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pachy_boy
Joined: 09 Mar 2006
Posts: 1341
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 Posted: Mon Aug 12, 2013 3:44 pm
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| Quote: | | Most significantly, Deunan is decidedly less of a bad-ass here than in any previous incarnation and decidedly more sensitive; calling her more feminine would not quite be accurate, but the writers definitely made an effort to soften her character and rein in her prodigious ability. |
This turned out to be my main problem with this series, moreso than the cheaper-looking CG animation. Deunan was a competent woman soldier character I respected from the movies, whereas in this show she is far more childish by comparison, which I didn't care for so much.
In the end I was at least entertained by this show, if nothing else.
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Otaking09
Joined: 24 Feb 2009
Posts: 637
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Posted: Mon Aug 12, 2013 7:13 pm
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| Quote: | | While the series deserves credit for its ambitions, less ambition in exchange for more consistent writing quality and a smoother delivery might have served the series better. |
Gotta remember this when talking about an Urobochi, BONES show with someone...
I know that Appleseed isn't necessarily deep Key, but which version(s) successfully capture the whole "human bonding w/robot companion" aspect well aesthetically. Like with the most nuance?
Or, because of Battle Angel Alita, are we just watching Appleseed for visuals?
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vashna
Joined: 19 Feb 2010
Posts: 1313
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Posted: Mon Aug 12, 2013 9:52 pm
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To me, the robot and human aspect of everything was almost like an ultimate futuristic Buddy Cop kind of arrangement, if that makes any sense. Usually they stick two detectives, for instance, in a movie that have some kind of very obvious difference between one another. I can't think of anything more obvious than species, for lack of a better word.
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One-Eye
Joined: 08 Mar 2011
Posts: 2267
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Posted: Mon Aug 12, 2013 10:13 pm
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| pachy_boy wrote: |
| Quote: | | Most significantly, Deunan is decidedly less of a bad-ass here than in any previous incarnation and decidedly more sensitive; calling her more feminine would not quite be accurate, but the writers definitely made an effort to soften her character and rein in her prodigious ability. |
This turned out to be my main problem with this series, moreso than the cheaper-looking CG animation. Deunan was a competent woman soldier character I respected from the movies, whereas in this show she is far more childish by comparison, which I didn't care for so much.
In the end I was at least entertained by this show, if nothing else. |
Same here. In all of the Appleseed's movies and even in the manga Deunan is a pretty tough chick. In the manga she could be bratty but she never lost her toughness or her effectiveness. In this show she acts more childish and is less effective.
We got more of the same old prejudice and hate towards the bioroids, which I must say after 2 movies, 1 OVA and the manga I'm kind of tired of it. I'd like to see them explore some other areas of the Appleseed universe.
On the positive side its the first anime incarnation of Appleseed that someone started to actually develop the relationship between Briarios and Deunan. What does an all flesh girl see in a hulking cyborg? What are the challenges to such a relationship? I always thought the strength of the relationship between both of them was one of the more compelling things in Appleseed and I've always wanted them to explore this more. However, for me they didn't go as far as I would have liked.
I'm glad we got a little more background on Deunan and her biracial heritage which was in the manga.
Visually I wasn't happy with how the show looked. Deunan's hair and head seemed misshapen in the early part of the show and they put these thick black eyebrows on her (thinner in certain episodes) that look like someone got carried away with a magic marker on her face. Hitomi's head also seemed out of wack at times, but Deia's for the most part looked pretty good. So I think there was some inconsistency besides the overall look going on there that turned me off. Its a shame because I did like some of the background art, but the ugliness of some of the characters was distracting and knocked it down for me.
