Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: Welcome to the Ballroom
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AksaraKishou
Posts: 1410 Location: End of the World |
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I legit didn't want to say this, but this thread is turning out to be the UBW of the year, but without an existing fanbase behind it. Lol. The amount of crap you say about this show every week paints a very bleak picture about the anime. Ala, then you notice it's the same 5 or 6 people each and every time and then you go to Reddit and the discussion post has hundreds of positive posts... How nice. /s
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zrnzle500
 Posts: 3767 |
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^I wouldn't say it is comparable to UBW, as that thread was mainly characterized by fervid disagreement with the show's reviewer, which is certainly not the case here. Beyond the comments, the ratings are largely in line with reviewer rating (3.6-4.0 versus 4 B-'s and 3 C+'s for the episodes in the latter half). Other sites might have a different consensus but as far as I can tell, most of this site's users following this series largely agree with the reviewer and at least to some extent the other commentors, though there are dissenters of course. It helps that while Rebecca is certainly critical of the series, I've generally felt her reviews of the series have been fair and measured, and has duly considered the positives as well as the negatives that she has found, which is borne out in her ratings of the show.
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11340 |
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So why don't you post positive things about the series? Almost all of your posts in this thread have been complaining about the people who aren't liking it (or insulting them), and those that weren't still never said what you're enjoying about it. I'd honestly like to hear it. While to me all the characters are terrible people, that doesn't mean I think none of them have even one or two redeeming qualities, just that those aren't enough to outweigh all the negative baggage the series has saddled them with. So I'm curious as to what you like about them, and what makes this series work for you? Are you transferring your love of the manga to the anime, or does it stand as wonderful on its own? What do you see in it that we grumblers have been blind to? |
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Spastic Minnow
 Bargain HunterExempt from Grammar Rules  Posts: 4609 Location: Gainesville, FL |
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It is such a weird shonen sports cliche. The underdog heroes are portrayed as being hopeless and the antagonists are shown as being dominant and untouchable. But what's this? A breakthrough! and right in time! Our heroes come from behind and score the points at the end to win it all!
But damnit! That simply can't (shouldn't) work here! It's a short series of dances and the consistent dancers will always get more points than the ones who have been performing badly for half the competition and slightly above average at the end. But I guess they'll make it happen anyway. I guess there's always the logical chance that they will lose anyway and the resolution will be that Hyodo's mom actually had no intention of cutting them in the first place and it was a ruse to push them further. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11340 |
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That was actually one of the better episodes they've done so far. No one did anything to make me actively hate them this time (except maybe Hyoudou), and the music was definitely effective, even if it had nothing to do with the on-screen dancing moments.
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CrowLia
 Posts: 5504 Location: Mexico |
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I agree that the second half of the episode was perhaps the best the show's ever been. A few weeks ago I parsed that if Chinatsu and Tatara became an unusual pair in which Chinatsu led and Tatara followed and challenged the structures of the sport it would be quite interesting. While not exactly what happened, I'm at least interested in seeing where they'll take this leading partner or whatever they wanna call it dynamic.
The first half, though, might be among the show's worst. Between the constant telling over showing -why even bother bringing up this Vienesse Waltz if they're never gonna let us see it- and the overwrought jokes about how Idogawa is forgettable/irrelevant/invisible -we get it show, you think women don't matter at all under any circumstance, move along- I was on the verge of throwing the screen out the window |
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Ethe
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I was eagerly looking forward to Kugimiya's backstory, but it kind of disappointed me. I feel like it wasn't executed well, I just cannot pinpoint why. I gotta say though, I laughed when the infamous anime truck appeared
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CrowLia
Posts: 5504 Location: Mexico |
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I felt very meh toward this whole episode. Kugimiya's backstory didn't really do much to endear him to me, rather, it seemed to cement the idea that no one in this show seems to enjoy dancing and dancing only makes everyone miserable. Even Marisa says everyone in dancesport is living in hell. What a way to make a case for your sport... It also didn't make me root for Kugimiya at all. Honestly if he loathes dancing to the point of wanting to die, why not quit? I thought his teacher was rather cruel in the hospital, more or less coercing him to continue. It would seem the healthiest thing for him to do would be to quit, especially since the flashback never really showed us any indication of why he would love dancing.
