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Shelf Life - Gatchaman Crowds Insight




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Angel M Cazares



Joined: 23 Sep 2010
Posts: 5499
Location: Iscandar
PostPosted: Mon Nov 21, 2016 11:51 am Reply with quote
James wrote:
to make sure the series' particular aesthetic is your thing before fully committing to a purchase

Did you mean to say "to make sure the series' particular aesthetic and all over the place ideas is your thing before fully committing to a purchase"?

I will never understand why some people consider Gatchaman Crowds a great anime. I give it credit for being unique and ambitious, but its narrative, philosophy and themes are not clear and can get very dumb. And Insight is worse.

I would have no problem giving the first season a Rental rating, but the second season is Perishable.
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Animegomaniac



Joined: 16 Feb 2012
Posts: 4157
PostPosted: Mon Nov 21, 2016 12:38 pm Reply with quote
angelmcazares wrote:
James wrote:
to make sure the series' particular aesthetic is your thing before fully committing to a purchase

Did you mean to say "to make sure the series' particular aesthetic and all over the place ideas is your thing before fully committing to a purchase"?

I will never understand why some people consider Gatchaman Crowds a great anime. I give it credit for being unique and ambitious, but its narrative, philosophy and themes are not clear and can get very dumb. And Insight is worse.

I would have no problem giving the first season a Rental rating, but the second season is Perishable.


I personally give the first season a Shelfworthy rating with Insight getting Perishable. It's like the difference between being shown how awesome Hajime is and being told- repeatedly and in very very direct terms- how amazing she is. Plus, giving her a foil called "Wings"- remember subtlety from the first season?- whose very existence and membership grounds the whole team through her

Quote:
While Hajime is still an acquired taste, she's balanced out by Tsubasa's level-headedness and likability, and thus the pair work well together both on and off the battlefield.


Uh huh. What series was being reviewed? Wasn't Insight the series where Tsubasa spoiler[turned against the Gatchaman in favor of the alien? Also, didn't she only managed to transform once?] And how is she likable? I thought she was meant to be an antagonist who stopped short of being a villain by reason of not being smart enough?

And she's not even the reason I hate the series, it's rather who Hajime turned into by the end. Remember, she's a special sage who always knows better than the rest of humanity...
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HeeroTX



Joined: 15 Jul 2002
Posts: 2046
Location: Austin, TX
PostPosted: Mon Nov 21, 2016 2:00 pm Reply with quote
Animegomaniac wrote:
Uh huh. What series was being reviewed? Wasn't Insight the series where Tsubasa spoiler[turned against the Gatchaman in favor of the alien? Also, didn't she only managed to transform once?] And how is she likable? I thought she was meant to be an antagonist who stopped short of being a villain by reason of not being smart enough?

I've got to agree with this. At BEST I would say Tsubasa was "polarizing", but I wouldn't for a second say that her likability was a strong selling point for the show. If you want to be kind, Tsubasa is "naive", but the execution of that trait makes her REALLY irritating to a definite portion of viewers.
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Aylinn



Joined: 18 Nov 2006
Posts: 1684
PostPosted: Mon Nov 21, 2016 2:46 pm Reply with quote
I think I would not call Tsubasa level-headed, adjectives like thoughtless or naive describe her much better, especially at the beginning.
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Tuor_of_Gondolin



Joined: 20 Apr 2009
Posts: 3524
Location: Bellevue, WA
PostPosted: Mon Nov 21, 2016 3:02 pm Reply with quote
Yeah, when the review said Tsubasa was level-headed, I wondered if he watched the same show I did. One of the main issues with the WHOLE SEASON was how *un*-level-headed she was. Her grandfather pointed it out from the beginning, and Tsubasa wasn't able to figure it out for a long time. Not only could she not transform, but she made things worse in pretty much every situation she became involved in. Really, Hajime showed herself to be *far* more level-headed at every turn in both seasons. She's not as grounded as Tsubasa, but that's part of the point: Tsubasa wasn't even grounded, she was just... unthinking. To be honest, I hated Tsubasa almost from the start: she represents the sort of mindless, unthinking arrogance that I really dislike in others. The fact that the show managed to generate such strong emotions in me is probably a sign of success, though.

I liked both seasons, for different reasons, and I *really* liked Hajime (cough). But I do understand how polarizing she can be. I think this was a pretty smart series, and this season certainly did a lot of smart and interesting things. I'm not sure if I'll ever buy it, but I definitely recommend it.
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kasumicc



Joined: 05 Jul 2007
Posts: 26
PostPosted: Mon Nov 21, 2016 7:02 pm Reply with quote
Ugh, I feel inclined to agree. How is Tsubasa likeable at all? For all her good intentions, she really got on my nerves. If anything, what Insight did was to get me sold on Hajime. Compared to Tsubasa, it's Hajime the one who stands as the level-headed one.

