What is the worth of Mind Game?
| Mind Game is now up for vote. Decide if it will run on water and jump out into the infinity of Enlightenment or if it will get shot through the butt in the Relations. RULES: 1. You can only vote for a title if you've finished watching/reading it. You must’ve read or watched at least 60% of the published content for unfinished titles. There might be exceptions for very long finished titles – they are decided on a case by case basis, but usually amount to more than half of the published content. 2. Write your vote at the very top of your comment. 3. Below your vote, give a substantial explanation to back it up. It doesn't have to be lengthy; it just needs to cover the points you want to make. 4. If you have only read/watched the adaption/source material of the respective nominee, please state so in your post. 5. It will take a minimum of 5 votes for either Enlightenment or Relations to make it into any of the lists as an anime (3 votes for manga). If it fails to reach that, it will be deemed Unremarkable. 6. The votes for Enlightenment will have to outnumber the votes for Unremarkable and Relations for it to be included in our list; the same goes for Relations. If it fails to reach that, it will be deemed Unremarkable. 7. Behave yourself. We accept discussions and debate, not flaming and incoherent fanboy/fangirl behavior. 8. The fate of the poll will lie in the hands of the officers if it turns out that there are more first time voters than regulars or the series cannot be gauged by both voting and discussions. This poll with end in 7 days! BEGIN!!!!!!!! |
Ducat_RevelJul 14, 2013 8:12 PM
| Option 1! This anime is surreal. Not abstract. Surreal. It starts off with a really atmospheric preview of the whole plot, accompanied with its gloriously strange art style. Then proceeds to diving into one of the craziest plots in anime. It's over-the-top, unrealistic, and amazing. It rides a wave of linear narratives through the sea of random chaos. If it didn't keep the events linear, if they didn't give it a shred of continuity, then it would've been very abstract. Luckily, it does. The plot makes sense (even if it involves some things crazy enough to make a madman cringe.) Besides being surreal, it is glorious. The heart of the story concerns self-worth and revenge, tapping into what it means to be honest with ourselves and becoming someone worth giving a damn about. The character development, is superb. It goes deep into the character's psyches, fleshes them out, then forces them to become better with a gun pointed at their asses. It really shows what it means to think of yourself as meaningless yet being able to find some strength to become more than that. This is Yuasa's first and weirdest work. The most surreal any fictional work has ever gotten. And an amazing movie at that. I think anyone with an open mind should watch this show. It's something we all need to experience. |
Ducat_RevelJul 12, 2013 6:43 AM
| Option 1 The message of this movie isn't anything particularly new, but it's presented in very interestingly, using fantastical, bizarre, and fluid imagery alongside large, sweeping shots of normal cities with sequences of things happening in the everyday lives of many different people to highlight how one is not, in fact, greater in scope than the other. The main character and others are well-established at the beginning of the story, and their development to a state of self-realization is well illustrated during their time in the whale. All the little stories Nishi comes up with and all the strange works of art created by the others characterize their creators, but also contribute to their development because when they return to reality, they realize their fantasies amount to little more than "mind games". Hence the title. And the logic of this movie isn't flawed either; it may not be physically possible for a mobster to run at the speed of a car, or for a man to build a home inside of a whale's body, but the motivations and feelings of the characters that arise from such events still make sense. Consider Tom & Jerry; it doesn't make sense that Tom could survive being dismembered, but it does make sense that he would hate Jerry for it. |
PopkaJul 14, 2013 3:06 PM
| Option 1 This film is GENIUS. It takes you on a ride of pure surrealism and craziness. I mean, come on, who can survive that long in a whale?? Anyway, it is one of the BESTBEST anime films that I have watched. (and I mean BESTBEST when I say BESTBEST.) Though I have to be honest, I did have a hard time watching it cause the plot was beautifully scattered and the art amazingly distracting. |
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| Option 1. Will edit later. |
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| Option 1 Yuasa's worst work for me, but still excellent. It's his raw, unfiltered creativity. Interesting characters, interesting content, and, most importantly, a near unmatched artistic flare. The escaping the whale scene and the sex scene being two of the best scenes I've ever seen in anything. I thought the ending dragged on a bit, but that's my only real complaint. |
LoneWolf said: @Josh makes me sad to call myself Canadian. |
| Option 1 Probably the work of Yuasa's that's done the least for me so far but it's still great. A very unique experience for any medium in general and is great in both style and substance. Very surreal, very artistic, lots of hidden meanings to think about. |
