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I am a huge Inuyasha fan, so I ddin't like the reviwe on the 2nd DVD, but I respect the reviewer's opinion on it, but I had some real problems with the review. Allow me to nitpick at it:

[quote]Indeed, the problem with this series is twofold: one, the plot moves along about as quickly as a snail that?s been buried beneath six feet of concrete, and two, it follows a very tired yoma-of-the-week formula that gets old very, very quickly[quote]

It's been 6-episodes and he's already juding that the whole show will be like this.

Quote:

Pray you don?t get tired of seeing some demon steal a piece of the Shikon no Tama and run off with it only to later fight with and lose to Inu-Yasha, since that?s the basic story of nearly every episode.

Sesshoumaru had no desire to take the jewel.

Quote:

To top it off, Viz has elected to release this series three episodes at a time. Consider that episode 105 just aired in Japan, and you?re looking at purchasing 35 DVDs just to get to where they are now. At $24.99 per disc, you?ll be spending nearly 900 dollars to basically see the same thing happen 105 times.

Here we go with some quick assumptions. Geee, how fast a person judges the show and assumes that all 100+ episodes will be the same as the first 6.

Quote:

This volume introduces the cold and distant Sesshoumaru, Inu-Yasha?s brother who hates anything bipedal that calls itself human. The second this character appeared in the anime, they had to reinforce the Hoover Dam to prevent gallons of fangirl drool from flooding the American southwest. He figures in heavily in the anime series and appears in countless episodes, and this volume is his first appearance, so that?ll make it a big deal for anyone obsessed with mink stole-wearing dudes with Sailor Moon symbols on their foreheads.

What's the point of this other than to just flame the show? What does poiting out Sesshoumaru's looks and bashing them have anything to do with the quality of the show? It's obviously just a cheap shot at the show.

And here we go with assumptions since the reviewesthrew in a cheap shot by basically insulting the fans of the show by saying "they had to reinforce the Hoover Dam to prevent gallons of fangirl drool from flooding the American southwest."

Quote:

The episodes contained on this disc are very typical of the series as a whole. There are a few fairy-tale style stories, a bunch of strange demons, and so on and so forth. They recycle the ?Osuwari!? (sit!) gag a few hundred times.

Again we see his quick assumptions. Again he's basically saying that the entire show is going to be like this based off the first 6-episodes.

It's his opinion, so i respect that, but the manner in which he did his review was very unproffessional and biased. For someone who's supposed to be proffessional in his reviews for a big site like this, the review was so increidbly biased and filled with cheap shots and flames. This was basically more of a flame than a review. This review lacked almost any objectiveness.

First I would ask you to calm down, angry words are seldom productive unless the sole purpose is venting on the part of the speaker (or in this instance, typist).

I will grant that Zac was a bit harsher on the show than I would have been, but his opinion, which I thought to be fairly well presented, must be accepted as one for consideration. Also, I'm afraid I find your complaints regarding objectivity (which is, at the very least, the preferred for this use), problematic. An objective review is a contradiction in terms and not terribly useful. It is a repetition, but truth unceasingly bears repetition, review is, by nature and necessity, opinion. When weighing a choice, they can be useful, but only if many are weighed and the positive are found to outweigh the negative. Also realize that not every review will be salutary towards the series, but if we silence those, the entire concept of reviews becomes a petty sham. Lastly, I would note that any negative review of anything could be construed as a flame or unprofessional. In a negative review, negative comments are essential, too often anything negative, except things said in the most timid of ways, is branded unprofessional. Negative statements must be considered equally with the positive, or, and I restate, the entire review concept becomes a sham.

Last edited by Tempest on Mon Mar 31, 2003 8:33 pm; edited 2 times in total

People, Please use 1 thread for a given topic. This was brought up in 3 threads, that's 2 two many.

bashful wrote:

I'm not a die-hard Inu Yasha fan, but his review of DVD 2 is uncalled-for. If he doesn't like the series, he shouldn't be reviewing it. His remarks should be stated as an op-ed piece and not a review.