That said, leaving aside the (admittedly weak and all over the place) first two episodes, Insight stands out as a far better series than the first season (and that one was pretty good already). Insight offers a more straightforward and relatable message, and I think it's just smarter overall. I don't know, I just love it.
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TarsTarkas



Joined: 20 Dec 2007
Posts: 5922
Location: Virginia, United States
PostPosted: Mon Nov 21, 2016 9:05 pm Reply with quote
I liked Gatchaman Crowds and Hajime. So I am going to watch Insight.

The bad in all of this, is that the OVA is not available in both seasons. The OVA is a critical piece of season one. It makes one wonder why Sentai was unable to acquire it, at least, for inclusion in season two.
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zztop



Joined: 28 Aug 2014
Posts: 650
PostPosted: Mon Nov 21, 2016 9:56 pm Reply with quote
In my opinion, the Gatchaman characters were never meant to be characters with personal growth and motivations (as some viewers complained about).

Instead they embody certain social viewpoints meant to contrast with each other to bring about the social commentary of the series. For example, Joe would be the conservative who believes in old-school top to bottom enforcement. The VAPE leader represents the educated cynic who sees the worst of humanity's mob mentality. Paiman is a follower who sees only the surface value of things at 1st glance (despite his leader assertions). Tsubasa is naive, unthinking idealism. Hajime is the levelheaded informed ideal (verbal communication issues aside).


Last edited by zztop on Tue Nov 22, 2016 8:10 am; edited 1 time in total
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belvadeer





PostPosted: Tue Nov 22, 2016 12:24 am Reply with quote
Quote:
I think I played a demo of the Tales of Vesperia game at some point, and I'm pretty sure I had no idea what I was doing.


It really helps to play the full game to give you some context as to what's going on. This is a great movie if you're a Tales fan or a longtime fan of Vesperia in general. It was also awesome that Funi went to the trouble of getting Troy Baker and Sam Riegel to play their respective roles as Yuri and Flynn like in the game. Estelle, Rita and Raven are not voiced by their game actors however; their replacement VAs do the job absolutely fine, but when you're so used to hearing characters a certain way thanks to hours spent playing the game, the difference in voices is quite noticeable.
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Koda89



Joined: 10 Jul 2006
Posts: 278
PostPosted: Tue Nov 22, 2016 3:04 am Reply with quote
Yeah I don't get how Tsubasa can be seen as the levelheaded one.

And this is coming from someone for whom Gatchaman Crowds Insight was their AotY for 2015. Tsubasa's naive idealism is so bad that even Emiya Shirou would face palm. Laughing
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yuna49



Joined: 27 Aug 2008
Posts: 3804
PostPosted: Tue Nov 22, 2016 8:34 am Reply with quote
What I saw that the review leaves out was the presentation of "soft fascism" as a plausible threat in a highly-connected age. In this, Gatchaman Crowds Insight joins Nakashima Kazuki's Kill la Kill and Oh! Edo Rocket in presenting deep criticisms of Japanese culture and politics and the pressures toward conformity.

I think Insight is the better of the two shows in terms of plot, but the weaker in terms of characters. Like others here I found Tsubasa pretty unlikeable. She can't hold a candle to Hajime.
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Aylinn



Joined: 18 Nov 2006
Posts: 1684
PostPosted: Tue Nov 22, 2016 3:13 pm Reply with quote
zztop wrote:
In my opinion, the Gatchaman characters were never meant to be characters with personal growth and motivations (as some viewers complained about).
.

Tsubasa does get character development, since she is able to see her own mistakes and while still hot-tempered learns to deal differently with situations. Hajime doesn’t develop, but she served a different purpose, as a catalyst for change within the gatchaman team in the first season and a problem solver in the second season, I just accepted it and I was ok with her.

Had the director wanted to develop her and failed, it would have had an issue with it, but since it was not the case and she served her purpose well I don’t have any problem with her at all.
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Azmodeus



Joined: 08 Feb 2007
Posts: 185
Location: Sweden, ass end of nowhere
PostPosted: Tue Nov 22, 2016 3:42 pm Reply with quote
See, this makes me very catius. I'm someone who could probably get really turned of a show dealing with heroism in general and social issues in particular with too much frivolity, and Hajime has from the start made me weary of watching this show ( i dunno, something about how her design is always depicted with that goofy smile in promo materials). I was considering it if what James wrote about a more grounded character, but if she's as unlikeable as stated above, I dunno if i can stomach a "Hajime show! featuring The Gatchaman team".
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