Forum - View topicREVIEW: Shuffle! DVD 1
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Westlo
 Posts: 1684 |
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It gets better later on, pretty much every negative thing you brought up is either true or true at this point in the show.
*reads comment about intro song here, thinks back to the comment about aquarions intro song* .... |
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driverstart
 Posts: 214 Location: America |
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You know, I like these first couple of episodes in the series. I appericate how the show is now. You see, I watch tons of action anime, Full Metal Panic, Naruto, Bleach, and Tsubasa for example, so when I watch show like this, I like it's peacefulness and how sweet it is at this point instead of how intense and insane it can be.
From what I have been reading, the second is going to be very good according to everyone. I hope that's true and I can wait to see what happens soon. If it is good like everyone's says, then I hope the reviewers of this show can appericate and focus a bit more on how the show changed for the better instead of dwelling on the past. No one like a person who keeps complaining about problems that happen before and that now have been fixed for the better. |
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Monsieur Pink
Posts: 141 |
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More like if you're willing to get past the first half, why does everyone keep saying the first 4 or 8 episodes, it doesn't even begin to be decent at this point. And to love the second part you have to like contrived, borderline ridiculous and over saturated (meaning that every bad things happen in the same time) melodrama, you have able to get pass the stupid characters and only then, if you somehow managed to care about them you'll enjoy the second part. I'd even go as far to say that the review is in some ways generous because the score shouldn't really be higher than that for the "best" volumes. Once again, it's not worth it. |
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18182 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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Movies have one BIG advantage that series don't on this issue, however: they come out all at once. (Well, except for Kill Bill.) Reviews are best if timely, but the 10+ months it typically takes to release a 24-episode series makes that impossible if you are only going for whole-series reviews. Such reviews are really only practical under three circumstances: 1) The series is initially released in a whole-series set. (Ex: Avenger.) 2) The reviewer has seen the entire series in fansubs, and so can comment on the whole series while reviewing early volumes. 3) A review of a re-release boxed set is being done. #1 is a rare occurrence. I have personally done #3 on several occasions where it's been several years since a title has seen the light of day or where it was never reviewed in the first place on this site, but we don't make a habit of this. As for #2, we generally don't do more than previews on series only available in fansubs, and since we reviewers watch so many different series across so many different genres for review purposes, expecting us to have seen an entire series beforehand in fansubs is impractical (and sometimes impossible). Besides, we generally try to focus only on the content we're actually reviewing even if we do know what's coming later. We've gotten this complaint before, but the practical realities of the situation haven't changed. And as has been discussed many times before, we aren't going to hold off on bashing a series in the early going just because it might possibly get better later. But when it does. . .
I certainly appreciate that this does happen, but I am also a firm believer that it's a series' responsibility to hook its viewers early so that they are still around when the series gets truly good later on. The better slow-starting series still have enough of an early appeal to keep viewers at least hanging around until the story picks up. (See Witch Hunter Robin.)
Go back and read my reviews about Gunslinger Girl or, to a lesser extent, Air. I have never taken more first-volume heat than I did for GG, but my opinion of the series dramatically improved by the end of the second volume and I admitted as much. |
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Goodpenguin
Posts: 457 Location: Hunt Valley, MD |
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Monsieur Pink wrote:
On my own personal lament, one of the most disappointing things in anime over the last several years is the emergence of melodrama as a main vehicle for fan-service antics. It seems most every show that aims to set over-grown boys interests aflutter deals in heavy melodramatic elements by design. It was always pretty common for anime to take sudden 'dramatic' twists towards the end, but modern anime really seems to marry fan-service to drama as a vehicle, rather than the old standards of action/comedy. There also seems to be more creepy 'How can I serve you?' domestic undertones as opposed to the more raunchy-but-innocent physical hi-jinx of yore. If melodrama is what todays fan's like with fan-service, so be it, and I've heard that many of the male-aimed 'ero game's' that form the genre's inspiration are more weepy then female-aimed American soaps. However, I can't help but feel there is a giant disconnect in tone/execution between fan-service efforts like 'Agent Aika', 'Sorcerer Hunters', 'Tenchi Muyo' , etc., and the 'Shuffle!'s' of today. |
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Senna
 Posts: 99 Location: Somewhere, USA |
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To add to what Key said, considering many viewers pay for a series by volume, it only makes sense to review them one at a time. If you're planning on buying a series all at once, you'd have to wait until it is entirely released/on boxset, at which point there should be reviews available for the whole series anyway. But for those of us who buy series one volume at a time, it is a good thing to know what we'll be getting in that one volume.