Quote:

I?m not sure what it is about Inu-Yasha that fails to entertain me; perhaps it?s the repetitiveness or the complete lack of likable characters. Either way, Inu-Yasha just isn?t doing it for me.

I just hope he's not going to review the future releases of Inu Yasha DVDs. He might as well use the same review from DVD 2 and just change the review title to DVD 3, 4, 5...

Cassandra wrote:

Well, if they are going to be exactly like the second DVD, yeah...he might as well copy it to save himself some time
And....we're back to people complaining about reviews.

Delthayre wrote:

I've always considered op-ed and reviews to be essentially the same. I hate to play the parrot, but review is opinion and Zac's writing certainly makes that clear. The only potential valid criticism for a review is some factual or relatively factual misstatement (as in the now controversial first review of Noir DVD 1). Criticizing reviews, much like foreign policy or chess with a five year old, is a game you aren't allowed to win. Opinions battling opinions that cannot be supported by facts can never lead to a conclusion. It is better to sample many reviews of a series and also to sample many reviewers to find one that seems to have tastes similar to yours and favor that voice when making your choices.

Last edited by Tempest on Tue Apr 01, 2003 1:01 am; edited 1 time in total

bashful wrote:

If he doesn't like the series, he shouldn't be reviewing it.

The last thing I want is a bunch of reviews of shows only by people who like them.

I explicitly try to not send screeners of shows only to the people who like them. For example, Zac has reviewed Utena in the past, quite positively, and he wanted to review it again this week.

We agreed (Zac and myself) that he wouldn't. While I'm not ruling out allowing him to review future volumes of Utena, right now I'm more interested in an alternate opinion... not necesarilly an opposite opinion mind you, just alternate.

As someone in Canada that hasn't been exposed to Inu Yasha quite yet, and, as such, is fairly impartial (aside from the manga being from the same creator as Urusei Yatsura, Rumiko Takahashi, and UY is one of my favourite series), I think Zac's review is a lot more helpful to me in giving me a picture as to what the series is like than any fawning, glowing review of the series written by any plant from any Inu Yasha message board. I can take the negative comments with a grain of salt in that Zac might have completely different subjective tastes in anime than I do (well, I know we both like Yokohama Shopping Log, so maybe not that different...). I like knowing what I might find tiresome or annoying in a show before I watch it... if I didn't, I'd go to some fansite where the opinions seem to be written by people that I think used to "review" books on Reading Rainbow when they were kids... ("I think the best part of Inu Yasha is everything. On a scale of one to ten, I give it eleven!"... yes, yes, I am making a straw man; that's obviously not an actual quote, just the impression I get when I visit fansites for various series when I'm trying to get a good idea as to whether or not I'll enjoy a series I haven't seen).

And, it seems, any negative review of any anime is "unprofessional" in the eyes of fans of said anime. I'm thinking specifically of the response to that Love Hina review on IGN.com and the response to the negative Spirited Away review on Daily-Reviews.com, the only "rotten" review of Spirited Away for a while on RottenTomatoes.com, keeping the precious Tomatometer from reaching 100%, making it the "number one bestest movie ever"... in various anime forums and the Spirited Away forum on RottenTomatoes.com as well as the forum on Daily-Reviews.com the words "unprofessional" were bounced about like volleyballs. I'm just wondering what they'd consider a "professional" negative review of something they'd like?

Lets be honest akwan50 this has nothing to do with how well crafted Zacs review was but simply to do with him giving it a negative review.If he had given it a positive review you would be happy even if it was "unprofessional".Also you say he's jsut amking assumptions about thee series being released 3 episodes at a time but thats an easy and fair assumption to make considering the trend set by the first two DVDs.

