Forum - View topicShelf Life - Brotherhood of the Wandering Pants
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neocloud9
 Posts: 1178 Location: Atlanta, GA |
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I really enjoyed Black Blood Brothers, but I'll own up to having a major bias towards anime series that are based on light novels. Dunno why, but I really like that format-to-format transition, for some reason...
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garfield15
 Posts: 1534 |
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I really should just get off my ass and watch El Hazard already. This place recommends it to me often enough. I just keep getting confused with all the material that was released for it.
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Joe Mello
 Posts: 2311 Location: Online Terminal |
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That's it, I'm calling the fight. You win. 
I liked Tenchi Muyo, though. (At least the parts made before 1995.) And Jinnai made a bit of a cameo in one of the spin-offs, so...yeah. |
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Megiddo
 Posts: 8360 Location: IL |
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All you need to watch is the original El Hazard OVA series (El Hazard: The Magnificent World). Not Wanderers, Alternative, or El Hazard 2. Just the original OVA series. It's one of my favorite fantasy shows. Fujisawa is always hilarious and Jinnai in all his evilness can only be laughed at as well (and the English dub of Jinnai... oh man. That laugh...)
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Seca
 Posts: 149 Location: WA |
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This. I still can't get over the fact that to this day an OVA that was such a joy to watch has yet to get a sequel of any kind that comes anywhere near to being on par with it. |
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Zin5ki
 Posts: 6680 Location: London, UK |
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I notice Tim owns Animazing's dub-only You're Under Arrest OVA, along with the full TV series that subsumes those episodes in a more desirable dual-audio format. (I myself plan to buy only the first volume of said series, as a means of watching the OVAs subtitled.)
That said, I notice you have "double-dipped" several other series in addition to this, as ineloquent as such a term may be. The ef and Clannad R2 imports would have posed quite a problem, as regards their passage through the hungry hands of Customs. YesAsia or Otaku? |
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Charred Knight
 Posts: 3085 |
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I think Fullmetal Alchemist shows us how to make a series symbolic of the world we live in without creating plot holes or missing the mark something that a lot of series fail at. Instead of trying to take the real world and make it symbolic (something that is usually going to fail) she makes a fantasy world, and builds it around what she's trying to say. She also puts story first, and hopes that you get what she's trying to say which allows the plot to be continually moving without slowing down.
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thempstead
Posts: 1 |
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I picked up the YUA OVA release ~3 months before purchasing the first series, (prompted by enjoying the OVA). To be honest I'd forgotten the release was dub only as I normally just re-watch the first season sets, (and it's been over 3 years since I bought it). Ef and Clannad .... Customs were not to bad of an issue ... they came from Amazon JP so the issue was Fedex's inability to invoice properly which meant that the invoice had to be queried and corrected every time (once they'd actually managed to send it to me properly). Tim |
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Anime World Order
 Posts: 390 Location: Florida |
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Much like how I deliberately avoided Ranma 1/2 in favor of seeing Urusei Yatsura first back when I was a teenager because all the Ranma fans online were incredibly annoying, I skipped over Tenchi Muyo (except for the first movie) in favor of seeing the original El Hazard OAVs first. In both cases, I don't regret my decision one iota. What made El Hazard great was the combination of humor, action, actual plot progression (they're on a quest! The end goal of the quest is in plain sight, and they make tangible progress towards it!), and pretty sweet animation and music to boot...which is why The Wanderers TV series fell so flat for me.