After all, when Shuffle was on the fansub circuit, I was bored enough by the first few episodes that I didn't stick around to see if it "would get good." Maybe it does get better, maybe so much better that the whole series is worth watching. But, good later episodes don't always make up for crappy early episodes, IMHO. |
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the Rancorous
 Posts: 2248 Location: Hunting the Dragon in Gransys |
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THANK YOU!!!!! This is precisely how I feel as well. I don't completely shun the whole "it gets better" defense, but I also don't give it too much heed when I really dislike the early episodes of a series. Series that I agree whole heartedly with on in the "it gets better" claim have all had elements in their early episodes that kept me interested and entertained enough to watch more until it reached that point that people claimed. Examples: Solty Rei (it had cool cyborg fights, a great relationship between main characters, and Kasha) and My-HiME (excellent flashy fight-scenes, and characterization that was just as good). The only exception to this was Zegapain, which I only rented the 2nd vol due to a lack of other things to watch, and it really pulled itself out of the crapper. I'm not going to waste my free time watching a series I dislike from the get-go just because a few fans say "it gets better," I don't have enough free time to do this.
Another excellent point. A lot of us don't watch series' fansubbed before they're released in the R1 industry, so knowing what the first 1-2 DVDs have to offer is crucial. Reviewing 4-5 episodes that span about the same length of the average movie is quite fair for that particular DVD. If the series does become good enough by vol 3 or 4 to convince me to buy it, then I'll simply either wait for a box-set or pick up the earlier volumes when I go to look for the latest one. However, I'm saying all of this while renting any DVD that interests me regardless of what the reviews say  . Though the Aquarion set review convinced me to hold off on that annoying series...
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britannicamoore
 Posts: 2618 Location: Out. |
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Sold! but not by the review, moreso the fans thoughts. I've got a bit of extra cash coming soon, maybe i'll pick this up. I remember seeing the first episode fansubbed, and I had no real opinion.
Although I have to ask- when they have an Ender box, does it generally come out like the regular boxes- with both editions? Or will they only have the box? and because um. the girl on that box is um. Right. 
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GrdAdmiral
 Posts: 101 Location: Tokyo, Japan |
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I actually prefer Sia's character development over Kaede's. Don't get me wrong though, Kaede's character development is important, especially to the over all story in the second chapter. I really enjoyed the show, and to be honest, there is no review, or anyone else's negative opinion that will change that. That being said though, how can you not like spoiler[Sia, and the god's view which allows polygamy
 ] Might as well run with it, and get the best of both worlds!
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Xanas
Posts: 2058 |
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I'll just say that I watched the entire show fansubbed since I was very unsure about buying it myself, but I was very happy with it. Now I'm buying these as the release dates are announced.
I'm a little "iffy" feeling on some particular characters in the dub but overall I think they have the right thing going. The show does have some general cheesy lines and contrived plots (especially early on) that even have me cringing a little here and there, but I think the show at other points more than makes up for that (though not as much in the first volume). |
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Serge
 Posts: 162 |
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Is it true that this DVD contains Overlays and No Japanese/English Credits Multiple Angle Feature? (Just English Credits)? If so, I'm gonna have to return it without opening it right away. Hate that. Wish FUNimation went back to their own ways of releasing their anime. |
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GrdAdmiral
Posts: 101 Location: Tokyo, Japan |
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My volume one has English Credits as well as Japanese Credits. I don't know who told you that, but they are mistaken. It does show the English credits first though, before the Japanese Credits. Also, I got part of a poster in my volume 1 as well. Not quite sure, but I think it all the volumes might have one that you would put together to make one large poster maybe? Not sure what you mean by the "Multiple Angle Feature though". I usually just put my dvd in the player and if I don't want to listen to the dub, change the audio to Japanese and watch with the subtitles. |
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the Rancorous
Posts: 2248 Location: Hunting the Dragon in Gransys |
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Are you talking about Shuffle! or Gunslinger Girl? I just threw one of my GG DVDs in my XBOX to check that. Rest assured, it indeed has the dual-angle English-or-Japanese credits, so there's no need for you to return that one. If you're talking about Shuffle!, I remember the 1st episode having just the Japanese credits, but I can't recall if the usual credits have the dual-angle or not. |
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Serge
Posts: 162 |
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Shuffle! of course, I got around to checking it, and I was right, even though it has Japanese Prologue Credits (For an opening you'll only see once) the Normal Credits (OP and ED) are replaced with overlayed English Credits and there's no multiple angle feature anymore, this sucks, Why not the Original Japanese Credits? allow the english ones, or even better, both? Overlays are on every "Preview to the next Episode" bit, so if you watch the show in Japanese with English subtitles, you'll hear the Original Japanese Episode names, but see the English Episode listed. Extremely annoying. FUNimation has cocked up royal, seems like all of this was done intentionally, Why? I can also confirm that some (If not most) recent FUNimation DVD's have the same problem, I noticed it with XXXHolic. |
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skyler25
 Posts: 59 |
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Is it just me or do the "textless openings" in the extras have text on them? (English subs, no matter how many times I hit "Subtitles off" they still have English subs.)
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