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Forum - View topicShelf Life - Paradiso Lost [2012-12-10]
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prime_pm
 Posts: 2375 Location: Your Mother's Bedroom |
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Once again, in Sacred Blacksmith's case, the manga was better than the TV show. For one thing, the main heroine was a lot more competent and a high ranking officer in her station, whereas they made her a frail yet will-strong girl that kept trying to prove herself to her betters. And that's basically what they centered the entire series around. Puh.
Last edited by prime_pm on Mon Dec 10, 2012 4:14 pm; edited 3 times in total |
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wandering-dreamer
 Posts: 1733 |
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Heh, so I have a small blog where I review anime and I realized, I think sometime last year, that I had watched all of Sacred Blacksmith and then had completely forgotten to review it since it was that unmemorable. I also keep hearing people say that the manga is better but honestly I read a few chapters of that and wasn't much more impressed, this one just doesn't do as much with the story as it could.
Also, should the reader shelf images be so tiny? I click on them and they don't blow up the way they normally do, can't tell if they were small to start with or if some code is missing. |
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Saffire
 Posts: 1256 Location: Iowa, USA |
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Ristorante Paradiso is one of those shows that constantly lurks on the edge of my radar; just close enough that I'm sure I should watch it, but never close enough to get me to actually move it up the queue. Maybe someday. |
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JoePianist
 Posts: 37 |
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I wish the pictures were larger on the "Fan Collection" section at the end...you practically need a microscope to see what any of those titles are
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belvadeer
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As one who has played the first Trails in the Sky on PSP and still eagerly awaiting SC, I feel have to point something out.
According to some friends of mine, this OVA spoils the hell out of SC (Second Chapter) and watching it without playing SC will really train-wreck the story the game so elegantly crafted. So any LoH fans here, beware this purchase. I'd choose to ignore it until after you play SC first. |
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Mikeski
Posts: 608 Location: Minneapolis, MN |
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And even more ludicrous to wear. Ignore the "it guides weapons toward the vital organs" thing you usually hear about D-cup armor... just consider the mechanics of what happens when she falls down. (And if your consideration didn't involve results similar to landing breastbone-first on the business end of a woodsplitting maul, consider it again.) |
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PrecisionCrab
Posts: 215 |
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Fix photos please.
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Shenl742
Posts: 1525 |
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And yeah, Sacred Blacksmith. I kept seeing banner adds over here for a while and they pretty much consisted of a pic of the "heroine" looking like she just fell on her ass...
Last edited by Shenl742 on Mon Dec 10, 2012 4:52 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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ANN_Bamboo
ANN Contributor
 Posts: 3904 Location: CO |
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Oops, no. I'll fix that. |
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ChibiKangaroo
 Posts: 2941 |
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Regarding Sacred Blacksmith:
Lisa and Aria (the two main side characters) make the show. Cecily and Luke are more or less weak protagonists. Cecily is weak for obvious reasons, and doesn't grow much as a character. Luke is weak because he doesn't really seem to stand for anything, and he almost seems to be annoyed by the very fact that he's even included as a character in the plot. As bad as those two protagonists are as far as carrying the show, Lisa and Aria are superb characters, and are perhaps the real focal point for the series. On Lisa... Although the "innocent, sweet-natured demon" character trope is not a new or particularly inventive one, it is still not used that often and I think is almost always effective at creating a sense of mystery and intrigue for a series, while maximizing "Moe" potential (particularly if said demon is excessively cute, as is the case with Lisa). Yes, the story in Sacred Blacksmith starts off focusing on Cecily's clownish attempts at becoming a great knight (in all fairness, she does become slightly more competent towards the end, but I don't think that fully redeems her), but the focus quickly shifts to the demons - first Aria, and then Lisa. Demonic characters are by their very nature mysterious. They occupy a "secretive" space in our culture which is highly taboo, heretical, and perhaps frightening - however, like moths drawn to a fire, there is something attractive in that taboo. We can't help but be intrigued and want to learn about what kinds of crazy antics demonic characters are up to. Once you make the demonic characters "good guys," and even make them cute or attractive, I think it compounds the issue. It is hard not to like both Lisa and Aria. As far as Lisa goes, her back-story was also very smart. From what I recall, you knew she was a demon fairly early on, given her unexplained magical powers and glowing eye. However, it was hinted at that there was something tragic about her existence. This was confirmed by the end. Virtuous characters who are literally born from tragedy and sacrifice often make very compelling protagonists (e.g. Naruto, Astro Boy, etc...). I think had she been the real protagonist, perhaps the show would have been much better. However, I think for her to take up that role might have undermined her obvious otaku-targeted loli appeal. Nothing against that in general, but I think it reduced rather than enhanced this particular story. On Aria... Like Lisa, the fact that she's a demon makes her inherently mysterious and intellectually attractive. The fact that she's also a beautiful and kind woman makes her an even more likeable character for much of this show's audience. Like Lisa, she was also literally born from tragedy. Her tragic birth is a bit more abstract than Lisa's, but it is still a rich resource which I think could have been much better exploited over the course of the series. When Aria is first introduced, the story starts to focus on her internal struggle of being an unwilling weapon of destruction. We learn about her dreams, and we see how Cecily becomes the vessel for those dreams. Even though some of the scenes between her and Cecily are a bit corny in an overly sentimental way, I thought it was all still very touching and I was very engaged by the whole spectacle of seeing what happens to her and the other demon swords. I generally agree with Bamboo that the series did not deliver on its promise. It ends abruptly, and with many loose ends not tied up. Perhaps part of the problem was that Cecily and Luke were often more of an annoyance than an example of enjoyable protagonists. I enjoyed the show mainly due to the intrigue of Lisa and Aria. Perhaps the show would have been that much better if it was always focused on them. |
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Bingal
Posts: 95 |
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I'll always remember The Sacred Blacksmith as the series that marked a steady decline in Manglobe's creative output. Such a shame.
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here-and-faraway
 Posts: 1529 Location: Sunny California |
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I bought the Ristorante Paradiso manga because of its good reviews. Although I found parts of it to be charming, the parts wherespoiler[ Nicolette tries to "seduce" the older gentleman made me squeamish. He made it pretty clear that he wasn't interested and she kept going after the poor guy. It seemed gross.] Would I still get that "icky" feeling from the anime?
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Angel M Cazares
 Posts: 5513 Location: Iscandar |
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That dude has too many games a not enough anime to be considered "an anime collection." I keep forgetting to send pictures of my three years old 375+ anime BD's/DVD's collection. Most of the times I see the collections highlighted here, I can't keep from thinking that people do not buy enough discs to adequately support non-Japanese distributors.
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Shenl742
Posts: 1525 |
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Really? I think that's a pretty good collection. I honestly don't think it's very nice to just pass judgement like that... One of the images is red Xed anyways... Last edited by Shenl742 on Mon Dec 10, 2012 5:52 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Chagen46
 Posts: 4377 |
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Collections are not a e-penis contest. People just send them to Bamboo. It's not like they're competing for "who has the largest collection". |
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