Forum - View topicThe masterpiece only you can see
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Monsieur Pink
Posts: 141 |
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Last edited by Monsieur Pink on Sun Nov 29, 2009 5:17 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Randall Miyashiro
 Posts: 2451 Location: A block away from Golden Gate Park |
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There are a few others who also really enjoy Speed Grapher since it ranks at a comfortable #503 between Galaxy Angel A and the Shana movie. I will repost what I said about the series after ANN reviewed the fourth volume:
There are others out there that also like this series. Reviews are reflection of individuals tastes and opinions of a series. Key's review is not any less valid than any other thought out review, it's just his opinions of a series that might or might not differ from yours. For all of you who want to find a "A" rating (which is better than what they gave Desert Punk, Gankutsuou, Naruto, Trinity or Basilisk) review you can check out scifi.com review of the series. From sciFi's review:
From AnimeonDVD:
Recently I've been increasingly annoyed with giant sweat drops and blinking sound effects. I'm looking for something mature, without feeling gratuitous. The adult situations in Speed Grapher seem to fit the plot naturally since the main villains power come from twisted fetishes. I remember watching Gantz for the first time (especially the scene with the dog and the girl) and thinking that many situations were written in for some juvenile chuckles. Speed Grapher seems to have less cloth dissolving chemicals and hot springs compared to many other so called mature shows. I will say that I was really bummed about the last episode in this volume, but otherwise I love the many ideas and themes in Speed Grapher. Saiga continues to be one of my favorite protagonist who is trapped with an ability that prevents him from doing the only thing in life he knows how to do. I love the fact that deep down there is a dark seed, which was planted during the war, that remains in him much like Kazama Shin's (Area 88) restlessness. This is also apparent by the fact that his girlfriend totes her gun in bed, while he uses his camera which is his equivalent to the soldier's sidearm. Saiga is one of those tragic people who has left the war, yet the war has not left him. I also love the tragedy that his "Are You Happy" photo which was taken for journalistic purposes is being exploited in a media campaign. I still see the Saiga and Kagura relationship as a platonic one, but I might be completely off on this one. You often here about maternal instincts, but there is also paternal instinct which kicks in with many of us older guys without kids. Sometimes you can be overprotective, but it is only natural when you see a young person go through the same mistakes that you went through. There is also a nolstagia connected to remembering when you were that age. Maybe their is something more to Saiga's relationship, but if so it is in addition to a paternal relationship. I find this as a nice change of pace from the overwhelming number of titles that revolve around "romantic" love. Maybe this is why I also am attracted to Jinki Extend. This is from Scifi's review:
I really enjoy the visual style for the series. The solid and flat look (which is best illustrated in the foldout) is a bold turn for Gonzo. The style is also at it's peak during the OP credits. The style reminds me of the neat art in Soultaker and Requiem for the Darkness. I know I've seen many people pan Soultaker for it's artstyle as well. I love how Gonzo can have shows like Gankutsuou and Speed Grapher along with more traditional Basilisk and Trinity Blood. |
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JacobC
ANN Contributor
 Posts: 3728 Location: SoCal |
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Mmm. I'm mainstreamish. Most of what I think is awesome, everyone thinks is awesome.
