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REVIEW: Tytania collection 1 DVD


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ayashe



Joined: 31 Mar 2008
Posts: 123
PostPosted: Wed Aug 18, 2010 11:07 pm Reply with quote
I'm still trying to muddle through this series. I watched the first episode and it had me laughing so hard... too bad it wasn't meant to be funny. Still trying to muster up the courage to watch the rest. Don't want to crack a rib.
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vashfanatic



Joined: 16 Jun 2005
Posts: 3495
Location: Back stateside
PostPosted: Wed Aug 18, 2010 11:12 pm Reply with quote
You did better than me, then. I gave up after half an episode, it was so terribly dull - not just the plot, mind you, which was entirely told to us rather than shown, but also the direction, which was uninspired.

I can only conclude after reading this, Theron, that you aren't familiar with Legend of the Galactic Heroes? Because that is a true space opera. This is the poor man's version of LotGH, which was by the same author only he actually bothered finishing it because it was good.
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JacobC
ANN Past Staff


Joined: 15 Jan 2008
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PostPosted: Wed Aug 18, 2010 11:25 pm Reply with quote
I REMEMBER this show. I remember it because when I saw it I made a note to myself: "This is the single most boring anime I have ever seen in my life." Anime dazed ...That's pretty much all I recall. Apart from that guy having wings on his lapel that me and the other guys joked he should use to fly away from the show...that and the incredibly immature practice of turning everything the four main antagonists said into a sexual innuendo aimed at one another. Anime hyper Well, it passed the time!
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Otaking09



Joined: 24 Feb 2009
Posts: 637
PostPosted: Wed Aug 18, 2010 11:27 pm Reply with quote
Yeah, well enjoy it while it lasts.

The series showed HUGE signs of decline after spoiler[Lira's death].
After that, Fan's uniqueness sort of went with that, and next 8-10 eps felt like Romeo x Juliet's spoiler[mining episodes] except you had hope for an ending that would pay off. Which... it did.

And, considering that Tytania won't "end", I hardly blamed the anime, yet I couldn't give the series no higher than a 6.

But... yes, Tytania should be recognized as a "true" space opera. But... for those who want 100% satisfaction, look no further than Galactic Heroes.
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nightjuan



Joined: 22 Jan 2008
Posts: 1473
PostPosted: Wed Aug 18, 2010 11:32 pm Reply with quote
vashfanatic wrote:


I can only conclude after reading this, Theron, that you aren't familiar with Legend of the Galactic Heroes? Because that is a true space opera. This is the poor man's version of LotGH, which was by the same author only he actually bothered finishing it because it was good.


I would agree about Tytania being disappointing when compared to Legend of the Galactic Heroes, but it's not very fair to judge the original works just by their respective animated adaptations.

I remember that right here on ANN the director of both series, Noboru Ishiguro himself, admitted the following during last year's Otakon:

Quote:

One of the other challenges that the [Tytania] series has faced is that the novel series that the show is based upon hasn't been concluded yet. In response, the ending of the anime had to be carefully considered so it provides a bit of closure, but doesn't betray the character of the series. Ironically, after struggling with the adaptation, the production team later discovered that found out afterwards that Yoshiki Tanaka did not want to write something similar to his other work, so he initially set out to create something "impossible to animate."


The phrase "struggling with the adaptation" seems to suggest that more than the ending might have been altered or sacrificed when making the jump to the small screen. As for the rest...well, it more or less speaks for itself.

Having said that, I don't think it's unreasonable for someone who comes in without any previous expectations to find interesting bits and pieces in this show despite its failings or, say, the questionable design work.

But the proportional amount of focus spent on Fan was, at least in my opinion, something of a mistake when the Tytania clan itself was usually more interesting and less boring than Hyulick's side of the story as the narrative moved forward. I'm not sure if there was any other alternative, mind you, considering the tale remains unfinished.

Then again, LOGH was an extremely lengthy OVA and not a short TV series after all. Obviously the staff had to deal with greater constraints, budgetary and otherwise, this time around.
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penguintruth



Joined: 08 Dec 2004
Posts: 8503
Location: Penguinopolis
PostPosted: Wed Aug 18, 2010 11:56 pm Reply with quote
I still can't believe this crime against humanity was licensed. To think that the same writer as Legend of the Galactic Heroes and the same director as the OVA could make such garbage is almost as startling as Theron's egregiously generous review for this tripe.