As a TV series, Wanderers obviously doesn't have the animation budget the OAVs did. I'm fine with that. The fact that the original OAVs ended on a cliffhanger that wasn't followed up on (in lackluster fashion) for several years, yet this TV series was a remake anyway was something we grudgingly accepted as "well, I guess in Japan they're not so concerned with continuity compared to here..." But the final straw was that nothing of note really happens, and the characters aren't quite the same characters as they were originally. Some characters are removed entirely. Others like Nanami are still there, but have different powers. But most undergo personality shifts...or removals. Rune Venus was changed from a regal adult woman into a kind of goofy young girl...and a romantic lead. (The implications of THAT one are kind of messed up.) I needn't repeat all the problems, since Erin summed it up nicely. In effect, Wanderers (and all subsequent El Hazard thereafter) added entirely too much Tenchi Muyo in the El Hazard mix to the point where both series ended up being about some blank slate guy NOT having sex with all the hot ladies surrounding him that like him for...no particularly good reason. El Hazard was supposed to be primarily about lighthearted adventure in a "magnificent world" of Eastern-inspired fantasy, darn it! The only reason I watched whatever amount of the sequels I did was because of Fujisawa and Jinnai, who remain largely consistent. I will disagree with Erin's assessment of the El Hazard dub. I can probably count on one hand the number of anime titles for which given the choice, I'd probably listen to the English dub over the original Japanese audio. El Hazard is one of those titles, and a big part of that is because of how Fujisawa and Jinnai sound. The series itself may have flagged substantially over the years, but the performances of the relatively-intact dub cast from show to show were fun as always. And I'm still smarting from that Black Blood Brothers review you wrote in Otaku USA, Erin! Mainly because you noted how utterly average it was and ended with "this is a series Daryl would probably like"! What kind of monster do you think I am... |
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erinfinnegan
ANN Columnist
 Posts: 598 |
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Your comment made me suddenly realize the big difference between FMA and El Hazard. El Hazard is "magic land, where anything can happen" but FMA is a political version of the real world re-imagined. Two people in a room typically can't agree on politics, but even people with vastly different political views can agree that martial arts are pretty cool.
Come to think of it, Jinnai reminds me of you... Wasn't that one of the first reviews I wrote for the magazine? Clearly that comment was insane, and I can't remember writing that sentence, or exactly why I would've said something like that. I tend to forget things that I say and remember only what others tell me. Thinking back on it now I probably thought that because the show has a halfway decent ending and is somewhat consistent, you might've liked it. I think you used to complain about Gonzo more back then. Now that I have watched a lot more anime (for review purposes) I realize what a grievous insult that was. In retrospect, it's hilarious. |
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Ushio
Posts: 636 |
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[quote="Anime World Order"] The fact that the original OAVs ended on a cliffhanger that wasn't followed up on. quote]
The original 7 episode OAV did have an ending.spoiler[After Ifurita stopped the eye of god she was sent to earth where after waking up she sent Makoto and the others to El Hazard. Then leaving the school Makoto appears before her how is that not an ending.] |
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Anime World Order
Posts: 390 Location: Florida |
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It occurs to me that so far, each Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood set that FUNimation has released--well, it's only two so far--uses a different quote from me on the packaging. I stand by those quotes.
In 2010, with full knowledge of everything that has since transpired, yes the original ending to El Hazard is indeed as good an ending as we ever got. However, you must consider that at the time, and we're talking 15 years ago now, we had no freaking idea HOW that last sentence you put in the spoiler tags could have possibly come to pass. It just happens. In fact...I don't remember if they ever DID answer that one or not. We the viewer could only assume "oh, I guess they did a lot of stuff and it all worked out in the end after all..." "Cliffhanger" was a poor choice of words on my part, I'll give you that. That ending is not a "cliffhanger" the way "TO BE CONTINUED" would be. Rather, the ending to the original El Hazard is "ambiguous," or "open."
I...yeah, I guess I'm cool with that. In fact, I don't even think that's the first time anyone's said that! |
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Sea Lion
 Posts: 307 |
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I watched Fullmetal Alchemist hit-and-miss, but I've been more faithful with Brotherhood. I may be off-base here, but Brotherhood seems to do a lot less navel-gazing than FMA. It could have been my luck, but every time I turned on FMA, Ed and Al were on the island.
I like the addition of Lin and May. They both had some pretty sweet fights, and they keep the action rolling along. Also, I like how Lin spoiler[treats his bodyguards, whose names I can't recall at this moment, especially the female. He protects her after she sacrifices her arm to let them escape the homunculi. Very honorable of him.] |
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loka
 Posts: 373 Location: Pittsburgh, PA |
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Your FMA:Brotherhood review gives me the impression you haven't watched that much anime. Wow, it has symbolism. /golfclap. And yes, it does have stock characters.
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ArthurFrDent
 Posts: 466 |
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Heh, the actual real ending of El Haz was in the final end credits, which were just stills, but said everything.
That being said, I think I kinda bought this for completist purposes, I couldn't even get through a couple of eps. It's been a LONG time since that happened with something I actually bought. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I shoulda been thinking rationally about what would have to be removed from a show like the OVA to make them airable on TV, that should have told me everything. Oh well, if nozimi can break even, they will rescue something else worth watching. For the record Jinnai and Diva make a great pair of villians in the OVA's... I always wondered how much he like helping her repopulate the bugrom, assuming she didn't kill him in the deal. Yeah, Wanderers. Doesn't exist, really, it's supplemental information for the OVA's... or something. |
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