I've said this before and I'll say it again, though. The third season of Digimon, aka Digimon Tamers, is far and away better than any other kids' show I've ever seen. Sadly, most Digimon-lovers left the franchise after the first two seasons when their favorite characters disappeared. I guess that's understandable. The third season takes those characters and only refers to them as "characters in that TV show." I thought that was really clever, and on story merits alone, Tamers continues to be engaging. Yeah, it's a fight show. It's going to be slow and repetitive...at first. Then it changes gears and we don't have a "fight of the week" show anymore. The characters have great development, and inspiration for the final villain was taken from concepts from Neon Genesis Evangelion (without ripping it off.) How cool is that? The most refreshing aspect of the show, however, is its focus on the adults of the story. They don't pull a "Harry Potter" and make 99% of adults useless and stupid. All of the parent characters are at least introduced, and often pretty important, as well as being realistically portrayed. (How would you like your kid running off to another dimension to fight evil with nothing but a weird little monster protecting him? The result is pretty funny.) But not even the parents. This season focused on the "reality" of where Digimon come from, what the Digital World is, so much that it ceased to be fantasy at all and ended up being well-constructed science fiction. A team of researchers, adults, crucial to the story, control the digital plane and talk about activity there and define the Digimon as different kinds of data, etc. It's really explained in more detail, accurate detail if you look at the director's notes on his website, which I did, and it makes you believe, if only for a moment, that networks and the world wide web are like a fantasy world in many ways. That final villain I mentioned earlier starts out as a basic cleanup program like the desktop tidiers on your computer. But of course, something bad happens, and the D-Reaper is a pretty scary villain by series' end. Especially in how they use it in conjunction with two cute, innocent characters from the show. That was a twist so eerie it made me jump. At twelve years old. Yes, I'm talking about Digimon here. You have to see it to understand. Actually, my sister's watching it right now...yay. Some of my anime tastes have carried over into the next generation. |
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Levitz9
 Posts: 1022 Location: Puerto Rico |
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Shingetsutan Tsukihime: Granted, this show isn't a masterpiece, by any means, but the atmosphere and characters are endearing enough. Yet most of the people I meet can't stand it because there's too much talky-talky and not enough punchy-shooty.
Yet spoiler[you have Shiki tearing Arcueid into 17 pieces in the first episode]. Sure, not every episode has a balls-to-the-wall fight, but I still found it fun....moreso than Maburaho. Eatman and Eatman '98: Because not enough people have seen it. 
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AceRyonik
 Posts: 145 |
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When I was in High School, I was the only one of my friends that actually LIKED Evangelion, and we would have endless arguments over it. And I'm not one of those people that try to convince people how deep it is. They would say, "Did you even SEE the movie? It didn't make any sense!" and I would respond, "You shut your mouth! It didn't have to make sense! It was [expletive] AWESOME!"
I think the same thing goes for FLCL, but that time I actually did feel the need to explain things, because I was the only one who seemed to understand what the plot was actually about. I think the biggest one, though, is Gokudo. I think I'm the only person in the world who's actually seen it, and despite the arc where they spoiler[all switch bodies] which just drags on and on and on and on, it's pretty awesome. I think it's hilarious, having a main character that never, not ONCE, displays any sort of redeemable qualities and sells the souls of innocent people to the devil in exchange for a key. |
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CloverKuroba
 Posts: 506 |
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I agree. I think Digimon Tamers sets itself apart from the franchise. Chiaki J. Konaka's (Lain, Ghost Hound) influence might've helped.  It's unfortunate that many people drop Digimon after the first two seasons, because IMO, this is the darkest and best of them all. It really delves into the characters' psychology and they feel a lot more realistic because of it. The character development is awesome.
Plus, the world they live in as well as the digital world, is much more bleak. The digital world is more like a desert than the whimsical place it was in previous seasons. When digimon "die", they don't come back. It's almost like a big competition of getting the most data than battling evil for the sake of good. Also, I like the more intricate story of how digimon were created. And the D-Reaper gives me the creeps. That whole arc was pretty chilling. lol |
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JacobC
ANN Contributor
Posts: 3728 Location: SoCal |
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That is actually my biggest complaint against it: It's too DARK. It is supposed to be a kids' show, right? If it weren't for the last ten seconds of the last episode, the ending would be a HUGE downer, (if not a fitting one.) I loved how the Digimon were envisioned as these gluttonous programs that only knew how to do one thing: Fight, hunt, kill, absorb enemy, get stronger, rinse, repeat. Impmon's arc was especially potent in this. Of course, when they come across human influence, they change, if not very slowly. And the digital world was ingenious. I love how they visualized "layers of encryption," sending and receiving of data, and what happens to packets when they're deleted. It was fun. Okay, it was fun until that one arc with spoiler[Beelzemon killing Leomon and scarring me for life at eleven], but all the same, I can still look back on this show at seventeen (I haven't seen it in three years, but I watched with my sister a few days ago,) and enjoy it. Yay, Konaka. Thanks for treating a kids' show with respect. |
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ANBUx3
 Posts: 187 |
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I must also agree that Digimon Tamers was excellently developed. I really liked the idea of Yamaki and the Hypnos, who worked from the real life Tokyo Metropolitan building, monitoring Digimon entry into the world.
