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Forum - View topicShelf Life - Euro Trip
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walw6pK4Alo
 Posts: 9322 |
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We'll never know, but it would be nice to know if Fractale sold more than 883 copies, given its price point and western sensibilities regarding anime themes and genres, I'm sure it will. But it sold abysmally in Japan, what went wrong for them to pass it by so severely, dislike of subject matter or perhaps the statements of the director?
Moyashimon season two is by no means a bad anime in its own right, but comparing to the hardy first season causes it to pale and shy away. The biggest difference aside from the softened visuals is the removal of all the good gag humor and quick wit. Now it's just fully cut and dry, and the mysteriousness of the microbes doesn't jive so well. I know Moyashimon was one of noitamina's better rated series, but it seems less work and though went into this sequel. I'm glad we have it, but I'm by no means going to be sad when it ends, or calling for another season. Last edited by walw6pK4Alo on Mon Aug 27, 2012 12:58 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Otaking09
 Posts: 637 |
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I'd take a feeling of serious betrayal over a minor slap in the face any day of the week if it means walking away in raw reflection. I mean... episode 25 - say what you will - did its best in the face of dry budget. It stayed true to the psychology and - most importantly - its themes and characters. Which were great and faithful throughout.
How can someone compare Fractale to that? After 9 episodes of head-scratching over whether Fractale even cares about itself, it just commits suicide over everything. Not that it's a tragedy, since it was, as you said Erin, just an immature baby trying to act out sentiments better felt, better explored, and better animated elsewhere. I'm sorry, but you take a social criticism and throw in goofy characters that act inconsistent to the whole make-up and you're just asking to be taken seriously. And Fractale doesn't even have a colorful apology letter like End of Evangelion was. I'd rather face painful disappointment and walk away with it, then welcome a journey that doesn't even know what it wants. If I seem harsh, it's only because I've never seen those two shows compared and for that reason. |
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jl07045
 Posts: 1527 Location: Riga, Latvia |
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As I see it Fractale tried to be the cerebral sci-fi, Ghibli and moe type of anime all at once. It succeeded to be all of those a bit. Which means it wasn't good at any of them. I did like Azuma's musings about future societies and I liked how the whole Fractale system problem was thematically resolved, but the rest was just one big "Meh".
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Red Fox of Fire
 Posts: 345 |
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Maybe it was partly because of all the drama surrounding it as it aired, but I found Fractale to be nothing more than a complete trainwreck and was shocked to see it getting a Shelf-Worthy rating. It was nothing Yamakan wanted it to be and everything he didn't want it to be. Plus I found the motivation of the rebel people (whatever they were called) extremely weak and was practically disagreeing with them.
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Wakazhi
 Posts: 203 |
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Fractale wasn't a terrible show, but it was definitely a let down. I even use it as a phrase when I explained Nisemonogatari as being "the Fractale of 2012". So much potential, but ruins it. Just having to sit through 11 episodes instead of 26+ doesn't justify this show being worth the watch. In fact, this show has even less excuse to waste episodes on stupidity (i.e. Nessa playing hide-in-seek for an entire episode). And the way everything was resolved was unexpected but it ruins the entire point of the conflict, at least for the characters/rebels that were fighting for their cause. The first three episodes and episode 9 were interesting, but everything else felt "meh" and lacking the substance and intrigue of said episodes. Even the artist of the manga said she'd rather work on something more interesting and with a better story. This show simply just fell short of what it could've been. It could have easily been a great show, but it didn't become that at all.
Because of the 5/2 ration between wasted episodes and decent epidodes, this show overall is just "whatever". After I finished the show, I remembered how much I liked the first three episodes, but the rest of it makes the rest of the show not worth the time re-watching; and if a show isn't worth re-watching, it's definitely not worth $40+. The only thing close to "shelf worthy" about this Fractale boxset is the cover-art. |
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dtm42
Posts: 14084 Location: currently stalking my waifu |
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I've never understood why people are so enamoured with the first Moyashimon series.
But anyway, moving on. Fractale was a very poor series indeed. I thought that maybe Shiki was just an outlier, but Fractale marked the turning point where the previously-unassailable noitaminA timeslot got into trouble. [C], No. 6 and Guilty Crown would all follow, all of them mediocre (and not just for noitaminA), or worse. I didn't include Tsuritama as I dropped it out of disgust before the second episode was over, so I have no idea how good (or bad) it eventually became. But anyway, Fractale. Here's just a few things I didn't like about it: The pervert-obsessed girl and her idiot henchmen were annoying. The Sci-Fi aspects turned into some sort of bizarre Fantasy with magical aspects, a trap Sci-Fi so often falls into (James Cameron's Dark Angel springs to mind). The tone would jarringly swing from light-hearted to extremely dark and then back again (and not in a good way like PMMM). We'd have stupid hi-jinks, spoiler[then terrorists murdering innocent people who couldn't even fight back, then back to hi-jinks with those very same terrorists.] Episode five, which is focused on doing laundry. In a series of just eleven episodes wasting time like that is a big no-no. It was never explained why the Fractale system was failing. It was also never explained why it used spoiler[Phryne] in the first place. I mean, that's bizarre. For a supposedly advanced society they sure were pretty backwards in some ways. spoiler[For example, why not use satellites to track the movements of the terrorists? Why didn't the temple have decent weaponry?] The show hated on Sci-Fi, another trap that Sci-Fi falls into. It's fine to show the foibles of humans and their dependence on technology, but the series was against the Fractale system from the start. Instead of allowing us to make up our own minds it tried to preach to us what to think. Oh sure, there are efforts to show that the anti-Fractale people weren't clean themselves, I'll concede that. But the criticism was weighted against the system and of course the ending reinforced that. Anyway, I now live in a world where Fractale is Shelf-Worthy. I don't know what to think anymore. |
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jl07045
Posts: 1527 Location: Riga, Latvia |
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Granted I don't remember the show that well, but I didn't get the impression that it was preaching or criticizing the system on principle. What it criticized (or at least was trying to) was the dependency and resulting stagnation that the reliance on Fractale caused. The question was about who is in the control, the technology or the people. And I think the ending reinforced just that. spoiler[Fractale wasn't destroyed, but (iirc) couldn't be restarted another time anymore, meaning people would have to think about how to ensure their future.] |
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Fencedude5609
 Posts: 5088 |
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One big problem with Fractale is it aired at the same time as a certain other show by a certain director and studio, who was basically in the process of giving a master-class in what Yamakan had claimed to be doing. Basically Shinbo made Yamakan look like a complete fool that season. |
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zensunni
 Posts: 1294 |
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I didn't hate Fractale nearly as much as many people out there, but it doesn't even approach the level of making me want to buy it. I did re-watch some of the first episode dubbed a while back and might want to watch the dub just to see how good it is, but buy it? No thanks...
