Forum - View topicShelf Life - Counting Fairies
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chloes_fork
 Posts: 58 |
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"Testicle-minded." Heh. I'm going to have to remember that little descriptive gem.
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Joe Mello
 Posts: 2312 Location: Online Terminal |
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Yes! We're reviewing porn again! Good times. *Glomps sakechan*
Shelf Life is officially back to its old self (well, all the parts that were good, anyway). Yay. |
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.Sy
Posts: 1266 |
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Ever since I saw Gankutsuo's cover art, I wanted to see it. If there's one thing that catches my eye in an anime, its with visuals. I'm trying to get away from eye candy, but your review was quite positive, so I'll keep thinking about it.
As for Suisse La Bleue, what exactly is it? I like food, but I'm not really exposed to much. I love the pumpkin, Bamboo, the fox masks gave Kakurebo a lot of appeal. |
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red stranger
 Posts: 184 |
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Regarding the Bebop Remixes:
The DVD menus are different to the original full series release, but they are pretty much the same as the menus from the Best Sessions 2 disc set. So they are not really revamped. The remixes also have new extras material, which are not on the original releases. Though some of it is quite dodgy. Wendee Lee and some dude prattling on about the production company over "Ballad Of The Fallen Angels", is a pretty big let down. And there is no DVD insert or booklet, which is just cheap. EDIT: Also, if you are paying $30 bucks for these, you are paying too much... |
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Rion
 Posts: 71 Location: In My Own World |
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Gankutsuou is one anime that you can tell even from the cover that its going to be something creative and diffrent. I haven't seen it yet but now that the review was favorable i won't wait to check it out.
Did that other shelf worthy title have anything else going for it other then its cuteness? And i still wait for the day for a Hentei to make it in to shelf worthy lol. 
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Keonyn
 Subscriber Posts: 5567 Location: Coon Rapids, MN |
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I couldn't get into Gankutsuou, having always loved the original story and the 2002 movie with James Caviezel, Guy Pearce and Richard Harris. I just hate to see such a classic warped in such a way so found it impossible to get into and the art style tended to bother me as well.
One a somewhat related side note, one amusing thing I noticed regarding this title is how many praise this remake of something non-anime as an anime but when the roles are reversed how people love to flame anything non-anime that is remotely similar to or based off of anime. |
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PantsGoblin
Subscriber Encyclopedia Editor  Posts: 2969 Location: L.A. |
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Yay! Bottle fairy made the shelf. hmm, Cowboy Bebop remix didn't. Both were unexpected to me. Ugh, DearS is in the trash. I don't care I like it anyway.
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Chrno2
 Posts: 6172 Location: USA |
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Kind of funny that 'Cowboy Bebop' ends up on the "rental shelf". Considering how big it was way back when.
But yeah, we've seen the "booby" deal. Though I did enjoy 'Grenadier'. Yeah it might be somewhat 'T&A' but not quite. Surely, there are worse shows out there with the jiggle deal doing it badly. Last edited by Chrno2 on Mon Nov 07, 2005 3:39 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Tyrenol
Posts: 398 Location: Northern California |
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While it's good to see a review on hentai anime, I honestly think that Black Gate isn't a good title to start on.
I mean, sure. It has the same animation utilized in the Bible Black series. But this title is incomplete. Like other Milky Label titles (i.e. Widow, Dirty Thoughs, Dr. Shameless, and the unlicensed Maple Colors); the viewer is left with in unfilled sense of completion. And that's probably one of the reasons why people think so lowly of hentai anime today. Secondly, your expectations are too high. Of course a "hentai" title will have "plot holes." But Black Gate DID have a good plot going. Even if sex-sex-sex is included. I myself gave this title a good review for what it is as oppose to what it should've been; despite its faults. Normally bad / necessary English dubbing aside. 
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Zac
ANN Executive Editor
 Posts: 7912 Location: Anime News Network Technodrome |
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Great "review" buddy! Thanks for linking us to that! 
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Ataru
 Posts: 2327 Location: Missouri (Strikeman) |
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Shiki MSHTS
 Posts: 738 Location: NoVA |
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Cowboy Bebop is kinda where it belongs, regardless of the impact it had back in the day. It's kinda a recycle (flashy recycle none the less) for a series that near everyone's seen. It's a bit too early to touch up on the video either. Sigh.