| Option 2 Mind Game was a decent to good movie, but nothing more than that for me. The art and animation was certainly unique, but it was inconsistent. Many scenes featured choppy animation and others were just unpleasant to look at. The carpe diem message is a tired concept, and Mind Game's presentation simply didn't do enough for me to keep my interest. Too many unnecessary scenes that were in poor taste (such as when Nishi came up with the idea of a colony living inside Myon's body, ready to be expelled from her anus) or scenes that were too drawn out (escaping from the whale). |
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| Option 1 I'm a little bit confused about the options. We have to choose between a masterpiece or an uremarkable show. In my opinion Mind Game is neither a masterpiece nor an unremarkable film. The plot is good and solid on it's surreality. The animation is good and imaginative. And more importantly, I enjoyed wacthing it and it really felt like a surreal adventure all the way to the end. That being said, Mind Game is great but definitely not my favorite from the director or the studio (I much prefer Kaiba and Tekkonkinkreet). And since there's no middle term, the option that best matches my vote is the first one. I mean, what matters is that I had great time watching Mind Game and I think others would really enjoy it too. It's not overrated. It's not unremarkable. It's not a masterpiece but it's a great anime. |
cielo_blueJul 13, 2013 1:51 PM
| Option 1 Sins this is obviously getting into enlightenment I'll be brief. This is an anime made for adults, no angst, no cheesy love scenes, but rather a more intelligent and more realistic approach at human behavior and the potential that each person has to be what they want to be, all done through unique and artistic animation only Yuasa and his crew could provide, making one of the better uses of the medium, to tell the story in a way that only animation could. |
LittleCaesarsJul 11, 2013 2:35 PM
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| Option 2 Good movie, I wont deny it. I just felt that it wasn't as good as some of Masaaki Yuasa's other titles and while the concept of "restarting life over" remains relatively refreshing, the premise and execution remain questionable, though overall it gets points for originality and enjoyability. |
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| Option 2 A good movie with lot of creativity,interesting idea of restarting life undoing mistakes.Some of the best anime moment a.k.a escaping scene in the last etc and for me thats it.Characters were nothing amazing for me neither they purpose in story ever explained much further(secondary girl was almost neglected untill the end even though we have like what ONLY 4 CHARACTERS?).I really wanted to see some of backdrop of old man(for ex there was a scene where it was shown that he had written hundreds of I Am sorry,forgive me but what was his insights while writing that words it was never shown).Some scenes are really dragged up and some scene serves no purpose. |
| With under 5 hours to go, Mind Game has 5 votes for Enlightenment and 4 votes for Unremarkable. Edit: CielDeroux, Matas, Cipheron, Enokii, and Woody130496, please elaborate on your votes. I can't count them until more substantial points have been made. |
Ducat_RevelJul 14, 2013 12:51 PM
| Option 1 Masaaki Yuasa strikes again, bizarre art for a bizarre anime, love it! This man, along with Kenji Nakamura has done more than most to help evolve modern anime as a medium and keep things fresh. As crazy as this anime is (and it is crazy) there are a few relatable themes (wishing we had a reset button, feeling unconfident about yourself etc.) and I think it does send a couple of important messages. One is don't give up on life, embrace it and don't become apathetic and live with resentments, or at least that's what I personally got out of it. The other thing is what I really like about this anime: It's not afraid to just 'ride the wave' and be all about the experience rather than obsessing over the plot and character developments. Though it does leave some room for character development and psychological musings amidst the chaos of it all. However it essentially lets you take the experiences and sort them out the way you want to for yourself. Also it's goofy and nonsensical at times but that's okay. If you can do crazy well then crazy is what you should do! The inventive art (for anime), hilarious facial expressions, over the top voice tones, and the use of real and rather silly Japanese faces that show up every now and then add to the mood of Mind Game and make for quite a fun ride. I also think the somewhat abstract art is very fitting for animating an urban landscape. Of course it was also enjoyable as the characters spent half of the movie living inside of a damn whale! I didn't allow myself much time to collect my thoughts to explain my reasoning behind my vote. Truth is I actually just watched today and waited until the last minute to write this. To sum it up I believe Mind Game is enlightening because it's inventive, unique, influential in the way art can be done in anime as well as the way a story can be told. And it's entertaining just for the sake of it and makes no apologies for that. I keep saying it but here it is again, Masaaki Yuasa is on to something! The rest of the industry needs to take more notice and quit being so damned timid and formulaic. |
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| With 6 votes for Enlightenment and 4 votes for Unremarkable, I draw this poll to an end. Thank you for voting. (Matas, Araby, CielDeroux, Enokii, and LordZeru's votes didn't count. And Woody130496's edit was too late.) |
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