How is this bad? Let me count the ways. The CGI is disgusting. Fan Hulick is the poor man's Yang Wenli, with the basic personality quirks but without any of his wit or wisdom. The Tytania family is far more interesting than he is and even they're underdeveloped. They come off as being more like the Zabi family. The supporting cast is miserably uninteresting. Long stretches of nothing happening at all, nothing that affects the big, or even smaller pictures.

It even wastes the voice talent that brought us boisterous Kamina in Gurren Lagann on that Yang wannabe. Even he couldn't bring this guy to life. Screw this character, screw his bubble gum, and screw this whole effing show. It was one of the most disappointing anime I've seen in my sixteen years of anime fandom.

If they wanted to license a show based on a Tanaka work, at least they should have given Ryoko's Case File a look. It's pretty decent.
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Dynamic A



Joined: 18 Feb 2008
Posts: 39
PostPosted: Thu Aug 19, 2010 12:27 am Reply with quote
It seems very odd that the reviewer did not mention Legend of the Galactic Heroes in any meaningful way in this piece. Tytania almost cannot be properly evaluated without mentioning the gargantuan series to which it so wanted to be a "spiritual sequel." It certainly owes much more to LoGH than Glass Fleet, which was mentioned as an inspiration.
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Ranma824



Joined: 17 Feb 2005
Posts: 456
PostPosted: Thu Aug 19, 2010 12:29 am Reply with quote
Honestly, all I remember is that there were too many pretty boys for me to stomach. (the same issue I had with Glass Fleet)
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beastofbloodgaara



Joined: 31 Dec 2005
Posts: 6
PostPosted: Thu Aug 19, 2010 1:18 am Reply with quote
I have to agree with everyone else on the boring part. I made it through 16 episodes back when it was being subbed before I couldnt take anymore. Nothing. Happened.

Honestly, the only reason I clicked the review was because I couldn't believe this was licensed.
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walw6pK4Alo



Joined: 12 Mar 2008
Posts: 9322
PostPosted: Thu Aug 19, 2010 2:51 am Reply with quote
Nana Toshi Monogatari, a two episode adaptation of another of Tanaka's works, is better than all of Tytania. Why the hell was that story never made in full? Even if we're just comparing adaptations and not the original sources, I think everything else of his might have been better. I've yet to see Ryoko's Case Files, but even the very slow Arslan seems like a better story.

And I'm starting to wonder if LoGH really is that unlicenseable these days. The number of people who have seen it, are watching it, or want to see it have has shot up tremendously in the last 2-3 years. Back when the pre-order and $2000 boxset plan was suggested, you simply didn't have the numbers of fans you do now.
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Aylinn



Joined: 18 Nov 2006
Posts: 1684
PostPosted: Thu Aug 19, 2010 3:05 am Reply with quote
penguintruth wrote:
I still can't believe this crime against humanity was licensed. To think that the same writer as Legend of the Galactic Heroes and the same director as the OVA could make such garbage is almost as startling as Theron's egregiously generous review for this tripe.

The anime seems to be a poor adaptation of the novel series. In the novels Fan Hulic doesn't have such a big role and Jouslain is the main character.

The differences between the anime and Tanaka‘s novels.

p-kun wrote:
1. The novel focused on Tytania and Jouslain, Hyulick was just a supporting character up to vol 3.

spoiler[Hyulick trigerred the chain of events that eventually caused Jouslain to oppose Tytania]

2. The silly "Lira rescue" arc didn't exist in the novel because Lira (and De Boar) was captured when assisting Hyulick escape from Emmental (around episode 4) and died then. That said the anime pretty much ruined De Boar character to make the silly Hyulick-Lira romance more plausible. Hyulick did kill Alses as revenge for Lira though.

3. The silly Estar and Chronos prison arc did not exist. And also the episode when Hyulick was emo in Casabianca. I think all the events post Alses death up are anime original up to the Radomorz v. Bal'ami scandal (this one is in the novel).

