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Forum - View topicBuried Treasure - Alien Nine
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504NOSON2
 Subscriber Posts: 647 Location: Body:Santa Barbara, CA ~ Heart:New Orleans, LA |
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I'm planning on purchasing every single thing in the Buried treasure archive pretty soon. With sites like ebay, it should set me back maybe 100 big ones--not to mention most of these are old as sharks and people who have them just want to get rid of them. Fools.
 I think I'll start with Alien Nine. I actually saw this in Best Buy a couple years back.
So, Justin, are you working on the new "obscure-o-meter"? |
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Essedus
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There always been ONE thing bugging about this anime/manga. Why the hell do they use six graders to fight aliens? The only answer I ever got was "so they can be not-so-nice-people". Why not use someone trained to fight? Do the borgs only work with little girls? And if you have to use six graders, then why would you treat them like shit? They save your ass on a daily basis, why would you do ANYTHING to make that job harder? And for that matter, if Yuri does not want to fight, why does she? What possible penalty could she get that would be worse then fighting the aliens? I know I'm nitpicking, but I can't enjoy a show unless it makes some sort of sense. The Eva units only worked with 14 year old because of the Second Impact (well, actually because of the link between the pilot and the Eva's soul). OK, I can accept that. it makes sense, but this?
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Iron Chef
 Posts: 487 Location: Seattle, WA |
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One of my fave shows ever, and I was totally bummed to see it only out as an OAV. The added manga to the boxset keeps the story going for a bit longer (and increases the weirdness quotient exponentially), but I still wound up wanting more. Great closing theme song, plus I still use the eyecatch jingle for my SMS alert on my cell phone.
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Hunter Sopko
 Posts: 259 |
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You haven't tested the limits of your patience as an anime fan and a person until you've worked a booth with the Alien Nine trailer (featuring the opening song) looping over and over again for three days straight.
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configspace
Posts: 3717 |
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It didn't end with the the three manga volumes that came with the special edition, but I thought it did really end with Alien Nine Emulators?
And I don't think the pricing will remain low. I got mine on clearance, but I suspect that after most stores get rid of their CPM stock, the prices are going to shoot way up. I predict most unrescued titles from all companies will be like this such as Shadow Star Narutaru and Koi Kaze. Utena Black Rose Saga is currently selling for $200 new in amazon's marketplace and $135 used. That's $200 for 11 episodes! I'm currently looking all over for a new copy of the (supposedly final) Alien Nine Emulators manga, but there appears to be none left and "very good" used condition is going for $55 at amazon!  There are some on ebay for much less but I'm kinda weary of used print media in general.
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PingSoni
Subscriber Posts: 195 Location: Lansing MI |
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Alien Nine has a special place in my heart as the first anime I ever purchased, after reading the manga. Recently, before it became unavailable, I added to my collection the Japanese-release box with the special DVD that featured the three main voice actors. It's a story with many levels and much complexity. I wish it had been able to be continued!
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PetrifiedJello
Posts: 3782 |
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Well, add this series to my wish list. Sounds like something right up my alley. I'm always open to the odd series, if anything to shake up the standard format of most.
Much nicer way of putting it compared to what I was thinking. (comical statement only and not intended to be taken literally.) In truth, it seems quite a few columns are on a sporadic timetable. No matter. We can wait. After all, we are anime fans, so we're used to it. |
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Fallen Wings
 Posts: 160 Location: Australia |
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This has been on my "want to watch" list for a while ... but frankly I have been put off. This was because of "Milk Closet", by the same creator.
Milk Closet has been one of the most WTF inducing mangas ever. By the end of it it starts going into Universes inside Universe inside universes etc ... Literally ... But since you recommend this I guess I will check out Alien Nine ... just hope it makes better sense 
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pachy_boy
Posts: 1341 |
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I was really surprised to see this title on ‘Buried Treasure,’ and I wholly agree that this title is a treasure and is every bit as brilliant as Justin says it is. It is just so beautifully bizarre and surreal, it had my attention from start to finish.
