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Shelf Life - Sword in the Stranger


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asimpson2006



Joined: 13 May 2008
Posts: 3151
Location: USA
PostPosted: Mon Jun 22, 2009 7:54 pm Reply with quote
That is too much rock for one Gundam. Him I see another show that I have an interest in and it's Izumo. I forget if it it's PJ or Blood- that always gets an interest in shows in the Perishable shelf. So it looks like I will have to rent this one to check it out.
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ANN_Bamboo
ANN Contributor


Joined: 05 Jan 2002
Posts: 3904
Location: CO
PostPosted: Mon Jun 22, 2009 7:58 pm Reply with quote
asimpson2006 wrote:
That is too much rock for one Gundam. Him I see another show that I have an interest in and it's Izumo. I forget if it it's PJ or Blood- that always gets an interest in shows in the Perishable shelf. So it looks like I will have to rent this one to check it out.


It's your lucky day! It's being streamed, so you can watch it right now. Very Happy
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asimpson2006



Joined: 13 May 2008
Posts: 3151
Location: USA
PostPosted: Mon Jun 22, 2009 8:07 pm Reply with quote
SakechanBD wrote:
asimpson2006 wrote:
That is too much rock for one Gundam. Him I see another show that I have an interest in and it's Izumo. I forget if it it's PJ or Blood- that always gets an interest in shows in the Perishable shelf. So it looks like I will have to rent this one to check it out.


It's your lucky day! It's being streamed, so you can watch it right now. Very Happy


I'll probably watch some of it tomorrow then.
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Megiddo



Joined: 24 Aug 2005
Posts: 8360
Location: IL
PostPosted: Mon Jun 22, 2009 8:29 pm Reply with quote
Izumo sounds like an eroge version of El Hazard, but without anything that made El Hazard good (like Fujisawa-sensei). I was debating whether to watch it or not, but thanks to your review, I'll skip it.
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icepick314



Joined: 23 Aug 2004
Posts: 486
Location: Back in the Good Ol' US of A
PostPosted: Mon Jun 22, 2009 8:32 pm Reply with quote
i also have Unicorn Gundam i have yet to put together...

one i'm pretty slow at putting models together...

two i was reading the instruction and looking at 17 gazillion little decals to put on the model after finish putting together overwhelmed me a bit....

other than that, it's looks like it's great model....
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vashfanatic



Joined: 16 Jun 2005
Posts: 3489
Location: Back stateside
PostPosted: Mon Jun 22, 2009 8:56 pm Reply with quote
"Flushable" is a great name for the new category, kudos!
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter



Joined: 07 Mar 2009
Posts: 23669
PostPosted: Mon Jun 22, 2009 9:26 pm Reply with quote
asimpson2006 wrote:
I forget if it it's PJ or Blood- that always gets an interest in shows in the Perishable shelf.


That would be PJ who, on principle, decides that any show an ANN reviewer hates, he will love. I, on the other hand, take all reviews to be the gospel Troof. Wink

Oddly enough, I streamed the first eppie of Izumo a while back and kind of liked it. Now that was back when I was in the first flush of my anime obsession and was basically the industry's Will Rogers: I never met an anime I didn't like. Even though that was only a few months ago, I've managed to get all jaded and stuff so I might have a much more negative reaction if I pressed on with more episodes.

In any case, I have a huge backlog of DVDs to get through and a mess of other streaming to do, so I have no idea if I'll ever give it a second look.
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Greed1914



Joined: 28 Oct 2007
Posts: 4410
PostPosted: Mon Jun 22, 2009 9:33 pm Reply with quote
vashfanatic wrote:
"Flushable" is a great name for the new category, kudos!


I had been wondering what a bad streaming series would be called.


I liked the figures for this week's shelf obsessed since someone has the same Maggie Mui figure that I do. I lucked out getting all three Paper Sisters at once since I could only afford two but the dealer at the con decided it would be a shame to break them up so he gave me one for free.
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nobinobita



Joined: 07 Mar 2006
Posts: 75
PostPosted: Mon Jun 22, 2009 9:43 pm Reply with quote
I really enjoyed your write up for Sword of the Stranger Bamboo Dong (boy is it weird to address you). I especially appreciate you noting that the blonde guy was Chinese. Alot of reviewers overlook this, though I think the movie made it pretty clear that he was a Chinese national while the main character was truly the stranger with no determinable nationality or ethnicity. I know it's not the brainiest movie out there, but it was not a dumb movie either and it did a good job of contrasting the concept of nationality vs ethnicity (Chinese is a nationality, not a race, Japanese at this time meant an ethnicity, and still does to this day arguably).