For all three seconds before moving on to a contemporary "dramatic" piece? It actually bothered me that they went as far as to mention Chinatsu liked the song only to change the music almost immediately. And I also wish Hyodo would shut up forever, his explanations are excessive and don't really help clarify whatever's going on -especially since we're rarely shown what is indeed going on-. I wish the director hadn't skipped the "Show, don't tell" class in film school |
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Zhou-BR
Posts: 1422 |
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Everything after the Kugimiya flashbacks was anime original, right? Or did I miss some re-done manga chapters that included those scenes?
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yuna49
 Posts: 3804 |
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I found the Kugimiya backstory a bit tedious and a distraction from the main story line myself. It seemed like a waste of time given that this show only has a couple more episodes to run.
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11340 |
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Yeah, I was going to ask if she meant that snippet of "Sing, Sing, Sing," or the insert song we had to listen to instead. I really wanted to see how their dancing matched up with the actual swing beats. But again, it's clear that the reason they're not showing that is they lack the skills and just don't know how to animate dancing to music. On the other hand, I did like Kugimiya's backstory, as it made him much more relatable to me. I got the impression they were trying to suggest he was autistic or had some learning disability, what with his inability to look people in the eye, attention deficit (for things he wasn't interested in), his fixation on following the cat because of its tail, and his discomfort at feeling watched. I think he did enjoy dance at first because it was a way to express himself physically and gain approval, and it played to his strengths of being able to focus on patterns that interest him (like the crooked tail of the cat, or the linear zig-zags of dance steps). But the same rigidity that made him excel at the basics was ruinous against flashy competition like Sengoku. Anyway, what I'm trying to spit out is that I understood why he didn't just quit. But I do agree that it's rather weird that none of these people (aside from Tatara, at least initially - not sure anymore) seem to enjoy dancing. Welcome to the Ballroom? They should have called it They Shoot Horses, Don't They? Most everyone seems like they'd be happier if someone just put them down. |
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CrowLia
Posts: 5504 Location: Mexico |
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I guess it makes sense if you see it that way, but I think the episode didn't really do a good job communicating that information, especially whether he enjoyed dancing as a way of expression. Because I'm not very familiar with the characteristics of the autistic spectrum, his behavior just seemed like your usual outcast anime kid. I've been chewing on it and I think another reason the flashback wasn't effective is because its timing within the show seems very random. Kugimiya doesn't have a big epiphany, a crowning moment of glory or a crushing defeat at the end of the flashback, he just has a mild moment of associating Tatara with Sengoku and immediately he disappears from the episode's plot and the story moves along to Tatara and Chinatsu |
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Merida
 Posts: 1945 |
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I agree with the review about Kugimiya having become the most sympathetic character now which gives me even less reason to cheer for our main pair, though...i know this is shounen sports anime, but we've been told for weeks now how incredibly bad Tatara and Chinatsu are together, so them winning this now because of some magical breakthrough would really annoy me.
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Princess_Irene
ANN Reviewer
 Posts: 2606 Location: The castle beyond the Goblin City |
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Okay, you're right - I got way too excited by Benny Goodman's brief appearance.
Good thing it wasn't Duke Ellington, or I may have gotten even more carried away!  But it does mark pretty much the first time they've bothered to use a different style of song for the quickstep, which is still worthwhile.
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Merida
Posts: 1945 |
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I don't know if it's funny or sad that the Kugimiya pair turned out to be the most sympathetic and functional we've seen so far, especially since they are the main rivals of the ones we are supposed to root for...it doesn't help that this "revolutionary" dancing of the Tatara pair was pretty much all tell and no show.
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