Hey everyone!:) Sorry for the delay. The votes have been all counted up & the winners have been decided. Click the banner to check out the winners or click here.
Hey awesome members! :) The time has come for YOU to cast your vote! 22 contestants have submitted in their hardwork(banners) & now YOU are the judge! Choose the banner you believe shines over the rest! Voting will end Aug. 31st! :)
UPDATES: The club now has 2,000+ plus members! I wanted to thank you for supporting the club! Also, since the club is growing, we would love your SUGGESTIONS to make the club even better! So just click here & give us your ideas & input! :)
Anime Afterlife is hosting its second BANNER contest & THIRD OFFICIAL CONTEST! The theme will be 'FRIENDSHIP!' Fight for 1st, 2nd or 3rd place & create a masterpiece that will blow everyone's mind! Contests in the club are always a huge success so let's keep the dice rolling :) The club has over 1,900+ MEMBERS so your work will not go without notice! Click the banner to sign up today!
I actually just skim through the whole show again... My view changes dramatically.
Kinda long...
I see it as a psychological show.
Other selves = girl's mind.
Other selves fighting = Girl stress
Death of other self = Girl went from stress to snap.
When the girl snap, they'll cut all ties with the subject of their stress.
The show have slight "supernatural" involvement.*
Other selves fight to defend their Original's sanity, help them endure the pain that would otherwise cause them to go into rejection/denial.
Matou is too nice to a fault. She never complain about anything, and she's hurting, BRS took them all in, while at the same time, eliminating everything that stresses her. Matou want a world where people is free of trouble and everyone is nice.
Matou's biggest concern are the stress of her friends**
When her friends are stressed out, they'll have their other self doing "damage control" in their own world... And BRS comes into play...
BRS play
BRS protects Matou by invading and killing everyone's other selves, forcefully eliminating everyone's stress for Matou. Thus all the girls went snap and go into denial/rejecting reality. When Kagari was causing Matou's stress, she went and beheaded Chariot. Same with Senpai and Yomi. She forcefully "treat" them. Which brings very negative effect. As the girls went from stress to rejection.
Saya believe, if the girl's other selves are strong and keep protecting their "original", eventually, when the other selves absorb/share enough of the original's punishment, they'll heal and become a stronger person.
Saya claim that when one is hurt, their other self get stronger. Stronger other selves = better defense against BRS. (Which is true, though it's not the nicest way, but her intentions are not bad)
Saya wants to protect Yuu and other girls from going into "rejection", and she's well aware of BRS's existence and power. So, if one of Matou's friends are stressed out and it in turn stresses Matou, she'll stress them out even more to strengthen their other selves. Protecting the girl's sanity from BRS.
The more hurt the girls are, the bigger the strength they need to overcome their "pain". If they endure it, they'll gain the strength their other selves possess.***
From above, one can tell that BRS is an entity capable of turning girls into reality rejecting people. And BRS is willing to do so as all she care and love is Matou alone.
She initially try to strengthen the Senpai's other self, but BRS got to Senpai's other self before BGS even have a chance of "training" the Senpai's other self. Put a quick, effective end to Matou's stress.
Strength knows that despite how hurt/stress out Yomi was(which strengthen MD), she cannot beat BRS as Matou's the biggest reality rejecting artist, thus her BRS is even stronger. Strength confront Matou, and both Matou and "Strength" understood that running away is not the best optionn. Strength brought Matou to the other world, but it's too late, as BRS already killed MD.
Matou went into deep shock, one that's enough to coma her psychologically. When one is psychologically traumatized, they sometimes go into a deep sleep to protect themselves. Being the ultimate "rejecting reality" person, BRS gotten even stronger, becoming IBRS.
IBRS, destroys everything in it's path. Because Matou don't want to face anything anymore. (I mean, she went into a deep sleep to protect herself from absolutely everything)
Strength continues to call out to her best friend, and Matou, is cured off her "rejection/denial" naturally. (Something that Saya wants all girl to achieve) Matou became a much stronger person, as strong as her true other self, Black Rock Shooter.
The bird book basically tells you the story. Matou takes in all the colors, she snapped when she's completely tainted, then the colorful world bring her right back, and having been through everything, Matou is a lot stronger. She takes reality heads on. (One would think that if all girl cured by themselves, they'll become as strong as their otherselves that protects them)****
Yomi, Kagari, Senpai, all confront their inner demons again and win. And they all become stronger by the end.
conclusion.
Matou is so good at reality denying to the point that her other self is capable of doing impossible damage to others. BRS is a anti-hero, a very selfish anti-hero. She'll do everything to protect Matou be it good or bad.
