Fun Stuff > ENJOY
Anime anyone?
pwhodges:
I'm currently watching Nagi Asu, and as I usually do, I have also been reading reviews and criticisms concurrently. Apparently (though I have yet to see for myself) the work ends with a restoration of the status quo ante in many respects, and rather than embracing change, the characters are shown to be comfortable with that.
This seems parallel again with reset endings, and strengthens my idea that Japanese society values long-term stability above change and development, and so actively prefers endings that represent that.
Blue Kitty:
pwhodges:
I've seen very good reviews of that, though it doesn't really appeal to me.
After Nagi Asu I started on Yuuki Yuuna - but I've dropped it after two episodes as I found it as boring as Sailor Moon - neither is a patch on Madoka Magica!
Blue Kitty:
Just finished the Tale of Princess Kaguya and it was alright. The art direction is amazing as any other Ghibli film, but overall the plot was pretty boring and seem to drag on for awhile.
pwhodges:
I like to stir things up a bit sometimes (copied from elsewhere, where it did)...
--- Quote ---Hey, there’s always School Days…
--- End quote ---
--- Quote from: pwhodges ---I'll pass, thanks.
--- End quote ---
Well, if you know me at all, you'll understand that I don't like to leave things unresolved... A little research on School Days showed me that it divides opinion more widely than most shows. I found that reviews of it are more varied than those for almost any other series; The Nihon Review has no less than three separate reviews of it with scores of 4, 6, and 8 (out of 10), while Them Anime Reviews gives it its minimum one star. So obviously I had no choice but to watch it myself, which curiously I did not regret. I now understand the variation in the reviews quite well; it's not easy to judge. My conclusion is that it's often misunderstood, and I think it is subverting itself so hard that some people just don't get it.
There are many kinds of lies; but the worst, in the end, are those you tell yourself. A collective madness engulfs pretty much the entire cast by the last couple of episodes, but it is their lies to themselves that lead to the ultimate tragedy for each of them. Of those main players it is Makoto Itou, in spite of the bad press he gets, whose lies are the ones least motivated by malice, or at least a desire to manipulate; that doesn't help him, though. Yes, he is weak and indecisive - but are we all as strong as we like to think? Remember that the girls are all after him because he is perceived as a good guy, and we are told this repeatedly.
Anyway, people who start this looking for a SoL high-school harem anime are rather in the same position as those who start Evangelion hoping for a giant robot show; they will discover in time how wrong they were. And by the end realism has long gone out of the window; but that's not the point - the extremity of what happens is just a way of getting across the message of the damage that can be done by lies. Of course, I'm not pretending this is at the level of Eva; but it's a good solid show none the less - mostly. Some details let it down: The first few episodes are somewhat undistinctive, for instance; I hated the post-credits ending, as well - floating into the sea at the end was quite enough, and like EoE didn't attempt to sugar-coat anything. And I loved the music - nine EDs in 12 episodes!
I haven't watched the OVAs, and I'm not sure I want to. My understanding is that they follow different paths from the VN, and so don't really tie in.
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