Forum - View topicwhen is NTHT supposed to get more intense and darker
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hikaru393
Posts: 525 Location: champlin MN |
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i got the box set on tuesday and i have finished the first dvd when is the show supposed to get more darker and intenes?
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18572 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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Soooo, let me get this straight: you don't consider spoiler[Shu getting tortured and literally hung out to dry] or spoiler[Sara, a 14-year-old girl, getting raped] or spoiler[Hamdo's insane behavior, especially with Lalaru] or spoiler[children being forced to fight as soldiers] to be dark and intense?
What does it take for you to consider something "dark and intense," then? Anyway, much of the strongest content is in the final volume, but I found it to be a pretty heavy series from the second episode on. |
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hikaru393
Posts: 525 Location: champlin MN |
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i take that to be dark and stuff but i'v seen it before in other shows it's not new people said NTHT had stuff people never saw before and redefind the word dark.
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v1cious
 Posts: 6241 Location: Houston, TX |
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it gets into a lot of war violence after like episode 4 or 5 if i remember correctly.
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uberfrosch
Posts: 48 |
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The difference is in presentation, not in content. For a few examples from Key's spoilers: spoiler[The rape: Sara's rape has ongoing consequences to her, it's not just there for shock value with negligible impact. The child soldiers: they're cannon fodder, not super soldiers, or mecha pilots, or cyborgs, or super weapons, as they tend to be in other anime, treatments that can distract from the horror at best, and glamorize their situation at worst.]
There's very little relief to Now and Then Here and There's darkness, unlike most of the other anime series I've seen that tackle the same themes. That's what makes it intense. |
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PantsGoblin
 SubscriberEncyclopedia Editor  Posts: 2969 Location: L.A. |
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I'd have to agree with uberfrosch and say that it is pretty much in the way NTHT presents everything that makes it so dark. Give it some time because it will get darker... much darker.
Last edited by PantsGoblin on Thu Jan 12, 2006 7:08 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Nagisa
Moderator
 Posts: 6128 Location: Atlanta-ish, Jawjuh |
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Eh, I have to play Devil's Advocate and go the other direction here. I honestly found the series to fall flat in terms of presentation, because it seemed to be trying too hard to force "DARK!" on the audience. It seemed to overdo it wanting to be "dismal" and "intense," and it ended up breaking my suspension of disbelief and leaving me wondering far too often if there was really anything more to the series than just giving Hell to the protagonists and an annoyingly blatant "pity these poor kids in the corrupt military!" message flashing all over it like a hot pink neon sign (or more correctly, an annoyingly blatant execution of said message).
Was it a decent series? Yeah, I still think so. But the presentation was just too overblown for me to really take it as being anything "great." I got a stronger tragic depiction of underaged youth pulled into the military sense from select Gundam series and even select moments in Full Metal Panic! (specifically in Sousuke's past and the first series' Middle Eastern campaign arc) than from here. Not to mention King Hamdo was too goofy and obnoxious for me to take him as anything "frightening" or "disturbing." |
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PantsGoblin
Subscriber Encyclopedia Editor Posts: 2969 Location: L.A. |
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I don't really watch that many "dark" series, so it probably had a much greater effect on me than many other people who watch them more often. For the part in Full Metal Panic!, it didn't really have as much of an effect on me because it mainly focused on Sousuke and I never thought of him as innocent and not being able to fend for himself. NTHT displayed the children in a much more innocent way than FMP with the military barging in to towns and taking children out of their homes and pulling them away from their parents in order to put them in the military. I don't know how it goes about it in Gundam though.
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Key
Moderator
Posts: 18572 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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The manipulative nature of the series (i.e. that it tries so hard to be what it is) is one of the common complaints lodged against NTHT, and it's not an unfair criticism. I've always more taken the view that it does a damn good job at being manipulative, though, and I found that the underlying thread of hope and perserverance saves the series from going too overboard. As for Hamdo, I never found him to be obnoxious - certainly not on the level of, other various half-insane characters I could name from other series. And I agree thoroughly with uberfrosch's follow-up points. |
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Randall Miyashiro
 Posts: 2451 Location: A block away from Golden Gate Park |
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I believe the contrast to the audience's expectations help with the shock value. I had no idea what the series was about when I first saw it. The rather cute character designs and young protagonist put me in a very different mind set to what happens in the series. Most series like Elfen Lied will have an intro which will say hold onto your seats, this is a dark series. NTHT doesn't have this sort of warning.
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dormcat
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 9902 Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan, ROC |
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At least its music (by Taku Iwasaki, one of my favorite anime composers) can bring you into a sad mood. On the contrary, the OP animation of NaruTaru is even more notorious for setting up a happy-go-lucky mood first and show you its dark side (which is NOT so pretty to watch) later in the show. |
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Iemander
 Posts: 443 |
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Eversince I saw Watership Down (I wonder how many times I've said that movie on this forum, ah well, it's my favorite anyway) when I was little, I've always favored abstract imagery as opposed to something more realistic. To be honest, I can't really call NTHT all that dark, whatever these kids are going through is just too subjective to really understand. When I see "fear", it's just not enough for me to see a particular guy shaking in his pants in all of his sweaty limping glory, it wouldn't ever touch me in the same way a single abstract image would really.
Basically, I agree with Hikaru, I didn't really think HTNT was a particulary dark series. It depends on how you look at it. Watership Down however... |
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