Forum - View topicShelf Life - The Abyss Stares Back
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wandering-dreamer
 Posts: 1733 |
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Agreeing with your assessment of Towa no Quon, it ended up being much better than I expected but in the end still needed some kind of "kick" to make it go from alright to great which it didn't quite achieve. And I REALLY agree on the superpowers bit, is there a bible out there that says "and any anime character who possesses supernatural abilities must choose from the abilities listed here"?
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Shenl742
Posts: 1525 |
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Re: replicants Erin
Dont' know if it was explained in the show butspoiler[Replicants are made using the same element used to read the score (7th fonons), this, coupled with the fact that there are now technically "two" exactly similar people that exist rather then one, pretty much creates a giant loophole that scrambles up prophecies. The villain's entire plan pretty much started with "hey, what if the 'Chosen One' suddenly became two"?] You're right though, it's pretty damn confusing, though I still love the game |
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zawa113
 Posts: 7358 |
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Both Broken Blade and Towano Quon look interesting me as they are 6-50ish minute movies. The set up rather reminds me of the ever excellent Giant Robo, but I'm not quite sold on either yet....and I hated Xam'd, comparing Towano Quon to it kinda makes me rethink seeing it. But I love the character designs so much! They almost look like a 70s shojo throwback! (thinking on the designs for They Were 11 or Toward the Terra)
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Veers
 Posts: 1197 Location: Texas |
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Is it bad when I can consistently look at the column's subtitle and know what one of the reviewed titles is as often than I can get whatever other reference it's making?
And yeah, it's been a while since I played Abyss or watched the show, but I do remember thinking how it would be really hard to enjoy that show without being a fan of the game. I played the game several times and feel like I have a had handle on the major plot points at the time, but Abyss sure does get confusing at times, and the show is very talky at times because the game is even more talky. The show does do some things really well, though, especially some scenes with Ion, spoiler[his death in particular was handled better in the show than in the game IIRC]. Last edited by Veers on Mon Jul 09, 2012 8:38 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Sailor S
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Awww, it's just not the same without Shelf Obsessed
 None of the titles were ones that I had any interest in prior, so it makes it tough to read through them too. Ah well, I am interested in seeing what you think of AnoHana though, so I got next week going for me!
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eyeresist
 Posts: 995 Location: a 320x240 resolution igloo (Sydney) |
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Yeah, I didn't like Xam'd. It was an uninvolving mess.
As I recall, the creepy old guys in Gasaraki were more realistic in that they tried to control the world, but in the end things went out of their control. |
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neocloud9
 Posts: 1178 Location: Atlanta, GA |
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Ooh, AnoHana next week... Loved that show!
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Forte-sama
Posts: 175 |
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I wanna know more about how the mosquitos acted so quickly! Did they have a plan of attack? 
Sorry, I couldn't help it. But I do agree. It does feel very short without a "Shelf Life" this week. |
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Zetabag
 Posts: 206 |
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Well its been awhile since I've seen the anime and even longer since I've played the game, so excuse me if what I say is complete nonsense. I seem to remember there being a missing part of the score though I don't remember if it was ever found. Also throughout the series, or at least the game, I think it was shown little by little that the score was not perfect, and the ending pretty much proved that the score could be wrong (since the world did not end). Anyway, one of my fears when this anime was announced was that the developers would have trouble telling the story in just 26 eps; considering that it took me awhile to make sense of a lot stuff in the game which spends more time on the details. |
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Animegomaniac
Posts: 4157 |
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I'm not getting anywhere with Towa no Quon as I've only made it through two episodes so far. I have no problem with the super powers/abilities, it's the body transformations with unlimited snapback that somehow comes with it I can't stand.
