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Hey, Answerman! [2008-04-25]

Hey. It's not my fault that I'm a productive member of the outside world and you aren't.

Hey, I got a better idea: Send me $525 monthly for my rent and start buying me food. Then, maybe, your insults might sting a bit more.

I guess that's really my 'bigger issue' with anime; a lot of it builds fun, then makes dubious grabs at 'seriousness' that often feel ill-contrived and awfully adolescent, as well as unearned by previous story depth. There are certainly works that blend elements together successfully, but there's also a big portion that seem unsatisfied just giving the viewer a good time (be it comedy or pathos) and reach beyond their means. Some of it is Asian culture mixes screwball comedy with pathos at a pace/proportion jarring to Western viewers.

There's really no getting around this and it isn't only anime fans guilty of behaving this way; fans of everything are like this too. I can understand taking (extremely) mild offense when someone slams a movie or a band you really love, but it's important to remember, they're not insulting you (unless they are, in which case they're being douchebags), they're commenting on a media artifact.

Dorcas_Aurelia wrote:

DRWii wrote: louieatrest wrote: You know, Hamlet could have been a really great play if it wasn't for the ending. I mean you spend three hours getting to know the characters and then they all die, just as they were starting to understand each other. Its Shakespeare. Even if you do like his stuff, its kind of supposed to be a bummer at the end. I think that was sarcasm.

Yeah, that was definitely sarcasm. I'm believe he's satirizing the complaint against the Mahoromatic ending, though it could apply to FMA to a lesser degree as well.

HitorikiShadow wrote:

I really need to rewatch the anime, but I still don't remember Matthew even appearing in the anime. Maybe they did explain a little bit of how it happened. Still, my issue with the epilogue is more the portrayal of Suguru and the complete shaft of almost all of the side characters.

To deal with the first part of your point, it's easy to not completely understand what you're seeing in that final episode because spoiler[Mahoro looks like Matthew. In the manga Matthew explains that she was actually patterned off of the same person that Matthew was, while the anime gives more of the impression that Mahoro is an independent incarnation of Matthew. Thus, when it looks like Mahoro is appearing in the nude in that final episode, that's actually Matthew, and that's why Suguru's grandfather makes the comment at one point about how Mahoro has "the soul of SAINT." When she dies, she reintegrates with Matthew, who decides to split her off again and send her back to Suguru 20 years later.] Concerning your second point, see below.

[stuff I completely agree with removed]

And that's why the last episode of Something More Beautiful fits. Both series devoted so much behind-the-humor effort to setting up the tragic situation and Suguru's gradual acceptance of, and reliance on, Mahoro as a replacement for the family he's lost that spoiler[Suguru feeling deeply betrayed by Mahoro going away just as his parents did, despite Mahoro's tearful promise at the end of the first season] isn't at all inconsistent behavior or storytelling. That the story "gives the shaft" to some of the supporting cast (something partly corrected in the manga, incidentally) shouldn't be a big issue, either, since this series was always about Suguru and Mahoro anyway.

I guess that's really my 'bigger issue' with anime; a lot of it builds fun, then makes dubious grabs at 'seriousness' that often feel ill-contrived and awfully adolescent, as well as unearned by previous story depth. There are certainly works that blend elements together successfully, but there's also a big portion that seem unsatisfied just giving the viewer a good time (be it comedy or pathos) and reach beyond their means. Some of it is Asian culture mixes screwball comedy with pathos at a pace/proportion jarring to Western viewers. Or I'm just old, cranky, and like to complain, either works.

Okay, I gotta speak up here, cause there has to be someone here other than Key who will defend poor Mahoromatic.

How does bunch bunnies arrange in a circle like that. Its a very low probability event. I mean, they are not that kind buffalo or just sick bunnies?

Hey Zac, what are those figures that you have on your desk? It looks like Iron Man, Darth Vader, and I can't tell about the other two smaller ones.

Do you feel any real sense of community among your fellow fans?

I don't think it's a bad idea, the site's pretty basic in terms of info. Overall, I don't think most fans had any idea when digital distribution of fansubs started just what kind of thing it would evolve into. I guess fans were naive, explaining it away with "fans will support it when it's licensed", which is becoming less the case [and now naive in the "it's not hurting if I download" sense].

This is further complicated by when you google Save Our Anime, the first few hits are a YouTube channel to "save" anime from being removed on YouTube. You'd think they'd understand the people who create the anime itself are removing it, but then again some fans have really thick skulls. The crayons, they are dull.

Love the bunny picture. I love The Vision of Escaflowne, but the ending left something to be desired. We wait for 25 episodes for spoiler[Van and Hitomi to finally realize they love each other, and just as their about to kiss, the scren goes white. Oh and then Hitomi goes home].