4. Much less Lydia in the novel. I think in the novel, Ajman didn't even pay attention to her, much less having that creepy obsession to her.

5. Episode 5 did not exist. Tyrandia issue went straight to Syracuse battle, without Jouslain attempting peaceful solution.

6. On the minor side, Radomorz was not much of an idiot asshole as he was portrayed in the anime
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vashfanatic



Joined: 16 Jun 2005
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Location: Back stateside
PostPosted: Thu Aug 19, 2010 7:20 am Reply with quote
nightjuan wrote:
I would agree about Tytania being disappointing when compared to Legend of the Galactic Heroes, but it's not very fair to judge the original works just by their respective animated adaptations.

Yeah, looking at the post above it would seem as though they changed more than just adding a gecko ending. The focus on Hyulick (or however you choose to spell it) sounds like an intentional attempt to capture some of the awesomeness of LotGH, only it failed.

walw6pK4Alo wrote:
And I'm starting to wonder if LoGH really is that unlicenseable these days. The number of people who have seen it, are watching it, or want to see it have has shot up tremendously in the last 2-3 years. Back when the pre-order and $2000 boxset plan was suggested, you simply didn't have the numbers of fans you do now.

Sure there are fans -- on the internet. In real life, among the average anime viewer? It's an 110 episode long series (not counting the gaidens) whose earliest episodes are over 20 years old and requires its viewers to follow protracted, intelligent conversations on politics, philosophy, history, and religion. It would sell to a very select group of die-hard fans. A bare-bones sub-only release might someday happen, but I'm pretty sure the entire market would have to improve first.

That said, I once would have said that Leiji Matsumoto's work would never be available and then it was up on crunchyroll. I don't know. All I do know is that Dragonball seems to be the only old series that actually does really well.
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Key
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Joined: 03 Nov 2003
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Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley)
PostPosted: Thu Aug 19, 2010 8:50 am Reply with quote
For sake of clarification: I have never seen any of LoGH, so this should be treated as a review of the series completely independent of the creator's other works.

I hadn't previously seen more than the first episode of this one, and distinctly remembered giving it only a 1.5 star rating when we did the Spring Preview Guide on it last year, so I was quite leery about watching a whole block of episodes. After seeing all of the first half, I wavered between a C+ and a B- rating for the writing (although it sounds like many of you would have graded it even lower. . .) but ultimately went for the higher grade because I liked the side characters and the way the writing handled showing both sides of the story about equally. I could certainly see many justifying only a C+ or even C grade there, though.
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Zipper



Joined: 11 Dec 2008
Posts: 133
PostPosted: Thu Aug 19, 2010 3:35 pm Reply with quote
This is the first review of this series I've seen where LOGH isn't mentioned once. Interesting.

Tytania was ultimately a pointless series. Based on an unfinished novel and only a fraction of it was animated. With no plans to continue the series, I don't understand why it was animated in the first place.

LOGH it is not.
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mufurc



Joined: 09 Jun 2003
Posts: 612
PostPosted: Thu Aug 19, 2010 4:56 pm Reply with quote
I'm pretty sad that Tytania turned out so bad and flopped because deep down I hoped that if it proved to be successful (relatively speaking, of course) it might have brought about a new, TV adaptation of Arslan senki/The Heroic Legend of Arslan... but no. Too bad. (Even though with Arslan they would have at least 7 volumes to work from, and it even has a sort of conclusion...)

vashfanatic wrote:
That said, I once would have said that Leiji Matsumoto's work would never be available and then it was up on crunchyroll.

Leiji Matsumoto is a different case, though. Matsumoto is regarded as a cult classic in English language anime fandom, and most people have at least heard of him. Tanaka Yoshiki? not so much, even many LoGH fans haven't heard of him. Plus LoGH lacks the instant "charm" of Matsumoto works, eg. the characteristic art style, etc. For most people it just looks hopelessly dated and boring. Which is sad but there you have it.

I wouldn't mind having an official sub version, though. I really, really appreciate Central Anime's hard work on the show, but there are a fair amount of annoying mistranslations (at least in the first season) and stylistic issues (I cringe every time I see a character from the Empire say "okay").
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