Forum - View topicThe Spring 2009 Anime Preview Guide
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Westlo
 Posts: 1684 |
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@ Kalessin
duckroll said it best... there's a very good chance that this episode replaced the lior chapters in the manga/first tv run. Remember Lust's line to Gluttony being the same as that part in Lior. In 2-3 days time when Newtype spoilers are out we'll know for certain.
Yep ANN default to 13 episodes because that is the length of one cour, the majority of the time we have no idea how many episodes a series will be until the dvds are solicited. Times when you see proper episode counts before dvds are listed is when the studios reveal the episode count, like A-1 Pictures did with Valkyria Chronicles being 26 episodes. |
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Ai no Kareshi
 Posts: 561 Location: South Africa |
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Okay, morbid curiosity (combined with the mention of Rie Kugimiya) has pushed me to check out the first episode of Queen's Blade against my better judgment, and unsurprisingly, I now regret doing so. I couldn't decide which was worse; the show itself or the fansubs.
First of all, the art isn't nearly as good as the official site leads one to expect. The animation is sub-par, and the writing is terrible. From a story standpoint, everything feels rushed and forced – indeed, this script was concocted purely to get a bunch of overly-endowed ladies to fight half-naked. Even the ecchi itself, I'm sure, many would find disappointing. Besides the horrible font (and aspect ratio) chosen by the subbers, the translations themselves are wrong more than half the time, and on many occasions actually state the exact oposite of what is being said. Had I not understood Japanese, I would have thought the plot even more ridiculous than I already do. This show is not worth it. Please, don't make the same mistake I did. |
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steveawyn
Posts: 2 |
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I think I enjoyed zac's review more than most of the new shows so far.
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Kalessin
 Posts: 931 |
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They're certainly fun to read, but he seems to generally have a much lower opinion of shows in general than a number of people here (at least a number of the vocal ones). Of course, him rating the new DBZ of all things at 4.5 is something that I find very puzzling, but whatever. However, the fact that he seems to like to rate stuff low and yet rated Sengoku Basara as a 5 out of 5 makes me think that I should check it out. Really - for my tastes at least - it looks like Zac is too harsh on shows for me to use him as much of a metric for a shows quality, but his reviews are fun to read in either case. |
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Shale
Posts: 337 Location: The Middle of Nowhere, DE |
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Regarding Mazinger, I'm a fan of the series, I know just about everything that they referenced in the first episode, and I was still laughing my ass off at how completely and gleefully nonsensical the whole thing was. I loved it for exactly that reason, but "impenetrable" is a kind word for how it must have come off to people who don't know all those characters already.
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hikaru004
 Posts: 2306 |
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Just when I thougnt anime females couldn't look any younger, Gonzo lolifies Range Murata designs more and spaces the eyes more in the younger characters. If I wanted a sermon, I'd go to church. I don't need it pounding me with a hammer in an anime.
That transvestite caraicature is really sad. Hormones without common sense. Not funny Gonzo. Last edited by hikaru004 on Mon Apr 06, 2009 8:49 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Vicserr
 Posts: 480 Location: Carolina, Puerto Rico USA |
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The younger generation is not prepared to handle the hotblooded awesoness that is Shin Mazinger, reaction from the couple of places I've visited has been nothing short of Epic, a Return to the Greatness of the Super Robot Age.