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Echo_City
Joined: 03 Apr 2011
Posts: 1236
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Posted: Tue Aug 13, 2013 2:28 am
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| Quote: | | The one negative on this front is that the builds of female characters vary very little, but the series has virtually no blatant fan service to exploit the typically ample bosoms. |
Not making that into 2 sentences puts it dangerously close to being a "Bush-ism". I originally read it as one 
| Quote: | | Funimation's Blu-Ray release of the title is hard-subbed, so playing the subs and dub simultaneously is impossible and thus makes the accuracy of the script difficult to determine, though it seems to stick a little closer to the subs than Funimation dubs normally do. |
It is 2013 by now the "myth" that the subtitles are a valid measure for "dub accuracy" has been completely "debunked" and its propagation should have been stopped, especially by prominent anime news sites. I myself have heard the Big Names of the NA Anime Industry say (vehemently and repeatedly) that the subtitles and the dub are generated from 2 different translations (and that the subs are often less accurate than the dub) both of which are designed to exist within the confines of either lip flap or screen space and reading speed. As ANN has also spoken with those Big Names I am confident that it has heard this as well. As such I am, especially since some ANN staff work in the industry, at a loss as to how this "myth" keeps popping up in reviews here.
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configspace
Joined: 16 Aug 2008
Posts: 3717
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Posted: Tue Aug 13, 2013 7:41 am
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| Quote: | | Funimation's Blu-Ray release of the title is hard-subbed, so playing the subs and dub simultaneously is impossible ... |
I think you meant forced subtitles, where it is forced on when you switch to the Japanese audio track to discourage reverse importation. "hard-subbed" usually means baked into the video itself.
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jr240483
Joined: 24 Dec 2005
Posts: 4467
Location: New York City,New York,USA
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Posted: Tue Aug 13, 2013 11:16 am
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kinda surprised the otaku community isnt nitpicking about the DVD only having hard subs let alone it giving the grade a lower score.
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belvadeer
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Posted: Tue Aug 13, 2013 1:17 pm
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| One-Eye wrote: | | On the positive side its the first anime incarnation of Appleseed that someone started to actually develop the relationship between Briarios and Deunan. What does an all flesh girl see in a hulking cyborg? What are the challenges to such a relationship? I always thought the strength of the relationship between both of them was one of the more compelling things in Appleseed and I've always wanted them to explore this more. However, for me they didn't go as far as I would have liked. |
They are lovers according to some sources right? And despite the obvious physical differences, Briareos is still capable of eating food and having sex.
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SpacemanHardy
Joined: 03 Jan 2012
Posts: 2511
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Posted: Tue Aug 13, 2013 1:58 pm
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| belvadeer wrote: |
| One-Eye wrote: | | On the positive side its the first anime incarnation of Appleseed that someone started to actually develop the relationship between Briarios and Deunan. What does an all flesh girl see in a hulking cyborg? What are the challenges to such a relationship? I always thought the strength of the relationship between both of them was one of the more compelling things in Appleseed and I've always wanted them to explore this more. However, for me they didn't go as far as I would have liked. |
They are lovers according to some sources right? And despite the obvious physical differences, Briareos is still capable of eating food and having sex. |
Does that mean he has a robo-wang? 
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One-Eye
Joined: 08 Mar 2011
Posts: 2267
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Posted: Tue Aug 13, 2013 5:10 pm
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| belvadeer wrote: |
| One-Eye wrote: | | On the positive side its the first anime incarnation of Appleseed that someone started to actually develop the relationship between Briarios and Deunan. What does an all flesh girl see in a hulking cyborg? What are the challenges to such a relationship? I always thought the strength of the relationship between both of them was one of the more compelling things in Appleseed and I've always wanted them to explore this more. However, for me they didn't go as far as I would have liked. |
They are lovers according to some sources right? And despite the obvious physical differences, Briareos is still capable of eating food and having sex. |
I meant those questions rhetorically as in I would like to see those questions and others tackled by an anime. I think they would be interesting to see those things worked thru in a realistic manner. They teased a little bit about what a real life Briarios might be like in the second movie and how Deunan and Briarios might react, but then they chickened out so it became a useless plot device. Also there's more to a relationship than just having sex.
| SpacemanHardy wrote: | | Does that mean he has a robo-wang? Shocked |
Well in the manga there was a scene where his face plate opened around the mouth and he stuck his tongue out and if I recall correctly Deunan and him touched tongues. I guess that's what passes for kissing or affection for them, but who knows what else his armor is hiding? Maybe nothing maybe something.