That's some nice melon bread there. As far as horny teachers go, the woman from Mahoromatic was oh-so-innocent in comparison. You're kidding me, right? I always love your H reviews. Though I don't know the meaning of to "get a chubby". =/ |
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Chrno2
Posts: 6172 Location: USA |
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Hahaha, I guess your right on that note. Yeah, on DVD, VHS and 'Adult Swim?' I think? So it's like, "You can see that anywhere because they're running it in the ground. Well, I saw 'Cowboy Bebop' awhile back too. It's a good story but I'm not really into stories that strike up a huge fanbase. My tastes are of the most odd. I can pick something of the most importance or the least importance. Chances are they won't like what I like and can't understand why I like it. Things just appeal to me for entertainment. That's why I chose 'Samurai Champloo' not because it could strike a fanbase because it's different and it's not 'Cowboy Bebop'.
But I have yet to check out 'DearS', since I already got through 'Mahoromatic'. Homer: "Melon bread...ummmm melon bread..." |
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biliano
Posts: 956 Location: Cleveland, OH |
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Great to see Shelf Life back after a 3-week hiatus, and with a hentei review as well. Just three more to go before the milestone 100th edition, friends!
Outside of the obvious visual beauty, another aspect of Gankutsuou that caught my attention is the breathtakenly beautiful performances of the Japanese voice actors, more specifically, the masterful effort of Jouji Nakata. From what I've watched so far, he is capturing the essence of the Count perfectly - his unwavering strength of will, his boldness, and his intellect are all brilliantly displayed in his performance. I was immediately smittened by his performance. If you don't mind me asking, since I haven't yet watched Hellsing, what was Nakata-san's performace as Alucard like? I'm also going to have to listen to him in Elfen Lied when I re-watch the series in its native Japanese. I also feel that Bebop is in the right place, as is DearS. In the case of Bebop, I watched bits and pieces of the series on Adult Swim (mainly due to its late air time, I couldn't commit to watching it on a regular basis), and I was planning on obtaining the series to add to my growing collection. But when I read that Bandai was planning on remastering the series a la Evangelion, I decided to take the same route that I did with Evangelion and buy the remasterd version. As for DearS, well, I'm enjoying the series, but it's better portrayed in the manga version than in the anime, so I have no problems with it as a perishable. Ren and Miu are still charming enough for me to continue investing on it, but yes, the story (if there is one) is starting to deteriorate. BTW, back in August, I provided a link to a recipe for melonpan, so if you didn't see it originally, here's the recipe again. Nice to see the H-titles back in Shelf Life. Those reviews are always fun to read.
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Andromeda
Posts: 119 Location: Florida |
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Like Firefly, you mean? Idiotic Fox network decided to run ads mentioning the "girl in a box" (ironic, because that scene only appeared in the pilot they didn't even air until the end, and was NEVER mentioned again in the show, or even flashed back to during the show), and because the concept (and the scene in a visual sense, that is, with her in the fetal position on her side, naked with white glow and stuff around her, which I'm sure was pulling a Tarantino on us - intentional reference to another show in the same general genre) of having a girl in a box was remotely like the one in Outlaw Star, people called it an "Outlaw Star ripoff". I even saw someone on Jump The Shark declare every character to be ripped off of OS. Which is absolutely not true. Having been temporarily stored in a box aside, River Tam (aforementioned "girl in a box", a Cryo-box, to be exact) is NOTHING like Melfina, and neither is her backstory (River was a young and very human prodigy who was experimented on by the goverment and become SCHIZOPHRENIC, and swung between completely helpless and vulnerable, and being psychotic. Also, the person who had her in the box was her brother, who was trying to smuggle her away from the goverment who experimented on her). Additionally, there is no "Registered Companion" (read: high-class, highly-regarded futuristic geisha/sex therapist/escort/prostitute who is both legal and registered with the government) type figure on the Outlaw Star, as there is on Serenity, the Firefly-class ship of the series' title; and additionally, and the biggest differenence possibly, there are NO alien races in Firefly, only humans. OS had several alien species in it. I'm pretty sure Mal Reynold's backstory is quite different from Gene Starwind's, as well, seeing as Mal is a former Browncoat (fighter for independence during the Unification War, which as you can gather from the name, his side lost) and coincidentally, I recall Gene was a bit of a lech, which Mal really isn't. Oh, and the only "young genius" aboard Serenity (I recall there being a Young Genius archetype on board the OS, though feel free to correct me if I'm wrong) was the 20-something mechanic, who was a FORMER FARMGIRL, not what I remember from OS's version of the archetype (and that's what it is; young genius mechanic? How come nobody declares Bebop to