Forum - View topicREVIEW: Nekopara
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Takkun4343
 Posts: 1506 Location: Englewood, Ohio |
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>Anime News Network hates Nekopara
Huuuuuuge shocker. 
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Zalis116
Moderator
 Posts: 6869 Location: Kazune City |
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Quick, somebody inform the anti-industry outrage merchants so they can make clickbait reaction videos to this on YouTube! They must know! Honestly, as someone who generally likes "based on erogame" anime and would probably like Nekopara, I felt that the review was more than fair in evaluating the series as a distinct work of entertainment without going on anti-fanservice crusades or personally attacking its audience. |
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cookiemanstah
 Posts: 546 |
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you know, this isn't really exclusive to this site but does any anime outlet (can be a blog too) that claims to hold themselves on professionalism and wit ACTUALLY like any anime like this? Fetish anime or ecchi in general.
I'd honestly like to know what people would make of things like Mnemosyne or Interspecies Reviewer. |
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Seagloom
Posts: 276 |
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Theron Martin covered Interspecies Reviewers on ANN earlier this year. His rating never dropped below 3.5 with several episodes receiving a 4.0 and the finale a 4.5. Based on those scores and the context of his reviews, it's obvious he enjoyed it. Both cours of Plunderer were reviewed by Richard Eisenbeis earlier this year; and with the exception of episodes three and seven, which he rated 2.0, no episodes fell below 3.0 with some scoring 4.0 or higher. Back in 2018 High School DxD Hero also reviewed well enough; as did How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord. I can't think of any other examples off the top of my head. The point is ecchi series or series with frequent sexually suggestive content are by no means doomed to being panned on ANN. |
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q_3
Posts: 140 |
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For those who love pets but not as a fetish, I would suggest Uchitama, a hilarious and heartwarming pets-as-people show from the same season.
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Shay Guy
 Posts: 2131 |
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And as for Mnemosyne? Zac himself gave it a B-. |
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18211 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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In addition to what Seagloom said, Zac did a review of Mnemosyne back in 2010. Gave it a C for writing but a B- overall, mostly on the strength of great technical merits. And that's from someone who generally had a low opinion of sexualized content in anime. I don't think you're wrong in general about the issue you mentioned, however. The main problem is that what constitutes "good" by ecchi/fetish content standards is not what constitutes "good" in general storytelling sense, and the two don't often intersect. In fact, I'd even argue that they are at odds with each other, since the contrivances necessary to set up the ecchi/fetish content actively detract from good story flow and quality characterizations. Interspecies Reviewers worked (and will likely make my Top 5 list for the year) primarily because it accomplished the rare feat of making the story literally all about sex, so the ecchi and fetish content never felt like just a gimmick. |
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ryboom
Posts: 17 |
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This site has a few writers who occasionally voice half-hearted performative concern about cartoon cleavage but, for the most part, everyone is refreshingly chill about it. This review in particular bends over backwards to be open-minded.
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AmpersandsUnited
Posts: 633 |
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That depends what you define as professional. Anime News Network is the only main critic based website I know of for anime. Everything else like MAL, Reddit, or imageboards are all user reviews and community driven rather than staff driven. You got a lot of smaller sites, sure, but most people under 30 get their reviews from YouTubers, streamers, and social media influencers these days, and ecchi shows are pretty big with them. Guys and girls with millions of followers like Gigguk, Noble, Nux Taku, Akidearest, and Connor and their fanbase generally love those kinds of shows. It's either a generational thing, since younger people are more sexually liberated in general and legacy media tends to be run and aimed at an older generation, or there's a large disconnect between legacy media critics and consumers. The same thing happens with video games all the time where a game gets trashed by all the legacy media websites, but every major streamer or YouTuber loves it and says it's amazingly fun, and vice versa when something gets high marks from legacy sites but every major influencer says its not fun and calls it bad. It might seem like fanservice anime is some downtrodden underdog if you only surround yourself and read takes from people who don't like it, but I wouldn't say that's the majority opinion at all if you engage regularly with the communities and people who adore it. |
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all-tsun-and-no-dere
ANN Reviewer
Posts: 606 |
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All you need to do is look at the top anime on Crunchyroll to know that wish-fulfillment isekai, battle shonen, and fan service anime are among the most popular series. Criticizing them is in no way punching down. Anyway, thanks to the people who recognized my effort to write my honest opinion without also denigrating the extremely specific audience for this anime! One of my friends loves Nekopara and was kind of upset when I was mocking it on social media, so I worked hard to make sure I wasn't dismissing everyone who enjoyed it as creepos. By the way, it's not so much about being "sexually liberated" as it is pointing out objectifying and dehumanizing attitudes toward women and their bodies. I like sexy media, but hate fan service. And yes, there is a difference! |
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Juno016
 Posts: 2393 |
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As a big Nekopara fan, none of this review came off as "hate" to me. Every review will have the author's personal bias imbedded, and Caitlin makes it very clear where her bias lies before she makes her judgment about the quality of the series to her, particularly to avoid making anyone who likes this stuff from feeling shamed. She gives the series plenty of leeway to be judged differently by someone else who might be more interested in the type of series Nekopara is. As a fan, I feel respected. As the very kind of person this anime appeals to, I think her review reflects my own opinion as well. It's very visually appealing, basically a fetish series with bare story/characters, and definitely not the kind of show I would recommend to many people who care about quality writing in a story, but one myself and a bunch of my girlfriends enjoy geeking about together. It never tries to be anything more than what it is and that's absolutely fine. Fun things are fun! No shame. spoiler[Season 2 please.] |
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Takkun4343
Posts: 1506 Location: Englewood, Ohio |
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Yeahhhh I kinda jumped the gun on my first post, didn't I?