So in every single review you would just allow the review to just take all sorts of cheap shots at a show? I am well aware that it is his opinion, but the manner in which he criticizes the show by throwing out all these flames at it isn't proffessional in my book. I'll ignore the parts of his review where he basically said Inuyasha is slow, repetitve, etc. However, look at the other stuff in his reviews. I don't feel it was neccesary to point out Sesshoumaru's odd looks and insulting fans by saying "they had to reinforce the Hoover Dam to prevent gallons of fangirl drool from flooding the American southwest." From my view, he went from bashing to show to insulting fans of the show. I feel he could have been negative about the show without throwing in all these cheap shot flames. If he had written a review in a more "proffessional" maanner, he could've stated his feelings about how he disliked the show up to that point without throwing in these flames and assuming that the entire show will be all the same. I never judge a long show by the first 6-episodes, and I don't think most people would either. But aside from pointing out the flaws he dislikes about it, I don't think there was much gained from pointing out and flaming Sesshoumaru's looks, and I felt the intention was obviously to just throw out some more flames on it.

I don't know that talking about Sesshoumaru is a flame, per se. It's the absolute truth. Fangirls go gaga over him. What Zac did is called "over-exaggeration." People do it to make a point. He could have said the same thing about any other pretty anime boy and it would be just as true. I know a LOT of fangirls that watch IY JUST to see Sesshoumaru.

And I judge a show by the sixth episode. I dislike Utena based on the first 3 episodes. People keep telling me it's going to get better, but guess what...I don't want to waste my time or my money or something I already hate. If the creator can't get someone interested enough by the sixth episode to stick through most of the series, then IMHO the creator has failed in his/her job. I, for one, am not going to wait 10 or 20 episodes for a series to "get good." It's a waste of my time.

And for the record, I haven't watched enough IY to like or dislike it.

Last edited by BrianC on Mon Mar 31, 2003 9:52 pm; edited 1 time in total

Tenchi wrote:

And, it seems, any negative review of any anime is "unprofessional" in the eyes of fans of said anime. I'm thinking specifically of the response to that Love Hina review on IGN.com and the response to the negative Spirited Away review on Daily-Reviews.com, the only "rotten" review of Spirited Away for a while on RottenTomatoes.com, keeping the precious Tomatometer from reaching 100%, making it the "number one bestest movie ever"... in various anime forums and the Spirited Away forum on RottenTomatoes.com as well as the forum on Daily-Reviews.com the words "unprofessional" were bounced about like volleyballs. I'm just wondering what they'd consider a "professional" negative review of something they'd like?

So you consider the review of Love Hina at IGN that criticized Love Hina's fan base rather than putting a negative review to be professional? IGN called Love Hina trash that is only for peverted males. Making generalizations like that is wrong. Reviews can be negative without insulting people who like what is being reviewed.

I too feel that the Inuyasha review is harsh, but all I have seen so far is posts that complain about the criticism of the review rather than at least pay attention to what the person has to say. He wasn't saying that reviews shouldn't be negative. I do agree that calling the review unprofessional is a bit harsh, but I think that the person who started this topic has some valid points and I feel that reviews shouldn't make invalid assumptions about an anime based on one or two discs of the series. A review can be negative without making invalid complaints about an anime or rude remarks about an anime's fanbase.

And how exactly were that guy's criticism of the review angry? I think the review was angrier than any of the reviews criticisms. I also feel that some of the posters here get riled up at the tiniest criticism of something.

Well, I myself am a fan of IY. I don't see all that much anime, sadly, but I still love it!

Well, a review is basically a person's opinion, isn't it? To get a really good idea of a show, you need to read a lot of reviews. I personally love InuYasha, but I can respect the fact the Zac may not hold it in the same high regard as I. I felt the review, though negative, was professional enough. One bad review won't change a lot. I still love InuYasha.

Mr Mania wrote:

Lets be honest akwan50 this has nothing to do with how well crafted Zacs review was but simply to do with him giving it a negative review.If he had given it a positive review you would be happy even if it was "unprofessional".Also you say he's jsut amking assumptions about thee series being released 3 episodes at a time but thats an easy and fair assumption to make considering the trend set by the first two DVDs.