That's my final interpretation on BRS(TV). Psychological show about girls learning to deal with reality with slight supernatural elements involve.
EDIT: In hindsight, the bird book is stupidly deep. Gatha love Japanese writers and their symbolism.
What's your interpretation of the show? Mine's here.
Every Girl goes through life with trouble.
When girls are stress, they can sleep on it because they have their other self fighting hard for them.
Other Self constantly engage in combat, and depending on their girl, they can be strong or weak.
If girl crack, their other self will lose the fight and get killed.
Thus girl try to escape from reality. Try to forget it all, keep running away from all.
Matou is one who ignores pain/suffering, which is why Black Rock Shooter is OP as helll, near invincible in the other world.
However, Matou is doing it wrong, she didn't embrace her experiences, she didn't share the pain, thus she can't grow as a person, leaving her BRS fighting, getting hurt, and winning forever.
Because BRS is so freaking strong to the point of impossible, she's capable of "eliminating" Matou's root of stress, first being Kagari, then the Senpai, then Yomi. BRS is doing everything she can to help Matou "ignores" the pain.
BRS love Matou very very much, to the point that she's willing to babying Matou forever.
Matou, realizes that she's been a horrible person, letting BRS take care of her while she remain forever unharm, inside a protective shell. Matou confront BRS. (At this stage, she turn into IBRS)
IBRS, still loves Matou, want to continue to protect her from all her pain, thus she hurt Matou out of love, letting Matou know pain... are painful, and Matou should continue to let her take care of Matou.
Matou says no, because she should face the real world and embrace her pain and suffering as experience.
Though I don't share the same hate you have for Strike Witches, I have to agree, Hyouka and Strike should not share the same rating. But then again, haters are haters. Even my favorite show, Clannad After Story have almost more 1's than 2 and 3 combine.
Most Kyoani show suffered from this, like K-on, Clannad, etc. Heck, even "The Disappearance of Suzumiya Haruhi", imo, the very best release of Haruhi franchise have more 1's than 2+3 combine.
Personally, I want Hyouka to succeed, and I think anime needs Hyouka to succeed. Hyouka can be considered original in it's own right, and another success of original anime will definitely inspire more original titles. (Personally, I love the show so far myself)
2011 was a great year, several original title, such as Ano Hana, Penguindrum, Steins;Gate, Madoka have shown producers that original titles do sell.
I'm here after reading some of your comments on Hyouka.
I've known you since BRS TV series. And from what I've read, you're someone who see a show as it is, you don't judge before a show is over, nor do you discredit a show from other comparisons in the early stages.
I haven't finish BRS (TV), still waiting for Nishishi to finish subbing it, liking what I've seen so far though.
Anyways, back to what I came here for... About Hyouka haters though. Just ignore them. There will always be haters, and if the show is good, the score will automatically adjust itself. Especially a show like Hyouka. Like you, I cannot see it rate below 8.5 when it finishes. ^_^
There's no point getting upset over haters, cuz their visions are very clouded.
"Don't argue with idiots, they'll drag you down to their level and beat you by experience."
Is Strike Witches that bad? Then again, it looks like 100% fanservice from what I've seen....
I'd be watching Eureka 7 AO if I had seen Eureka 7 -- when I saw that it was 50 episodes, I knew there was no way I'd finish it before the beginning of April. Sankarea has been a pleasant surprise, though; I wasn't expecting it to be one of the best of the season. And it has a lot more drama than I thought it would, like the suicide scene at the end of episode 2. But I can't figure out whether it or Nazo no Kanojo X has the weirder fetish ~_~
I don't think I've seen enough anime to say what my favorite slice-of-life and mystery animes are. But on the mystery side of things, I do love Gosick -- if you can call it a true "mystery," which I often don't -- and Detective Conan.
Yes, I'm definitely enjoying Hyouka. I have a soft spot for high production values (Fate/Zero being the other obvious example this season), and the premise and characters are at least interesting enough to hold my attention. And like I said, I tend to enjoy shows that others find slow-paced or uneventful.
I appreciate your comments in the episode 2 thread -- some people on this site can be trigger-happy with the "drop" button. We're also in the same boat, having only seen K-On! before Hyouka (although I noticed you haven't seen K-On!! -- I'd recommend it if you gave the first season an 8).
What else do you like this season? We're overlapping on eight shows, if I counted right. It's too soon for me to judge Hyouka, but my current favorites are probably Sakamichi, Fate/Zero, and Uchuu Kyoudai, with Sankarea and Lupin III close behind.
