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REVIEW: Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere Episodes 1-6 Streaming




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dtm42



Joined: 05 Feb 2008
Posts: 14084
Location: currently stalking my waifu
PostPosted: Fri Dec 02, 2011 12:36 am Reply with quote
Carlo wrote:
And therein lies Horizon's fatal flaw: it wants to be a political drama, mecha slugfest, raunchy school comedy, and coming-of-age tale all in one, and in straddling so many genres, never quite succeeds at any of them.


All of these Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion managed to pull off to a greater or lesser degree. The problem with Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere is that it is even more ambitious than Code Geass ever was (in both scale of story and the amount of fetishes and story arcs attempting to be woven together). And yet, the writing is Horizon sucks. Some rare shows manage to be crass and are god enough to away with it; Horizon doesn't.

Even if you take away the Indian and the succubus and the rest, you are left with a somewhat interesting story but one that is told in the worst possible way. Massive infodumps have put viewers off in droves. We are forced to follow characters that we don't really care for because the show never allows us to (or give us a reason why we should). Fanservice takes up too much precious time, not to mention the singing; screw the pacing, those CDs won't sell themselves people. The jumping around between different events in one day is interesting, but the transitions are very jerky; not seamless at all. Unless the audience has already read the light novels, consulting a timeline is essential (either that or make your own).

I would love to know more about the backstory of the world of Horizon, because as incomprehensible as it is, there are some ideas in there that are good. Yes, I did say it, the plot is kind of good. The story however - assuming I have the two the right way around - is a pile of trash. No, its worse than that. It's radioactive slime.
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Yttrbio
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Joined: 09 Jun 2011
Posts: 3649
PostPosted: Fri Dec 02, 2011 12:56 am Reply with quote
dtm42 wrote:
I would love to know more about the backstory of the world of Horizon, because as incomprehensible as it is, there are some ideas in there that are good. Yes, I did say it, the plot is kind of good. The story however - assuming I have the two the right way around - is a pile of trash. No, its worse than that. It's radioactive slime.

I would probably describe it the same way I described Legend of the Legendary Heroes: Better plotting than writing, though the gap in Horizon puts LOLHeroes to shame.

It's a common problem with these sorts of light novels, in that writers have some interesting ideas, but don't have the complete set of tools and talents to put it together in a compelling way. Yoinking those ideas and putting them in front of a talented writer (a communication guy rather than an idea guy) should improve things, but I get the feeling that anime adaptations go for the more faithful approach because it's simply easier, and the consequence is messes like this.

Still, I can't peel my eyes away from it. There's definitely something underneath all that sludge that's compelling.
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Konopan



Joined: 06 Oct 2011
Posts: 396
PostPosted: Fri Dec 02, 2011 2:11 am Reply with quote
So in the end, Horizon's only slightly worse than Fate/Zero?
I'll settle for that judgment.
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Truered



Joined: 11 Apr 2007
Posts: 515
Location: Uni
PostPosted: Fri Dec 02, 2011 6:04 am Reply with quote
I've now seen 7, or possibly 8 episodes of this show. I still have no idea what exactly is meant to be going on. Some faction/people don't like the others, or are fighting, or something. And I've forgotten who most of the characters are.

Yet for some reason I keep watching. It's been about two months now and I still haven't figured out why.
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Volibear



Joined: 29 Nov 2011
Posts: 344
PostPosted: Fri Dec 02, 2011 7:39 am Reply with quote
i've only seen 5 episodes of Horizon but after 3 i decided to do some research about what was actually going on and the next couple of episodes made alot more sense after i did, and it isn't actually all that bad of a series once you figure out what it is thats happening, its just a shame that i actually had to do research on a series to understand and enjoy it
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Shenl742



Joined: 11 Feb 2010
Posts: 1524
PostPosted: Fri Dec 02, 2011 8:29 am Reply with quote
If only Carlos had looked at that enormous relationship chart, I'm sure his opinion of the show would turn right around! Laughing
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the Rancorous



Joined: 08 Feb 2006
Posts: 2248
Location: Hunting the Dragon in Gransys
PostPosted: Fri Dec 02, 2011 9:29 pm Reply with quote
The funny thing is that Anime Network actually had to link to a guide for that show on their Facebook page. Personally, that just further points out how bad the writing and execution of the anime is. I mean, I didn't need a guide going into the Lord of the Rings movies to understand what was going on. Guides and source material should only give you a little more appreciation of the full world and what not, but the adaptation should still be able to stand on its own, the Horizon anime really doesn't.
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Mr Sinister



Joined: 02 Jan 2006
Posts: 157
Location: NY
PostPosted: Fri Dec 02, 2011 10:14 pm Reply with quote
Lawl... this has a better story than Fate/Zero.
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BeserkerXII



Joined: 03 Dec 2006
Posts: 16
PostPosted: Sat Dec 03, 2011 3:37 pm Reply with quote
Volibear wrote:
i've only seen 5 episodes of Horizon but after 3 i decided to do some research about what was actually going on and the next couple of episodes made alot more sense after i did, and it isn't actually all that bad of a series once you figure out what it is thats happening, its just a shame that i actually had to do research on a series to understand and enjoy it


Same here, unfortunately. I watched the first four episodes and even then I thought it was a jumbled mess, like making a soup out of the ingredients that made other soups good.

Horizon should just settle down and add a little more sense and pacing to the story, because right now, style over substance isn't gonna carry this anime very far. And what's funny is that in the 2nd episode, I thought Hasazumi was the main freaking character, considering her backstory was more believable than Tori's "goal in life."

Take this as you will, but I find Tori's constant smiling to be creepier than most similar characters.
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Clyde_Cash



Joined: 03 Dec 2011
Posts: 376
PostPosted: Sat Dec 03, 2011 9:41 pm Reply with quote
At least it's more coherent than Sonichu.

I'm only up to episode 4 so far, and I keep asking myself if Horizon even has anything resembling a plot.
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