be ripping off OS, what with having Ed? Or any number of other series with young geniuses who also work in mechanics? Because it's an archetype, that's why). I can't remember enough about OS to make any further comparisions, but having seen it a few years ago when it aired on TV and having seen Firefly more recently again on DVD I can safely assure you that virtually any simularities between them are a side effect of their genre of Space Western, NOT a delibrate ripoff. You'll notice even the idea of "scruffy but attractive folks with somewhat questionable morals wandering around together" is traditionally seen in the American Western genre and that the same crew archetype of "scruffy but attractive folks with somewhat questionable morals wandering around together" is used in Cowboy Bebop as well, not just OS. The only thing that might have been, and probably was, "taken" from OS by Firefly's directors/writers was ONE SCENE in one episode, and then it was ONLY the visuals that were copied, as the characters involved were very, very different. And I still think it was so damn obvious, that, being that it was airing at the same time and being that Joss Whedon DOES like his Asian influences, it was actually a visual homage. Oh, and the entire main plot of BOTH series was completely different. There is no "Galactic Layline" type thing in Firefly. There's only the crew running around doing jobs of varying legality, avoiding the Reavers (humans who went mad and became vicious cannibals), avoiding getting caught by the Alliance, and trying to figure out what the hell is wrong with River's brain (though that's mostly her brother doing that). There's no search for treasure, just stuff that happens to them. Wikipedia's English-language page on it describes the show quite well (although for a really good in-depth analysis of the role and status of a Companion, you'd have to take a look at a couple of the essays from the "Finding Serenity: Anti-heroes, Lost Shepherds and Space Hookers in Joss Whedon's Firefly" book. You can probably find it at Barnes & Noble - try there first if you only want to check out the Companion essays and maybe one or two others seeing as you can read it in the store - and definitely on Amazon; it's edited by Jane Espensen, one of the show's writers and also a former staff writer on a number of other shows such as Buffy, Angel and Tru Calling).
What's even weirder, though, is when people try to compare it to Cowboy Bebop, since Cowboy Bebop, aside from focusing on bounty hunters and not actual below-the-radar criminals, is a lot closer to riffing off of '70s cop shows and film noir than it is Westerns, although there are some archetypes and references to them in the show as well, including the word Cowboy being used as slang for bounty hunter. I even saw one online reviewer say "Cowboy Bebop is better because Firefly takes its Western elements seriously." Which makes no sense at all since the general tone and feel of the shows to begin with is different, the format is different, and of course, Whedon's whole aim in creating Firefly was to create a Futiristic Western, whereas Bebop... well, it's aim wasn't. That's also like saying a show or film that parodies film noir is better than Bebop because Bebop takes a lot of its film noir elements more seriously, or like saying that a show that parodies mecha drama is better than all of Gundam's series just because it "doesn't take itself seriously".  Although if you watch the series, Firefly doesn't always take itself seriously, either, so I honestly don't know what the reviewer was talking about.
Er, anyway. Sorry for the OT. But the dismissal of Firefly as an "Outlaw Star rippoff" when the people obviously hadn't even SEEN Firefly (as evidenced by one person back then who I distinctly recall as saying "Look at the ads! 'Girl in a box'!? That's so obviously an Outlaw Star ripoff!". Yes. Because there's no WAY it could have been an homage, or an act of simultaneous creation which does in fact happen more often than you'd think, is it. [/sarcasm])... it just annoys me, and ever since I was convinced out of giving Firefly a chance during its first run by some idiot who it turned out had never SEEN the show, because it was a supposed "ripoff" an anime I liked... well, let's just say that I've never trusted anyone who said anything sucked because it had anime origins or influences or was a "ripoff" of it. If you're going to do that, why not also complain about the treatment of European or American stories that get made into anime and changed all around, ala Count of Monte Cristo and Howl's Moving Castle (though I haven't seen either yet, so I can't verify how good or bad they are as adaptations or reimaginings)? It's so ridiculous, I agree. Anyway... back on topic. Great column, as usual! And you're right... that thing really DOES look like the Stargate! 
Funny no one but Bamboo seems to have commented on THAT obvious ripoff. Even looking at the DVD cover, the design is almost identical. And it goes "between worlds" too? Argh. I wasn't aware Stargate aired in Japan, though. Huh. Which makes me wonder though, though, on a side note, Bamboo, are you a Stargate fan too? Just wondering. I know Rebecca (Ms. Answerman) is... But anyway, fun column, as usual. I might actually check out the Monte Cristo reimagining. If I can like the Battlestar Galactica reimagining despite absolutely expecting to hate it (and this from a non-Galactica fan to begin with), I might be able to get into it. Maybe. We'll see... -Andromeda |
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