I wouldn't have had any problem with a negetive review if it didn't contain flames. I go on AnimeNFO and they allow fan reviews of any title. I completely ignore those because I know they are mostly fanboy-ish type reviews and can't be taken seriously.

Look at this review of Gatekeepers DVD #5. I really like the series and I didn't really have any problems with this review: animenewsnetwork.com/reviews/display.php?id=367
It seemed like not a flat out negative review, but it didn't highly praise it either. I didn't see anything that looked like flaming. The reviewer pointed out negatives of the show without throwing out any flames or cheap shots at the show.

And BTW, if the review was positive in an "unproffessional" manner, I can't say I would've been dissapointed, but I can't say I would've been thrilled about it either. I'd think there would be something odd if a reviewer on a site as big as ANN would write a review and say " is great because I say so."

Well, I guess I am another fan of Inu Yasha. I must admit Zac's review did sting a bit, but I can get why he doesn't like it. He explained why, ever so well in his review. Was he flaming IN, tearing it down to bits, insulting loyal fans, making big assumptions after just a handful of shows???? At first glance I thought so. In a small way. But then I realized, he's just being honest with us. Honesty can sting people. You are not always going to like what you here but as long as he is giving a honest review, not holding any crap back......hey I really respect that. Even if I totally don't agree with it.

A couple side notes....BrianC is right akwan50's criticisim of the review wasn't angry. I don't get where that comment came from. The person is just not happy about it, so what, cut him some slack. (If you are not a guy I am really sorry) Embarassed

The other thing, Zac you will continue to be one of my favorite reviewers(My absolute favorite reviewer being Mike Crandol, he's an amazing writer. No I am not trying to suck up to anyone!), not that you care or anything. By the way Sesshoumaru is not my favorite guy I like Inu Yasha, now that guy's hot. Don't ask Embarassed

Jeez, I was thinking of starting a topic about it, but I thought about it and decided there was no need to. Razz

Any hoot

IY DVD 2 Review wrote:

Rumiko Takahashi has a long history of writing series that run forever and feature bitchy girls smacking around incompetent guys.

Hmmm, Mermaid Forest/Scar has no bitchy girls smacking the hero (Well, when there is no action.), Maison Ikkoku, sure Yusaku gets hits by Kyoko once and awhile, but it's not an every ep thing. I don't know if he meant the TV or all of Rumiko works altogather, but it sound generalization to me.

IY DVD 2 Review wrote:

Some people claim to like the character designs for this series, but they lack the charm of Takahaski's other efforts.

Yeah, I miss the males having just a black dots for eyes and the females have the round puplies. *L*

IY DVD 2 Review wrote:

They recycle the "Osuwari!" (sit!) gag a few hundred times.

By the sound of it, he watch maybe just 10 ep. of it, got bored and changed the DVDs. Osuwari sticks around for the first couple of ep, but the next time it is uttered is in half way thought the series (Half way, being as it stands.)

I don't really mind what Zac writes for his review, becasue it is he's option for the DVD. After all I like FF:U and a lot of people I know hates it. Razz

Nit picking is fun.

Julia wrote:

(My absolute favorite reviewer being Mike Crandol, he's an amazing writer. No I am not trying to suck up to anyone!)

You're too kind! Embarassed

I also would like to defend Zac's review (and I do!), but it'd just be a rehash of countless other "defending the reviewers" threads, and we've heard it all before, so I'll spare you all the sermon.

Though Zac, your comment about paying 900 bucks to see the same thing happen 105 times cracked me up! Very Happy

Thanks for your comments, everyone. I knew that review would stir people up a little.

For the record, I've seen more than the first 6 episodes of Inuyasha. Rebecca watches the show religiously and keeps me plenty informed as to what's happening in the series; as far as I know, it remains repetitive through the episodes airing currently in Japan. I also saw the first theatrical film and it was basically a long episode (complete with recycled "osuwari!" gag).

The review was not intended to flame anyone, but it was written to entertain people, so hopefully more than a few of you got a decent chuckle out of it.

Thanks for reading!
-Zac

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