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Panon
Joined: 07 Sep 2004
Posts: 242
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Posted: Tue Aug 13, 2013 8:00 pm
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| jr0904 wrote: | | kinda surprised the otaku community isnt nitpicking about the DVD only having hard subs let alone it giving the grade a lower score. |
I don't think there's anybody watching it to care. Calling the art/animation "highly variable" is incredibly generous, the two episodes I saw would be pretty shameful as Playstation 2 game cutscenes. Fan translations dropped the show like a rock during it's Japanese release.
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Glory Questor
Joined: 28 Sep 2004
Posts: 456
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Posted: Wed Aug 14, 2013 8:12 pm
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| Quote: | | The story told here is a total revamp of that told in previous incarnations, especially with regard to Deunan's background. This time around Deunan is multiracial, as her mother was a light-skinned African and her father was white (though she still has the same fair-skinned, short-bond-haired appearance she always has), and her father was effectively a hard-nosed survivalist instead of a scientist. |
Just as a note, this is actually Deunan's parentage in the original manga. She discusses her heritage with Hitomi in Book 3: The Scales of Prometheus, Page 83.
Also of note ... the CG movie went with the new background for her mother, along with an unusual direction I don't even think was hinted at in the original manga (namely, the Hitomi / Appleseed thing). I just could never really understand why they kept some story elements, yet diverged completely from the original in many other ways, especially in her interracial parentage.
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belvadeer
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Posted: Thu Aug 15, 2013 12:00 am
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| One-Eye wrote: | | Also there's more to a relationship than just having sex. |
Um yeah, I know that. I'm just pointing out that he possibly can in case anyone was curious. I recall "sex with robots" was a hot sci-fi topic in the late 90s.
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vashna
Joined: 19 Feb 2010
Posts: 1313
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Posted: Thu Aug 15, 2013 12:49 am
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I've actually never heard of forced subtitles before. When you say reverse importation, configspace, are you saying that they want to avoid letting Japanese consumers buy the American release of the DVD? For what reason would anyone want to do that anyway? I can't imagine the cost would really justify it, though I know that costs are sometimes really high in Japan. After all I've seen DVD extras were they put the original Japanese promo into things and they're charging like over ¥6000 for a single DVD release.
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dragonrider_cody
Joined: 14 Jun 2008
Posts: 2541
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Posted: Thu Aug 15, 2013 1:37 am
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| vashna wrote: | | I've actually never heard of forced subtitles before. When you say reverse importation, configspace, are you saying that they want to avoid letting Japanese consumers buy the American release of the DVD? For what reason would anyone want to do that anyway? I can't imagine the cost would really justify it, though I know that costs are sometimes really high in Japan. After all I've seen DVD extras were they put the original Japanese promo into things and they're charging like over ¥6000 for a single DVD release. |
Basically, the Japanese companies don't want to lose sales to the American releases. It's become fairly common place, at least for NISA, Viz, and Funimation to lock subtitle tracks to their audio track. So when you pick the Japanese track, you automatically get English subtitles that can't be shut off. If you pick the English track, at least on Funi, NISA, and Sentai releases, you can't turn the subtitles on at all in most cases. I believe Viz has an English audio track that also includes subtitles on most of their releases.
Even when you factor in shipping and taxes, it's often much cheaper to buy the American release than the Japanese one. Not to mention that Japanese buyers now rarely have to do the importing themselves. A lot of Amazon Market Place sellers import American blurays from Funimation, Sentai, etc and sell them there. In fact, if you visit Amazon.jp, you'll often find the American releases ranking higher than some of the Japanese ones.
Sentai, so far, has only locked subtitle tracks on shows from Aniplex, who pretty much requires all R1 companies to do the same. For releases from other companies, they've started doing geo-locking. So to play the discs at all, you not only need a bluray player that plays Region A discs, but one that is set to USA/Canada as it's location. This automatically locks out most Japanese bluray players.
Also, these steps are pretty much just for the blurays. Since American DVDs are in a different region, and usually of lower quality than the Japanese release anyway, there is really no fear of reverse importation, unlike with bluray.
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