Frontier was a huge letdown after Tamers. |
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JacobC
ANN Contributor
Posts: 3728 Location: SoCal |
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Yeah. It was. Nothing special about that followup. But it had Crispin Freeman. And I liked the Digimon forms at least. So I watched it anyway. 
I tried to watch season 5, Digimon Savers, but I cooooould nooooot do it. My sister even thought it was bad, so you know it must be abysmal. It looked like frickin' Yu-Gi-Oh! GX... |
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thepope
Posts: 13 |
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I would say Eureka Seven (ya I love this anime. It's pretty much all I've posted about this week) but I would probably find someone who also thinks the same.
The only one I can think of is not necessarily an anime but it did have some art scenes. Anyone remember Beetleborgs? Ya...that show was awesome. |
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abynormal
 Posts: 427 Location: Louisiana |
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[quote="JesuOtaku"]
Do you know why that is? Because the main character isn't wearing goggles! How can you have Digimon without a goggle boy?! IRT: I would have to offer food or something to get my friends to watch Nodame Cantabile. I'm pretty sure their first thought after I tell them the premise is something like, "a show about music students? What's so interesting about that?" It's hard to convince people to try something new when they think the only interesting professions are doctors, lawyers, and police officers... Also, there is no way in hades I could get them to watch Princess Tutu. I mean, just getting them past the ballet premise is a feat of strength in itself! |
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Keonyn
 Subscriber Posts: 5567 Location: Coon Rapids, MN |
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*raises his hand* I know what you mean though, people seem particularly harsh towards E7 or it is just generally seen as an average show. I don't think it delivered what people were expecting, given that the mecha portion wasn't that significant but rather the romance and drama of the main plot was the focus, not so much the mecha. Aside from that I would say probably Figure 17. I found the show to be so well done and detailed with a very interesting and touching story, despite the generic sound of it when you read the synopsis. The issue seems to be not so much that I can't find people that agree, but rather I can't find anyone who has even seen it, heh. I do tend to usually fall in the minority when it comes to series I find to be top notch. I don't really fall in with the mainstream crowd in regards to my preferences most of the time, but I often agree with others who enjoy the more artsy series like Haibane Renmei and Kino's Journey and the like. So I can still usually find others who agree with my viewpoint on most of my masterpiece or excellent ratings. |
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Veoryn87
 Posts: 808 |
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I kinda know how you feel. While I can't think of any anime or this topic (my top 5 are considered great by a large number of people), I sure do seem to be one of the few people who likes Western RPGs more than JRPGs at other forums I go to. |
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kakitamike
 Posts: 183 Location: Akron, OH |
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Elemental Gelade ranks as probably my favorite series to date, but outside of some friends that I introduced it to, I've never heard it mentioned by anyone, even to say they didn't like it.
It's always had the perfect blend of animation style, enjoyable characters, good cut scene music, and a great opening theme. And it wasn't a harem show or save the world from destruction show,etc. The only thing I'd fault it for was too many re-used transformation sequences i the first 5 episodes. |
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daxomni
 Posts: 2650 Location: Somewhere else. |
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I've always considered Photon: The Idiot Adventures to be a poorly received masterpiece. I only saw it thanks to a friend who picked it up out of the blue. I liked almost everything about that short series. Honestly. And the way it came together toward the end was just incredibly entertaining for me. Most anime series seem to have pathetic poorly conceived endings, if they have any ending at all, but Photon seemed well thought-out from the get go. It starts slow, and there is some repetition of themes, but the characters and the plot just really matched up well with my anime watching needs.
Another series I enjoyed but which I've never heard anybody complement was Trouble Chocolate. In fact I don't think I've ever heard anybody say anything about that series at all. It's almost like it never existed. I don't know why I liked it, the plot was stupid and lame but something about it struck me just right. It's not a masterpiece but it was fun and enjoyable for me nonetheless. |
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