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Buried Treasure - Genocyber

I have to admit to liking the first Genocyber episode just a bit but, beyond that, the series was just too messed up for my tastes...especially the last episode where the poor blind pregnant girl gets killed along with all the little kids that she was with. Just way too messed up of a show. I hate it when things involve killing kids or innocents...to me it's really unnecessary to do things like that and Kouichi Ohata at times seems to revel in doing things like that. M.D. Geist part 1 was great. Part 2 was terrible and disgusting. The over-the-top violence is not an issue as long as it isn't against kids or women. Might sound a bit hypocritical of me but, I guess that just the way I feel about it.

This may not find a ton of support, but in terms of distasteful (where it wasn't the stated purpose) anime I've always thought 'Now and Then, Here and There' to be awfully overrated and sleazy. 'Lets Rape Children' should have been the title. I know it's labeled a meditation on the suffering in war, but taken at the micro level the fantasy world had way too many logical holes and the adult characters are too one-dimensional (ala Elfen Lied) to take anything literally from it. And on the macro scale does anyone need to see a kid raped/beaten for the umpteenth time to get the general point conflict carries suffering? I just had numerous times in viewing that show where I felt the background (war is bad!) was an over-blown excuse for some pretty nasty exploitive material.

Wow, you will absolutely not find any support from me on that one. I consider NTHT one of the best anime ever made. It was inspired by the child soldiers of Rwanda, and calling Abelia one dimensional is a clear indication you really haven't thought much about her motivations. She's one of the most complicated characters I can remember.

You may find watching violence distasteful, especially when children are involved, but that doesn't mean there isn't meaning behind it.

In a way it was almost like 'tragedy porn.'

LeoKnight25 wrote:

I have to admit to liking the first Genocyber episode just a bit but, beyond that, the series was just too messed up for my tastes...especially the last episode where the poor blind pregnant girl gets killed along with all the little kids that she was with. Just way too messed up of a show. I hate it when things involve killing kids or innocents...to me it's really unnecessary to do things like that and Kouichi Ohata at times seems to revel in doing things like that. M.D. Geist part 1 was great. Part 2 was terrible and disgusting. The over-the-top violence is not an issue as long as it isn't against kids or women. Might sound a bit hypocritical of me but, I guess that just the way I feel about it.

So as long as the person having their intestines ripped out their throat has a beard and a penis it's better? I don't advocate violence against kids or women but acting like violence against men is less of a travesty or to pretend that kids and women don't get killed just as brutally in the situations that cause brutal violence (usually war or psychotic revenge warpaths by superbeings) is just retardedly hypocritical.

If anything, I think it should be shown more often but more tastefully. It's easy to exploit the shock value of it in things like Genocyber when everyone thinks like you do but it can be used dramatically as well.

And no, I'm not calling you out and being a dick to you intentionally. It's just that that mindset of "Only grown men deal in realistic violence" bothers the hell out of me.


Genocyber does seem disgusting though. I don't care about excessive violence (Eden and Vagabond are my two favourite manga) but if it's just a mid 90's gore-fest then I'll pass.

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Wow, you will absolutely not find any support from me on that one. I consider NTHT one of the best anime ever made. It was inspired by the child soldiers of Rwanda, and calling Abelia one dimensional is a clear indication you really haven't thought much about her motivations. She's one of the most complicated characters I can remember. You may find watching violence distasteful, especially when children are involved, but that doesn't mean there isn't meaning behind it.

It's not that I find the use of violence (in general) distasteful, it's that I didn't find much of substance in the story's framework/background to give weight to the violence beyond it's initial impact, and most of the time the acts shown felt much more emotionally manipulative then born of something of a higher storytelling caliber.

The story of the children soldiers of Rwanda (or in any conflict) are tales of complex geo-political backgrounds woven into a greater story of conflict and loss. In NTHT most all adult characters are simplistically evil/crude, often showing greater emotional traits only when the script calls for it, rather than a constant part of the story. The world pictured is so simplistically cruel, and it's leaders so over-the-top insane it's hard to pick many believable threads out of it. While watching NTHT it wasn't the violence itself that was disturbing to me, it's the fact that no particular growth was coming out of it. Show evil society, show kids being beaten/raped, rinse, repeat.

NTHT conveyed emotional weight, but for me it was a manipulative weight, and I left the series feeling no particular great insight was offered on the realities on children caught in conflict other than 'Boy, it stinks to be a kid caught in conflict.' In a way it was almost like 'tragedy porn.'

As I said I didn't expect much support on it, as NTHT has always been that 'one proverbial show that most everyone liked but you' for me. I can see the merits which people respect it for, but it always felt too heavy-handed and manipulative to me.

Elfen Lied is a good example because it is a harem, and as we all know harems are aimed squarely at males.

Besides that, the ED (Fairydreaming) is really awesome. It gave me goosebumps when I first heard it and I still listen to it at least every week. Back in the pre-Internet days I even ripped the sound out of the VHS tape which I'd bought.

However, I don't believe the issue of violence against women and children is a black and white one. It is usually used with the worst of intentions or taste, but sometimes it can be used effectively to create disdain for a character where violence against a full grown male would be far less effective. It can be used on younger characters to further develop and strengthen them through the course of a show. Shock and exploitation violence are extrememly distasteful though and you have every right now to want to see them in anime. I don't care as much, I don't believe children to be innocent, but that is my personal outlook and I understand it is a flawed one. But one should still acknowledge that it has a reason for existence in pretty much every medium of entertainment out there in some way or another.

Lord Kefka wrote:

How is this a buried treasure? It's like the equivalent of saying Ninja Resurrection is a buried treasure. Epic failure.

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Don't confuse a "buried treasure" with something that just isn't known. And don't pass off Anime more recently such as Gantz and Elfen Lied as "buried treasure". You already sound like a noob with the Genocyber article. Don't dig your grave by mentioning recent things like Elfen Lied and Gantz.

O, Great paragon of all that is proper, please enlighten me! For clearly I have err'ed in my approach to my profession, nay, life in general, by having ignored the basic tennant of righteousness: I have failed in my quest to accurately predict and serve, without exception, the tastes and whims of one lone annoymous knave in an internet forum. O, woe is me! Clearly, my name need be stricken from me, for I shall henceforth bear the name of "noob"!

britannicamoore wrote:

I can say i've seen this. At the age of 9. Unfortuntly it came after i'd seen Kimera and Grave of the Fireflies...so by then the damage was already done.

I don't think there's a problem with kids watching Grave of the Fireflies, but Kimera?! I have a problem with PEOPLE having to watch that! (Who did this to you!?)