Forum - View topic(The) Great Passage (TV).
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Stark700
 Posts: 11762 Location: Earth |
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(The) Great Passage (TV) Genres: drama Themes: dictionary, workplace Plot Summary: Araki is a veteran editor for the dictionary department at the Genbu Shobō publishing company. He is looking for a successor now that he's approaching retirement age. After Majime Mitsuya — a salesman who's a poor talker — meets Masashi Nishioka — Araki's coworker who is sociable and frivolous — Araki overhears their conversation and decides to recruit Majime into the department. The "odd couple" work together to compile a medium-sized Japanese dictionary titled "The Great Passage" (Daitokai). ---------------------------------- Also known as "The Great Passage". I've heard good reception about the movie before and fairly impressed by the preview. |
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Stark700
Posts: 11762 Location: Earth |
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Episode 1
Good start for the first episode. I like the realism dynamics and the characters introduced so far. The OP song also works quite well with its style. Mitsuya is an interesting character with knowledge and I'm curious to learn more about him. The office environment looks realistic as well and animation is fluid with character designs looking simple yet credible. Excited to see more of this, there's quite a bit of potential here. |
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Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 24131 |
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So...when do the mechas show up?
Yes, this looks like a very promising SoL. It's funny, much of anime can be stultifyingly derivative and formulaic yet it remains one of the few entertainment formats where you can actually have a show about a guy whose job is helping to compile a dictionary. Trying pitching that one in Hollywood. I can't help comparing this show with March comes in like a lion (the abundance of water imagery in both certainly is a factor). We have two lonely, isolated, bespectacled MCs. I don't think Majime is fullblown depressed the way Rei is and, unlike Rei, he seems to want to change his situation. I feel for Majime. I don't suffer from social awkwardness myself (believe it or not) but I can imagine how painful it must be. To not be able to pick up on cues that other people effortlessly translate must really feel like being adrift at sea. |
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HelloBucket
 Posts: 477 Location: Upstate New York |
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I really hope there are more of those adorable talking dictionary shorts as inserts. I want to follow the adventures of the little blue dictionary.
This whole episode made me kind of curious about the creation of Japanese dictionaries. I've never heard of the process described in such whimsical terms when it comes to English. I wonder if this is a flight of fancy from the work itself or if there's really a more romantic approach to creating dictionaries in Japan. |
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crosswithyou
 Posts: 2899 Location: California |
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I believe the series is streaming on Amazon Prime but there weren't any previews for it. I would definitely be interested in reading some episode reviews.
Very interesting and unusual topic for the series so I'm eager to find out where it'll go. |
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Darkmagick
Subscriber Posts: 471 |
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Amazon has licensed all noitaminA shows for the foreseeable future, but at the moment, the show is not actually up on US Prime for whatever reason. It's on UK Prime, and I think some other ones, but since the reviewers are all in the US, they currently don't have a legal stream to use. The show has been assigned for Daily Streaming reviews, but...again, still waiting on the legal stream. ...Dammit Amazon. Gimme my CR noitaminA streams back. 
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Agent355
 Posts: 5113 Location: Crackberry in hand, thumbs at the ready... |
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I just contacted customer service of Amazon Prime Instant Video in the US via chat, and they denied that there is any official confirmation of a deal between Amazon and Fuji TV, and quote:
I'm very upset, and would request that US anime fans contact Amazon, because they also told me, quote:
So let's get on Amazon's back, everyone! We're a really annoying, anal bunch, us anime fans. If enough of us contact them about this, they'll have to at least clarify whether or not there is a deal with Fuji TV! |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11586 |
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Sounds like your Amazon rep didn't know, didn't care and was too busy punching up canned responses to actually find out. :/
Anyway, Episode 2 was just as glorious as the first one. I love his landlady. And I got such a kick out of the two editors exchanging invisible high-fives when Majime told his escalator story. I guess when you're used to not fitting in, you can't tell when you're a perfect fit. I feel like I'm watching a movie in 12 parts, they take such care with the details and the ambience. It certainly doesn't feel rushed. Some probably think it even drags, but not me. Still absolutely hating the OP song for this though. I have to mute it the moment that stupid Caramelldansen synth starts in. You know how to tell how wrong it is for this? Majime is trying to walk with the beat and he walks 3x faster in that OP than at any point in the series. Blecch. |
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter Posts: 24131 |
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Episode 2
Thank god the love interest has showed up because, to be perfectly frank, all that dictionary talk was boring the shit out of me. I'm guessing the young lady is a relative of the landlady - grand-daughter, perhaps? Presumably, she is the one who called so late. Anyway, it will be interesting to see Mr. Socially Awkward deal with her. |
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DuskyPredator
 Posts: 15573 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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I am watching this show too, but honestly I don't know what to talk about with it. It is interesting.
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chaccide
Posts: 295 |
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It took me a while to figure out why this felt so stupid. Who the f*ck does this sort of work by hand on paper? This isn't the 1950s, the people have cell phones. Publishers have been using computers to index dictionaries for decades now. I cannot watch them go through all this work when they could cut their time down by 90% by using technology.
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter Posts: 24131 |
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I had the same thought. Although, it wouldn't totally shock me if there were some places that were still old school like that.
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HelloBucket
Posts: 477 Location: Upstate New York |
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The lack of technology definitely sticks out a bit, but even if it isn't realistic I think it works with the ideas in play: The idea of the dictionary being a long, arduous endeavor, the concept of craftsmanship as applied to dictionary-making, and the dictionary department being abandoned in the past (the former main building). Also, it really suits our main character, since he doesn't have a cell phone.
Random side thought: Is there any legitimate way to get out onto that balcony or do they always have to get to it from the windows? |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15573 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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The more I think about it the more I think technology is really missing this from this system, and I was only thinking about the dictionary being digital before. Use tablets instead to record words they find, which could allow them to put them on at the office electronically (without even going to the office), be able to work at the office (without even being there), check to see if the word has been used yet because you are writing a fricken dictionary, organise the level of words you want. Get a head start on it actually being written before you the end process where they presumably sit down to do so. And it would be safer as they could keep a backup server offsite, where currently a building fire would destroy all of the paper. I think all of that sounds like a reasonable system to have in this day in age, and with looking for another ten years to complete it looks like something to switch over to.
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11586 |
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Yes, all that is quite practical. But these people don't see what they're doing as an exercise in practical efficiency (Masashi would probably share your thinking), but as an art form. That's why, as the eyecatch skits emphasize, no two dictionaries are alike and have their own personalities.
If they're not comfortable with the technology, it won't be efficient for them to use it, and the old guy especially savors his handwritten notes. There's something to be said for the old ways. When I used to have to graph things out on graph paper and manually crunch data (on a calculator at least - thank god I never had to master a slide rule!), I felt like it gave me a better feel for the numbers and a clearer picture in my head of what was going on across the study. It's of course faster and easier to do it all on Excel, and I wouldn't go back to the old way, but I still feel like I lost something in the transition. Now I'm just churning out data to meet a deadline. :/ So I can relate to them feeling more in touch with the words and meanings by writing them. Also, kanji is an art unto itself, and there's surely more resonance in writing it out than hitting two or three keys to have its perfect form show up on a screen. I can also relate to not having a cell phone. 
These characters may be an anomaly in the modern world, but they're not alone. Read what these people say about why they're still in the last century with their writing tools. |
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