Here's another thoughtful look at Sword of the Stranger that I came across recently:

http://blog.weigy.com/sword-of-the-stranger/

It's a really great read for anyone that enjoyed that flick.
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Charred Knight



Joined: 29 Sep 2008
Posts: 3085
PostPosted: Mon Jun 22, 2009 10:38 pm Reply with quote
You rated Aquarion way to highly

I mean has their been a more obnoxious female lead than the one from Aquarion.

Jackass? Check
Never shuts up? Check
Egotistical? Check
Wants to have sex with her own brother? Check

Add the utter pretentiousness of the series. Yes I saw Evangelion too, but the whole ripping off Abrahamic Religion got old. The least they could do is switch up the damn thing and not just rip off the same thing.
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Dorcas_Aurelia



Joined: 23 Jul 2006
Posts: 5344
Location: Philly
PostPosted: Mon Jun 22, 2009 10:41 pm Reply with quote
I'd seen previews for Izumo stuck in some of the other streaming shows, and those made it look thoroughly generic as well. Bamboo's anger at it reaffirmed my decision not to bother with it.

I never really questioned the logic of sticking the 3 Baccano bonus episodes onto the last disc. They're pretty close to sequel material, or continuation might be a better description. They handle most of the leftover loose ends (and quite pleasantly), although they do imply that the story never really ends (although I'm still curious about the one scene where Isaac gets a nick in his ear from a polearm, that never showed up again).
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vashfanatic



Joined: 16 Jun 2005
Posts: 3489
Location: Back stateside
PostPosted: Mon Jun 22, 2009 10:58 pm Reply with quote
Dorcas_Aurelia wrote:
I never really questioned the logic of sticking the 3 Baccano bonus episodes onto the last disc. They're pretty close to sequel material, or continuation might be a better description. They handle most of the leftover loose ends (and quite pleasantly), although they do imply that the story never really ends (although I'm still curious about the one scene where Isaac gets a nick in his ear from a polearm, that never showed up again).


It's in the books, or so I've been told. Were you one of the people I talked about this with for the review of volume 3? There are 14 books, and the series covers about 3.5 of them. There's a LOT more to tell.

Anyway, I hope the series does well enough that the books are brought over, as has happened with Twelve Kingdoms, Vampire Hunter D, and Haruhi Suzumiya. Failing that, I'm buying them in Japanese and just practicing my kanji. Anime hyper

Also, Bamboo, I am so jealous: you own the whole series now, I'm still waiting for the boxset (though my commitment to frugality wavers... I want this series now!).
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Dorcas_Aurelia



Joined: 23 Jul 2006
Posts: 5344
Location: Philly
PostPosted: Mon Jun 22, 2009 11:00 pm Reply with quote
vashfanatic wrote:
It's in the books, or so I've been told. Were you one of the people I talked about this with for the review of volume 3? There are 14 books, and the series covers about 3.5 of them. There's a LOT more to tell.

Anyway, I hope the series does well enough that the books are brought over, as has happened with Twelve Kingdoms, Vampire Hunter D, and Haruhi Suzumiya. Failing that, I'm buying them in Japanese and just practicing my kanji. Anime hyper

Yeah, I'm aware that there are loads of books and the anime only covers some. I found and read a fan translation of the first book, and I hope that someone decides to license them over here.
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the Rancorous



Joined: 08 Feb 2006
Posts: 2248
Location: Hunting the Dragon in Gransys
PostPosted: Mon Jun 22, 2009 11:20 pm Reply with quote
Charred Knight wrote:

I mean has their been a more obnoxious female lead than the one from Aquarion.

Agreed 100%. She's one of my most hated characters of all time. I stuck with that series for only 5 episodes, but man, I still can't get her obnoxiousness out of my ears! The rest of the cast wasn't much better either.

I forget who it was, but I remember someone calling it "Evangelion Rangers" Laughing pretty accurate, no?
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Avarice_WP



Joined: 05 Jan 2009
Posts: 44
Location: Northrend
PostPosted: Tue Jun 23, 2009 12:01 am Reply with quote
Thanks nobinobita for the blog post, I saw Sword in theaters when it came to the US, and I loved it. Good to see some more information on the film. One thing I am curious about: You said the blonde guy was chinese, and the blog link you have refers to the main protaganist as Chinese as well. I didn't catch any of this on the English release in theaters. As far as I could tell, the blond-haired, blue-eyed guy was a merc from Europe who traveled the world looking for a challenge. I've never seen a blond Chinese man. I know we make a distinction between nationality and ethnicity, but I still didn't catch anything about him being asian. spoiler[This leads me to believe that the main character is also European (red hair?). ]Every other character in the film had generic asian features (I'm not trying to be controversial, just pointing out what i saw), so I'm basing my assumptions on what was shown, not said. However this could be due to a lacking English translation. At what part did they refer to the villain- or the main character- as Chinese?
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