Cute moe girls doing cute moe things or Gowkaiser with weapons and incontinent heroines doesn't have what it takes to stand toe to toe against the Fortress of Iron, apparently most modern fans and the reviewer don't possess a soul of Chogokin, Moe shows and the descontructionism of Evangelion have risen the Price of Justice beyond Y8700. Didn't Kotetsu Shin Jeeg, GaoGaiGar or Gurren Lagaan teached you anything people... Imagawa is taking a bold risk in the Go Nagai universe and the Mazinger Mythos but I know he can pull it off and open a new chapter of Super Robot Excitement. I'm a Super Robot Fan, and I Approve This Message! Last edited by Vicserr on Mon Apr 06, 2009 8:59 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Ausdoerrt
 Posts: 481 |
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Yeah, I'm hoping it will pick up eventually. I'm also hoping someone will sub the darn series so that I don't have to try hard to understand wtf is going on. The animation is not great, but it's strange how they decided to go for a much more "classic" anime feel - especially with all the emotes and all. I also thought the mood jumps from light-hearted to creepy and back were done pretty well - and the music is pretty darn good. EDIT: On the other hand, I do not get why an anime with no story and just some flashy action like Sengoku Basara gets such an overwhelmingly good response. I guess any kind of criticism about writing doesn't apply if it's a series adapted from a popular game series by CAPCOM, and animated by I.G.? 
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wilson_x1999
 Posts: 183 Location: Monterrey, Mexico |
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QFTW I just watched the new Mazinger and I loved every single second of it, even if I didn't understood what the fudge was happening at the moment. |
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BrianaTheBard
 Posts: 34 Location: Milwaukee, WI |
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Gah. I loved Basara. I've been checking every hour for a sub, until finally, last night, I found it. Thanks for appreciating it's kick-ass awesomeness.
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garfield15
 Posts: 1541 |
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Hey, new guy here. Long-time reader, first-time poster.
Anyway, I've been rather enjoying these reviews (Especially Zac's. I need that smiley from the Queen's Blade review) but I'm suprised nobody has looked at Basquatch! yet. That's the kind of quirky, crazy, show that I would love to see somebody's reaction towards. |
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Anime World Order
 Posts: 390 Location: Florida |
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While I share your sentiment, what makes the ANN preview guides helpful to so many is that it provides the many people who already read the site with several different "first impression" takes without having to go the extra step of seeking out podcasts, blogs, and message board posts from less centralized locations. (That said, I recommend people take that extra step.) With any luck, if you read enough of what someone writes then you can evaluate a given reviewer's thoughts on something to see if they consistently mesh or clash with your own. From that, you can say "well if this person liked/disliked something, chances are good that I will like/dislike (or dislike/like!) it." For me, it's not really the end of the world if someone who finds Queen's Blade enjoyable and believes a series made by Gonzo shows promise (sucker!) strongly dislikes Shin Mazinger Z, as these are consistently the opposite of how I feel. I agree to disagree. But perhaps I SHOULD be fired up that someone posted something where they state how they like different cartoons than I do because this one is posted on the ANN front page. Let's face it, ANN is in a very real and very unique position of power among US anime fandom. It's a necessity, our Shizuma Drive as it were. By that I mean that the site is so useful to all of us that if it's not reported or discussed on ANN, then for many it may as well not even exist. And were it to cease functioning, anime fandom would stand still. And perhaps there is a hidden flaw in the system that just might kill us all! (If you couldn't spot the reference in the preceding, then you need to go here pronto and learn about Giant Robo: The Animation.) For example: many people rely solely on the Fall/Spring Anime Preview guides to get an idea of what's coming out in Japan at that moment. (That's kind of the point of why it's there.) But what if a series doesn't quite start right during that same week or so of Fall/Spring? Well, then it doesn't get covered in the guide since it's out of scope and there are already so many titles to cover as it stands. It's an understandable position for ANN to take. But the effect it has is that unless you're already a dedicated fan--and based on the DVD sales in the US, you are probably not--you would not know that there is a brand new Hajime no Ippo anime series entitled Hajime no Ippo: New Challenger just from reading the preview guides, because it started in January. So it is that anyone relying on the guides to find out what's new (and judging from the reactions, that's a lot of folks!) will never even know the series exists, and it will remain one of the best shows that nobody is watching. Hajime no Ippo: New Challenger is actually one of the few shows I'm fanatically watching at the moment. Shin Mazinger