It was one of my problems Xam'd as well. What happened to the shows where people or aliens or boomers lose the human form for good when they reach the "ultimate transformation" or "final form"? Take Towa no Quon episode 2 for example; In it, there's a person who has the lame ability to listen to plants {Yeah, it's listening to them that matters; Anybody can talk to them. Also, it's as exciting as it sounds}. But, oh no, there's more as the final part of his ability is that spoiler[he turns into a giant monster plant human monster; It's kind of the best way to describe it as it's almost as stupid as having Godzilla fight a giant rose that was once a human {Godzilla vs Biollante, for the uninformed}.] How are they related? Well, you see, he could talk to plants because he had plant ... DNA ... implanted inside him during an experiment. No, he was bitten by a radioactive hydrangea. Or was it that his parents choked to death on a plate of broccoli which caused him to mutate? None of that, he's the last son of Edenia, the planet that was ruled by sentient perennials. Or something equally stupid; as Stan Lee proved long ago, it doesn't really matter where they came from as long as they make some sort of basic sense. This is where Towa fails tremendously. There are only four episodes left but they're long episodes. Ano Hana next week? I'm going to have fun with that wreck... |
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Merida
 Posts: 1946 |
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Towa no Quon very much reminded me of Terra e (the character design, the plot, the main character...) which i'm pretty fond of spoiler[well, minus the literal 'rocks fall, everyone dies' ending], so i enjoyed it quite a bit. It's certainly not perfect but i seem to have a soft spot for this kind of series ( i liked Xam'd a lot as well, btw).
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crosswithyou
 Posts: 2899 Location: California |
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I'm still waiting for my copy of Towanoquon to arrive in the mail but I've already watched all the episodes in theaters. The series may not be perfect but I still enjoyed it quite a lot. (Then again I'm also biased towards Kamiya Hiroshi, whose acting was superb, as always, in this. I got goosebumps whenever Quon screamed in pain, and that's quite often.)
I thought the series could have done without the second episode entirely and got along just well. That episode didn't seem to really link to any of the others and was more standalone imo. It seemed unnecessary and was definitely the weakest of the six. While I like Quon, he's also a bit too nice. That's what made the scene where spoiler[he transformed for the first time and went berserk, killing everyone in sight] more enjoyable though. The animation with the thick brushstrokes was a very nice touch as well. |
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Zhou-BR
Posts: 1461 |
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I didn't care for Towanoquon's second episode either, and I was surprised to see the usually reliable Hiroshi Ohnogi credited as its writer. That has to be the worst writing I've ever seen from him, although it's possible that he worked off a synopsis by the head writer or the director himself.
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Shenl742
Posts: 1525 |
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I'm watcing Towa No Quan (just started episode 6, but got side-tracked), and though I admit it's not bad, at the same time I'm kind of annoyed by how..."precious" it is.
I mean, despite all the violence Quan goes through at least once an episode (and the murders in episode 2, massacre flashback in the episode about his past, and few others), the show really gets overpowered by this whole retro-feeling of cloyness. "Dawww, lookit all the cute mutant children living in an amusment part where everyone is so friendly! And the little girl who talks to animals! And the girl who heals her super-nice grandma with her singing voice! And Quan is such an idealistic guy who loves flowers and wants to save everyone!" Whenever cyborgs aren't threatening children or people aren't going psychotic from flowers, everything's just being NICE!NICE!NICE! and NICE! I really don't consider myself to be a cynical guy , but the way it was all presented almost got to be too much for me at times. It IS almost lke Scryed, only infused with corn syrup |
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Echo_City
Posts: 1236 |
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I can't say that I share your frustration with transforming superheroes being able to revert back to normal an unlimited number of times. This is fairly established, Mystique from the X-Men and The Incredible Hulk do this all the time. Perhaps a childhood spent reading the animorphs also leads me to not have an issue with heroes transforming to and fro human form without issue. Speaking of the animorphs, did the Garden (as the characters referred to it) that the heroes hung out in remind anyone else of the similarly-named theme park that played a slightly similar role in the animorphs?
Yes, there is more, but you're excluding it. It's not just that he was a nutjob who could listen to plants, it seemed as though he could control the plants. The plant that drove the plot of the episode were revealed to be normal, mundane & innocuous on its own, the emo plant kid was what caused them to become more than that.
If you didn't have this problem with X-Men, you probably won't have it with Towanoquon, once you watch enough to get to the parts where the origin of the powers is explained. They'll say several times in the series that the powers and other mutations (like the inability of 10% of the Japanese population to consume alcohol) is due to genetic mutation. They'll throw a slight wrench in that during the last 2 episodes, unfortunately, but the basic X-men style origin of the powers still stands. I have to agree with the Shelf Life assessment of the powers though, they seem pretty rote. Darker than Black (the first one, the second one was a travesty) is the only anime series that I can think of where characters had superpowers which deviated from the Japanese superpower norm. Towanoquon wasn't the greatest thing ever, though my complaints are largely with the ending, where the "villain" makes a series of cliched gaffes that serve no purpose except to allow the outclassed "hero" to defeat him...and what they do to the "villain" after they defeat him was so disgustingly sadistic that it can only be described as being a "dick move". |
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