The signed poster of Belldandy is AWESOME! |
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Cecilthedarkknight_234
 Posts: 3820 Location: Louisville, KY |
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ahh young anime fans in love, Mathieu It must be nice to have cool girl friend like that. Also really nice harui, lucky star and when they cry artbox/sets I'm totally jelous . Well I'm not diving into any discussions this week on reviews because I've haven't watched any of these said shows.
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Snomaster1
 SubscriberPosts: 2943 |
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I wonder something about "Fractale." I wonder if they used any Irish accents in this one? It would be pretty interesting if they did.
Last edited by Snomaster1 on Tue Aug 28, 2012 1:51 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Penguin_Factory
 Posts: 732 Location: Ireland |
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Damn, that is a nice looking Fractale box. I mean I didn't really like the show, but kudos to whoever designed the packaging. It's probably a good thing it's region locked or I might have been tempted just to have it on my shelf.
I seriously hope not, after that guy from Black Lagoon I don't think I can handle another Lucky the Leprechaun impersonation in an anime dub. |
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Melanchthon
 Posts: 550 Location: Northwest from Here |
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Having spent years of my life playing games like this, sadly, I already understand most the jokes. But a lot of Hetalia is meta-comedy: what is funny is not a joke about the Austrian Succession, but that fact that they are joking about the Austrian Succession in the first place. Once the novelty wears off, Hetalia starts to grow stale, but I've already committed to the franchise. Fractale, oh, Fractale. What an all-around disaster. I honestly don't remember that much of Fractale (that shows it's staying power). My spreadsheet shows I gave it above average grades in everything but characters, but I don't remember why I hated the characters so much (maybe it was the misguided attempts at pandering to the otaku? Or was Clain a more irritating character than I remember?), but I certainly wouldn't recommend it to anyone. It absolutely reeks of pretentiousness, and I hate the neo-Ludditism that permeates it. Yes, yes, technology bad, nature good, but anime sci-fi has been hammering home that point since Nausicaa. Basically, Fractale felt like a show by someone who is smart and clever, but can't write, so he resorts to simply saying 'I'm smart and clever' over and over instead of having that come out of the story. Great idea, horrible execution. Mathieu's Collection: Animaniacs! Hell yeah! And a cool cat! You, sir, are awesome. I like the your shelves too. I need to buy some more, but haven't found anything that I fancy yet. I managed to squeeze in my last purchase, but I am entirely out of room. |
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Sam Murai
 Posts: 1051 |
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WOW, someone actually gave Fractale a good score!
 The majority of opinions have not been too kind.
However, my opinion is more in line with the review, in that I really liked Fractale and what it was trying to do, despite it also being a mild disappointment. For me, the standard noitaminA 11-eps. count worked against the series hard, which should have been in the range of 22-26 eps., based on the sprawling-type of story it was. It felt compressed and tried to accomplish too much, too fast. However, Yamakan's ability to make likable characters helped bail it out, as did the strong acting, the incredible score, and the still-interesting story. The animation production was a double-edged sword, though: well-animated and fluid, sure, but if you were pining for the show based on its promo artwork and designs, you can only imagine the letdown that was once the first ep. started rolling… Still, an all-in-all great, yet troubled, show. |
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lhernan02
Posts: 196 |
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I am amazed Fractale made it to Shelf Worthy. It wasn't a bad show even with its uneven nature (Ghibli, sci-fi, harem, etc.), animation was good, the "world" was very detailed and made some sense, and the individual episodes were not horrible. But it failed for me at a basic level: spoiler[Why choose an abused teenager as the brain of the world controlling computer? Was everybody else out that day? How did that meeting go? -- Lets see we need somebody to run the world, who should it be? A 50 yr old philosopher - Nope, a 40 year old housewife - NO WAY, a 30 yr old entrepeneur - N***, you crazy, a 20 yr old genius - Never, an abused teenage girl with a tenous grip on reality - WE HAVE A WINNER!!! ] That was just a bridge too far for me, it made the whole thing too stupid to view again.
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