Z (from Yasuhiro Imagawa, the key creative force behind Giant Robo: The Animation) is another such show, and as such maybe I should be concerned that nearly every single one of the ANN review team willingly watched and wrote about Queen's Blade, but only one (at the time of writing) did the same for Shin Mazinger Z. If more reviews and comments get posted that say "I don't know anything about Go Nagai stuff and therefore I can't watch this because it's too confusing," that will influence a large swath of US anime fans because we as a whole do not really know much about Go Nagai stuff. Most of it never got released here. So, for the comparative minority willing to read hundreds of posts into a message board thread within a post that's "too long" by most Internet standards, here's "the truth" about Shin Mazinger Z that I hope is conveyed by at least one of the ANN previewers: the viewer is not expected to have prior knowledge of who any of those characters and situations are. If you did, it would not matter because there is no defined continuity or universe in which the stories occur. In fact, much like how Giant Robo the Animation is a compilation of the multiple works and characters of Mitsuteru Yokoyama, so too is Shin Mazinger that only for Go Nagai. In both cases, it doesn't matter if you've never seen anything prior. (Same thing's true for Leiji Matsumoto works, which also go unwatched by most due to the falsely held idea that the other titles featuring the Yamato or Captain Harlock or whatever relate to whatever the newest one is. It's not true and it never was, but nobody ever seems to point this out.) You know like how the first episode of FMA 2 is basically just a bunch of characters showing up and demonstrating their gimmick? How it is its own thing, and it doesn't matter if you've seen the first series or not because this new one's totally separate? Shin Mazinger Z is the exact same thing. Both first episodes operate under the notion that "yes, this is not explained but they will go back and explain it later." And in the case of both, I have faith that they will because the people making each series do indeed know what they're doing. Much like the criminally-ignored Shin Getter Robo vs Neo Getter Robo, Shin Mazinger Z is a series for everyone who went completely nuts over Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann just a few short months ago. But if it gets repeated "for diehard mecha fanatics ONLY!" evaluations without some pedantic bozo like me saying "actually, it's more along the lines of this...", then nobody besides the few of us who know what Shin Getter Robo even means will ever watch it. Me, I'll be happy if it even gets fansubbed entirely. I actually have high hopes that this will be the case for once. Last edited by Anime World Order on Thu Apr 23, 2009 2:01 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Shale
Posts: 337 Location: The Middle of Nowhere, DE |
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The thing is that the first episode is really just for fans. Was it awesome and did I love every minute of it? Hell yes. But when I was watching it, my thoughts went something like "Holy crap the Scrander turns into a giant fist and punches things, and now the Mycenae are showing up for no reason and is that Z Mazinger WHAT THE HELL THIS IS AWESOME." It's familiar pieces being rearranged in new, crazy ways, and the "familiar" part is really key. The God Scrander's appearance isn't as cool if you're not conditioned to expect a regular old set of wings to show up when Kouji yells for it.
If I hadn't seen Mazinger before and didn't know those pieces and how they're "supposed" to mesh, it would be something like "Wait, who the hell are these people? Am I supposed to know what's going on? Wait, that's Zeus? What the ****? Did those girls just die for no reason? WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?" And that would be substantially less awesome. I just hope that the people who watched the first episode sail thousands of feet overhead stick around long enough for the second, where the series may very well start making sense, because once you've got a grip on the absurdity of this stuff, it really looks like great over-the-top mecha fun. |
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Altek
 Posts: 11 |
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It's just a matter of time before someone gets around to it, but I watched the first episode last night and I agree, it was quirky, crazy, and awesome. Definitely can't wait to see where that series goes and if the anime can keep up with the fast pace that the first episode set up. |
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18570 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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Hey, you've gotta give us time to do it. The fansub for Basquatch! just came available within the last 12 hours or so (or at least that's when any of us first noticed it, and we've been watching for it like hawks). It's the next one on my agenda to do, so you should see it go up when Zac starts doing updates sometime this afternoon. As for others not reviewing Shin Mazinger Z yet: give it until the end of the day before complaining about that. A massive flood of stuff became available yesterday afternoon and evening, and I'm sure we're all just trying to get caught up. (I still have Saki, Dragonball Kai, and Basara waiting for me from yesterday. . .) |
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