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Shelf Life - Grimoire of Zero


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MarshalBanana



Joined: 31 Aug 2014
Posts: 5523
PostPosted: Mon Jun 25, 2018 12:34 pm Reply with quote
I wouldn't say KonoSuba has "plastic colours", they are bright, but they look more like paint than plastic.Discotek sure is on a roll with all these releases. i hope one day to see them re-release Burn Up!, I think only the first one is currently licensed.
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Merxamers



Joined: 09 Dec 2013
Posts: 720
PostPosted: Mon Jun 25, 2018 12:53 pm Reply with quote
I enjoyed Grimoire of Zero fine; not a standout, like the reviewer writes, but perfectly passable.

I don't remember Tanya the Evil having the kind of grossness the reviewer mentions, maybe i'm not remembering something?
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ThatGuyWhoLikesThings



Joined: 04 Jul 2013
Posts: 1037
PostPosted: Mon Jun 25, 2018 1:13 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
escapist fantasy entertainment keeps going out of its way to fetishize slave ownership and similar grossness


Quote:
Saga of Tanya The Evil


H-Have you even watched Tanya? GATE and especially Death March are another story, but Tanya doesn't really have anything of what you describe.
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Angel M Cazares



Joined: 23 Sep 2010
Posts: 5513
Location: Iscandar
PostPosted: Mon Jun 25, 2018 1:21 pm Reply with quote
Grimoire of Zero is decent fantasy show with a likable main trio. I watched the 2 dubbed episodes on HIDIVE, and it sounds good so far.

Merxamers wrote:
I don't remember Tanya the Evil having the kind of grossness the reviewer mentions, maybe i'm not remembering something?

I never watched the show, but doesn't it fetichize Nazis?
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MarshalBanana



Joined: 31 Aug 2014
Posts: 5523
PostPosted: Mon Jun 25, 2018 1:34 pm Reply with quote
angelmcazares wrote:
I never watched the show, but doesn't it fetichize Nazis?
I've never watched it either, what I do know is that it is set during WWI, which was before the Nazi party was conceived.
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ThatGuyWhoLikesThings



Joined: 04 Jul 2013
Posts: 1037
PostPosted: Mon Jun 25, 2018 1:54 pm Reply with quote
angelmcazares wrote:
I never watched the show, but doesn't it fetichize Nazis?


Anyone who's watched more than one episode can say for a fact that, no, it doesn't. Anyone who says otherwise either hasn't watched it or completely misunderstood the show. Hell, read the novel and you can pretty easily tell that the author leans left.
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Merxamers



Joined: 09 Dec 2013
Posts: 720
PostPosted: Mon Jun 25, 2018 2:02 pm Reply with quote
angelmcazares wrote:

I never watched the show, but doesn't it fetichize Nazis?


The first episode makes it seem that way, and that's what the season premier reviewers latched onto at the time, but the show as a whole condemns war and never once portrays the main character or the government of her new country in a favorable or positive light.

I think the author was making a point, by having a modern-day sociopath businessman fit in so well in a militaristic fascist state in a constant state of war. The anime has a lot of themes going on, but it does not glorify nazism, war, or fascism.

I just didn't remember there being any squickiness regarding slavery, the lead characters child body, etc., in the anime.
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Animegomaniac



Joined: 16 Feb 2012
Posts: 4161
PostPosted: Mon Jun 25, 2018 2:08 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
fetishize slave ownership and similar grossness (looking at you GATE


I don't understand how the reviewer could mistake "fetishize" for "denigrate" in regards to GATE. The main perpetrator slavery gets a huge sign of "This guy is really really horrible! We mean it!" right from his first scene.... which is Zorzal spoiler[raping his slave bunnygirl Thule right in front of his brother.] For character introduction scenes, I'd say it's right up there with introducing Magical Lyrical Nanaho's relationship between Fate and her mother. You get everything you need to know... and how much you need to dislike them.. in order for the plot to advance from that first scene. Kobayashi's later treatment of the guy is just icing on the cake.

In other words, it's gross and that's the point. Was the reviewer referring to the fact that Thule and Noriko were sex slaves? For the things this series did fetishize... violent goth loli anyone? Too bad, you get one anyway... I wouldn't say sex slave was one of them; Everyone was horrified by Zorzal's treatment of Thule as she was not human but a furry... oh...

Grimoire of Zero... oh... kay....
The series reminded me of Slayers crossed with MAOYU, I didn't even think of Mercenary as a furry. The series goes out of its way to claim he can be turned into a human so... yeah...
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G S Palmer



Joined: 02 Oct 2015
Posts: 246
PostPosted: Mon Jun 25, 2018 8:50 pm Reply with quote
Hmm, I never watched this show cause I was on anime-hiatus when it came out, but I might go back and give it a chance if I have a moment.

