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Kruszer
Joined: 19 Nov 2004
Posts: 7994
Location: Minnesota, USA
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Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 6:59 pm
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Watching and enjoying this series quite a bit. It's obvious that all the people are human hybrids with various species of cats or at least in the cat family. I was wondering if there was any ryme or reason for this since the people from Tuscuru all seem to be one species of cat with similliar characteristics and Karula is from Natounk and is another. If so than which characters belong to what species and what country is represented by said species?
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JacobC
ANN Contributor
Joined: 15 Jan 2008
Posts: 3728
Location: SoCal
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Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 7:21 pm
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Ooh. In a word, no there isn't. Utawarerumono, from what I can remember, was based on a porn game, so the cat ears may have something to do with some kind of fetish...
Not there's anything pornographic about the series! I enjoyed it, too, but given that mecha suddenly appear in the early 20s episodes it's a safe bet to say that the fantasy of the realm is steeped in mishmash, and no rhyme or reason were taken into account.
Though I do find it interesting that Eruru and Aruru (sp?) have mildly tiger-striped ears, considering they live in a forest ruled by a tiger god and are more tied to it, I suppose, being the descendants of an elder.
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riccardo
Joined: 03 May 2007
Posts: 136
Location: Melbourne, Australia
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Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2008 1:16 am
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I really enjoyed Utawarerumono myself, a very cute little fantasy series. its my hunch that the cat ears/tails are either a design choice by the animators or to differentiate the genereral populace from Hakurou, who is a clear outsider as he is missing the ears.
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demonroach
Joined: 06 Dec 2007
Posts: 89
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Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2008 2:44 am
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After watching about 10 epidoses, you begin to like the characters...but once you see who the kings are, everything goes downhill. Ok, so you have cool characters, then all of a sudden, these fat lipped lardassed brainless kings/princes show and you wonder what kind of bs is this. I mean, if you want to make a serious anime, then you cant mix the trash with the good stuff.
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dormcat
Encyclopedia Editor
Joined: 08 Dec 2003
Posts: 9902
Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan, ROC
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Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2008 2:55 am
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Those are fox ears and tails.
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selenta
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Joined: 19 Apr 2006
Posts: 1774
Location: Seattle, WA
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Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2008 3:29 am
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demonroach wrote: | After watching about 10 epidoses, you begin to like the characters...but once you see who the kings are, everything goes downhill. Ok, so you have cool characters, then all of a sudden, these fat lipped lardassed brainless kings/princes show and you wonder what kind of bs is this. I mean, if you want to make a serious anime, then you can't mix the trash with the good stuff. |
Clearly, you haven't seen any more of the show if you thought he was supposed to be anything but an ugly bumbling buffoon. It's also been a while since I saw the show, but I'm pretty sure Hakuoro has already taken over the country by episode 10 or 11.
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Kruszer
Joined: 19 Nov 2004
Posts: 7994
Location: Minnesota, USA
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Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2008 3:44 am
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^The country was his by the end of the first disc I think.
dormcat wrote: | Those are fox ears and tails. |
Which ones? It's not like everyone can identify an animal by it's appendages. I'd have to see the whole thing personally.
...and what about Karula's people?
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DClark
Joined: 11 Aug 2007
Posts: 110
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Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2008 4:07 am
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Kruszer wrote: | ...and what about Karula's people? |
Because of the triangular ears and black marking at the end of her tail I'd have to say she's based on a lynx, though a lynx tail is pretty stubby, not long and flowing like in the picture. My guess is they used a lynx as the basis, but decided a longer tail would look better.
I've only seen a few episodes, but if I remember correctly some of them seemed to be based on cats while others seem to be based on foxes.
Last edited by DClark on Tue Jan 22, 2008 2:01 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Kruszer
Joined: 19 Nov 2004
Posts: 7994
Location: Minnesota, USA
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Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2008 4:37 am
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Okay, I actually remembered I'd seen a tail like that one but I couldn't place which one it came from.
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dormcat
Encyclopedia Editor
Joined: 08 Dec 2003
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Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan, ROC
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Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2008 4:53 am
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DClark wrote: | I've only seen a few episodes, but if I remember correctly some of them seemed to be based on cats while others seem to be based on foxes. |
That's true. I was only thinking about main characters when I wrote my previous post.
By the way, you misquoted Kruszer's words as mine.
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Randall Miyashiro
Joined: 12 Jun 2003
Posts: 2451
Location: A block away from Golden Gate Park
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Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2008 5:19 am
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As I mentioned on many threads here I really enjoyed this series. Kotobukiya released nice 1/8 figures for some of the main characters. Sadly enough they haven't made one for Touka or Karula yet.
The animal hybrids remind me of Escaflowne which also used it in a cute manner without getting creepy. Also Kamyu and Urutori's people seem more like birds to me. The last volume explains the setting a bit.
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Kruszer
Joined: 19 Nov 2004
Posts: 7994
Location: Minnesota, USA
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Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2008 6:02 am
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Yeah, I haven't gotten there quite yet. It should ship with my next DVD mega-order though soon.
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abunai
Old Regular
Joined: 05 Mar 2004
Posts: 5463
Location: 露命
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Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2008 10:51 am
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Utawarerumono isn't fantasy, it's science fantasy. That is to say, it is a fantasy-like story placed against a science fiction background. Like Star Wars, in fact. This is not readily apparent from the outset, but by the end of the series, the background has been more or less explained.
When JesuOtaku declares it to be a "mishmash" without "rhyme or reason", it's because he either hasn't finished watching the series, or didn't pay attention.
I found the story weak, but more or less coherent -- and the characters very appealing. It's definitely the characters that save the anime from mediocrity.
- abunai
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Kruszer
Joined: 19 Nov 2004
Posts: 7994
Location: Minnesota, USA
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Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2008 3:22 pm
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You know for anyone who hasn't seen volume 6 like myself that could be considered a spoiler worth taging. They gave out hints of it in volume 5 but nothing concrete.
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v1cious
Joined: 31 Dec 2002
Posts: 6227
Location: Houston, TX
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Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2008 5:27 pm
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i thought they explained this fully in the anime, but i don't remember if they did or not. the experiment the scientists were doing underground is combining Hakuoro's dna with other animals to create creatures that could survive the earth's surface, but then then he helped them escape, and they began to repopulate the earth.
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