But I have to say something about the Anime, which I bought with the three manga volumes. It had great animation and great dub voice acting and was overall well done, but in the end I still hated it when I saw it. Yuri plays the role of the reluctant heroine, and while her fear is realistically portrayed and you do sympathize with her at first, I would have thought that she would have learned to come around at least a little bit or her teammates would help her discover herself; but that never happens. I would’ve thought that at some point she would at least try to make a single accomplishment, but she never does, and I believe that makes her worse than Shinji from Evangelion, so my empathy in this heroine that I’ve been following only went so far. Even more depressing is where the anime chooses to end the story. If it had ended where it did before the end credits, I wouldn’t have had so much a problem with it. Instead, it picks the most awkward spot in the manga as its closing, where spoiler[ we see Kumi supposedly killed, and Yuri facing the camera and transitioning to the ultimate emotional breakdown. ] I honestly felt very scarred and empty as soon as the anime blacked out to the rest of the credits. For that reason, it was most therapeutic to read the manga version, which continues right after the anime, spoiler[and confirms that Kumi isn’t dead after all. ]Reading the manga is somewhat a different experience, and all the surrealism and suffering that Yuri goes through doesn’t quite leave such a depressing effect; probably due to the lack of music and exact same atmosphere of the Anime. Not only that, but in the end it feels like Yuri actually does make choices that affect the outcome of the characters’ direction. And for yuri fans there is a clear subtext thing going on between Kumi and Yuri, or at least on Kumi’s part. So even though I love the manga so much more than I could ever love the anime, there is still a part of me that treasures the anime (especially after CPM’s demise), and in a strange way after some time I do kind of love it. I just wish they covered more of the manga, or didn’t go so far in where they chose to end it like I mentioned before. And so everyone knows, the set is being sold for a great price on Right Stuf, and the ‘Emulators’ manga is a great addition for completists. |
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geishageek
 Posts: 571 Location: Pleasant Valley, NY |
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I loved Alien Nine. It was something really new and different when it first appears. I bought the Dvd and Manga set last year at Otakon for I think 5 Bucks.
Copies of the Emulators manga can be found on Ebay for as little as $3.59. Thats what I paid last week for a copy. They had a few other copies that ranged from $5 to $9.99 for brand new. I am so happy to see Alien Nine as part of Buried Treasure because many people do not know about it and how good it actually is. |
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prime_pm
 Posts: 2376 Location: Your Mother's Bedroom |
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Yes, I am aware of Hitoshi Tomizawa's superflat artwork, and this was rightfully surreal as the rest of his work.
An interesting note, I read an interesting critique, one time, about this show. It described the show as a surreal depiction of young girls entering puberty and adulthood at an earlier age as the rest of their class. Yuri, of course, was the reluctant one, afraid of what these new changes were doing to her. Of course, none of the adults help her with her development, marking it as just a phase, the mother especially was cold having grown up in a conservative(?) household. The other girls were more adept with their passing into adulthood, with Kasumi, apparently, the more promiscuous. One scene, most notable, in episode two spoiler[involved a group of boys "discovering" their aliens and attacking the girls with them. This part was correlated with male puberty and the sudden curiosity and interest of females. Of course, the boys don't fully understand these changes to themselves and these inquiries move them toward violent tendencies. This, obviously, culminates in a very disturbing scene of the boys reattaching the aliens to their skulls and attacking Yuri together in a shed, a scene very reminiscent to group rape. The result of this attack was Yuri's alien...er...ripping...something with wings...]let's just leave it at disturbing. |
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Goodpenguin
Posts: 457 Location: Hunt Valley, MD |
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Essentially, that's what I took away from 'Alien Nine', which I think is an excellent show in it's own way. Of course I could be wrong, but I took it to be a story about a young girl hitting puberty told through the surreal lens of stock-anime 'school girl action-team'. The one scene you mention in your 'spoilers' above well illustrates that point, as the over-excited boy's produce 'drills' that try to dig into the main character. Most everything revolves around an imaginative telling of (female) puberty; feeling 'less developed/sure of herself' than her more shapely friends, not relating to her parents, emotional up and downs, etc. I could be 100% wrong in the interpretation, but just from my own vantage I never thought the series was the big 'huh?' it's made out to be. IMO, as the saying goes, I completely agree it's a clever, visually inventive take on the 'coming of age' story. |
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vashfanatic
 Posts: 3495 Location: Back stateside |
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Trippy surreal disturbing anime? The Satoshi Kon fan in me is going to search this out for a rental!
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TatsuGero23
 Posts: 1277 Location: Sniper Island, USA (It's in your heart!) |
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I could have sworn the dubs were available for stream on Youtube legally. At work right now so I can't check but arent' they? Or am I think Angelic Layers which is completely different?
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prime_pm
Posts: 2376 Location: Your Mother's Bedroom |
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Yeah, they are. And I'm at work right now too! |
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