merely tools to express the main theme: The desire to achieve absolute freedom and catharsis by embracing evil. And it’s done in such a captivating and brilliant manner that it made a big impression on me. |
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Generic #757858
 Posts: 1354 |
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JoJo, Kill la Kill (seriously?) and IIIINNFFERRNO COOOOPPUARRGH don't even get mentioned? Unforgivable.
At least Kyosougiga was an acceptable choice for series of the year. And I agree with Carl, more definetive endings and romantic resolutions, enough with all these sequel hooks and teases! |
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