I meant no ill will or offense in my comment. Really, it was more of a facetious remark worded in a subtle enough manner that it could be easily mistaken for something a lot more presumptive and damaging. It's something I need to get better at doing, if not outright stop on sites with atmospheres such as this one, admittedly. Granted, I eventually did read the review in full and I agree, it's a fair assessment that, based on one's own belief systems, can skew more towards the negative side of potential bias. Love, hate and indifference towards media are not hivemind concepts, but individualistic beliefs that make up an overall assessment that is neither correct nor incorrect. This site is no exception, even if some websites named after triangles and Oceanic birds try to paint it as being otherwise. I don't truly think ANN as an entity hates Nekopara. But the belief that it does can still exist. And as regretful as I may be towards how the post ended up, I'm glad that the response to it demonstrates how subjective the quality of a single anime truly is. [and that's my 1000th] |
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kotomikun
Posts: 1205 |
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The truth is, as the review says, fetishes never make any logical sense. Trying to analyze them rationally is an exercise in futility. So it's not surprising that "serious" reviews of this sort of anime are rarely favorable. You can talk about the art, music, or voice acting (which got decent grades here), but writing/story is always the number-one thing for critics, and what little story an ecchi anime has is entirely in service of, well, something else.
You're not gonna find valuable insights about the human condition in Nekopara; that's just not what it's for. And the thing that it's for isn't complicated enough to write a whole review about, unless you try to psychoanalyze the fans, and probably end up offending them in the process (which happens quite often, and seems to be why the ecchi crowd kinda just hates critics in general). If ANN feels obligated to cover this genre, this sort of disclaimer-filled review is probably the best anyone could hope for, but I doubt anyone ever decides whether to watch an ecchi by reading a review. At least, not one that's longer than a couple of sentences. |
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Sisyphusson66
Posts: 96 |
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I completely agree. I actually like the Nekopara anime, but everything Caitlin said in this review is correct. It is bereft of anything of substance beyond its visuals, and that is kind of the point. It excels at the one thing it is kind of meant to: the visuals. Everything else is basically there to give the visuals some meaning and context, no matter how bare bones. And for what it is, it works great! I actually think I would have been a bit harsher in the review than she was because some of the "worldbuilding?" in the anime actually makes it a bit creepier than the vn. The vn was very confined in its world without revealing too much and worked in that regard, but the anime threw in little reveals about the way things are in the world or how the world works, each time entering into uncanny territory (sadly I cannot recall any specific examples at the moment). |
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Stampeed Valkyrie
 Posts: 830 Location: PA |
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lol F insert the face palm emoji here.
This was a fun series to watch, I ended up doing so with friends in VR. everyone knew where this series origins came from and it sure as hell was never going to be AOTY. It was very much toned down, and it was Cute Cat girls doing cute things. I didn't delve further into the plot because I didn't care to, but if you like Cat girls.. then give it a go. As for comparing Hentai games with their non hentai Anime adaptations.. I would probably correct the article and maybe reference Shuffle.. Referencing Fate is a poor choice. Mostly because you didn't play Fate for porn. If you played it.. you know what I mean.. lol Not to mention what was there like a whole whopping 5 min of awkward H scenes total. |
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