The review wrote:
escapist fantasy entertainment keeps going out of its way to fetishize slave ownership and similar grossness (looking at you GATE, The Saga of Tanya the Evil, Death March in a Parallel World… the list goes on).

Hey, don't diss Tanya! It doesn't have any of that stuff, which you would know if you had watched it (I'm assuming you dropped it after the premiere). Gate's not that bad either, but isn't great. But I will agree that Death March was a dumpster fire.
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Key
Moderator


Joined: 03 Nov 2003
Posts: 18496
Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley)
PostPosted: Tue Jun 26, 2018 12:21 am Reply with quote
Animegomaniac wrote:
In other words, it's gross and that's the point. Was the reviewer referring to the fact that Thule and Noriko were sex slaves? For the things this series did fetishize... violent goth loli anyone? Too bad, you get one anyway... I wouldn't say sex slave was one of them; Everyone was horrified by Zorzal's treatment of Thule as she was not human but a furry... oh...

She could also be referring to one other certain character who ends up dressed as a slave at one point. (Won't mention the name because it's spoilerish, but you'll know who I mean if you've seen the whole series.) Certain shots of her dressed that way were unmistakably lurid, but she was one of the most frequent fan service targets at other times, too.
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7PhoenixAshes



Joined: 29 Oct 2008
Posts: 99
PostPosted: Tue Jun 26, 2018 12:30 am Reply with quote
I actually quite liked Grimoire of Zero. The banter between Mercenary and Zero was especially enjoyable echoed that of Spice and Wolf's Lawrence and Holo.

Also, Mercenary. Not normally one for furries but....well...adorable, buff tiger-men should really, really be a thing.
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levonr



Joined: 19 Nov 2003
Posts: 820
PostPosted: Tue Jun 26, 2018 9:34 am Reply with quote
Quote:
it's funny that Zero and Albus were mistaken for Mercenary's concubine-slaves?


I thought it was funny...sue me. Laughing
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zztop



Joined: 28 Aug 2014
Posts: 650
PostPosted: Tue Jun 26, 2018 11:34 am Reply with quote
Grimoire's anime only covered the 1st volume of its source light novel.
The 11th LN, which debuted in Dec 2017, appears to be the last of the series.
Most of the LNs are written as fairly episodic adventures, where 1 volume - story of the week.

Its author stated it was not easy to sell the concept of a beastman MC to his publishers; he claims it was only after much wrangling with them that they finally approved it. For a while it seemed he would have been forced to use a normal human MC per editorial request.
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belvadeer





PostPosted: Tue Jun 26, 2018 1:28 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
While Mercenary normally hates witches (they're widely blamed for making people be born furries – just like in real life) he agrees to her deal, and they set off.


It would be nice if somebody could review anything with anthropomorphic characters in it and actually not use the word furry or furries. It seems to be a kneejerk reaction to anything that's an animal that wears clothes, stands bipedally, and speaks intelligently. XD

However! I can forgive Gabriella for that, because of these lines:

Quote:
Tiger tiger, abs so tight / crop-top short, skin-fur white…


Quote:
I'll take a kitty-daddy over a brown-haired high school boy any day of the week, thank you very much.


I must say, she and I are certainly of similar opinions when it comes to tigermen. ; )

zztop wrote:
Grimoire's anime only covered the 1st volume of its source light novel.
The 11th LN, which debuted in Dec 2017, appears to be the last of the series.
Most of the LNs are written as fairly episodic adventures, where 1 volume - story of the week.

Its author stated it was not easy to sell the concept of a beastman MC to his publishers; he claims it was only after much wrangling with them that they finally approved it. For a while it seemed he would have been forced to use a normal human MC per editorial request.


Japan seems to be rather anti-beastman with a lot of their anime and game productions these days. "Kemono" characters are only ever allowed to be supporting characters, not protagonists, which seems rather stupid, and they tend to get killed off after a while. Human protagonists have gotten incredibly stale and boring after so many decades of them, so a change to someone nonhuman would make it more interesting (too bad they never see it that way). The only type of beastman character that always gets a free pass in this case is, naturally, the catgirl.
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Merxamers



Joined: 09 Dec 2013
Posts: 720
PostPosted: Tue Jun 26, 2018 2:36 pm Reply with quote
belvadeer wrote:
Human protagonists have gotten incredibly stale and boring after so many decades of them, so a change to someone nonhuman would make it more interesting (too bad they never see it that way).


As Overlord Season 2 has shown, lizard-men protagonists are where it's at
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