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Shelf Life - TO For One

A feminist rant on shelf life... nothing new here !

I appreciate that the email was entitled "Attack of the Posters." That should also be the name of a thriller about forum users. I'd pay $12 to see that.

I'd have to say I pretty much agree with everything that Taiyz said. Sure its got outrageous fanservice, but it also is quite violent and gory too. I find it kinda strange how many people feel fanservice is so offensive while at the same time blood spraying from headshots and getting carved up with a katana is a-ok. I guess it just goes back to how we were desensitized to violence in media while growing up with movies such as the Terminator, Rambo, Alien, The Running Man, Die Hard, Cobra, etc... (well at least that's what I grew up with.) Then again I enjoyed HSotD anyway so who am I to judge...

As for the whole fanservice thing being demeaning to women, while being a guy myself, I don’t buy it, but I can follow the idea. But seriously, how many unattractive, fat or disabled people do you see in anime/manga? How many yuri and yaoi characters in existance are not impossibly beautiful, rail thin, perfect people? Please let me know, it can't be very many. So when a professed boob manic puts boobs in his show, he's being sexist, but when a female author puts impossibly handsome guys in her work, we let it go? Both are simply playing to their bases, giving their fans what they want.

Basically, in the far distant future, the captain of a ship helps repair a large mining vessel called the Flying Dutchman, which appears every 15 years or so on its long trek back and forth from Alpha Centauri. This time, it's loaded with an energy source that can sustain Earth for at least a decade.

You're right in that High School of the Dead is a silly albeit fun series so it hardly matters that much, but regardless I believe the point is this--if a zombie apocalypse happened right here in the real world for me, I wouldn't necessarily assume that I myself was magickally in a movie. But I've seen zombie movies, so I already know that to fight the living dead all I have to do is bash or shoot them in the heads. What all else could there be to do, as far as any reasonable logic goes?

Ghost in the Shell is awesome. Ghost in the Shell on Blu-Ray is also awesome. Seeing Stand Alone Complex condensed way down? Not so great. The series is great and I can't see myself relying on a compilation to miss out on so much smart, well-told content.

I was going to give a pass on TO, simply because its not something I could readily identify, but after reading this column, I'm definately going to check it out.

As for the whole fanservice thing being demeaning to women, while being a guy myself, I don’t buy it, but I can follow the idea. But seriously, how many unattractive, fat or disabled people do you see in anime/manga? How many yuri and yaoi characters in existance are not impossibly beautiful, rail thin, perfect people? Please let me know, it can't be very many. So when a professed boob manic puts boobs in his show, he's being sexist, but when a female author puts impossibly handsome guys in her work, we let it go? Both are simply playing to their bases, giving their fans what they want.

I think Deb Aoki had it right when she said it goes beyond pandering and is just annoying & distracting.

How can there be a "right" or "wrong" in matters of opinion? I'm sure there are people who find the fanservice in HotD annoying and distracting just as there are those, like myself, who found the over-the-topness added to the intentional (and tasteless) humour. The only time an element like that can be considered "wrong" is when it is incongruous to the material. Over-the-top fanservice in HotD makes sense. Over-the-top fanservice in Pride & Prejudice? Not so much.

If you're not into fanservice, HSotD is nearly unwatchable. I'm used to outrageous fanservice by now, and I can do a really good job of ignoring it, but the boobs in this show were absolutely grotesque. It pained me to look at them because of how hideous they were. I can understand how people are into regular fanservice, but this is just beyond understanding.