|
|
| Last Online |
Yesterday, 3:21 PM |
| Gender |
Male |
| Birthday |
July 28, 1987 |
| Location |
Under the Bridge |
| Website |
mikeonhighway61.devia... |
| Join Date |
May 23, 2009 |
| Access Rank |
Member |
| Anime List Views |
30,199 |
| Manga List Views |
5,639 |
| Comments |
32 |
| Forum Posts |
88 (Find All) |
|
|
Anime Stats
| Time (Days) |
81.8 |
|
| Watching |
11 |
|
| Completed |
230 |
|
| On Hold |
31 |
|
| Dropped |
44 |
|
| Plan to Watch |
11 |
|
| Total Entries |
327 |
|
Anime compatibility with MikeOnHighway61 is:
|
Manga Stats
| Time (Days) |
29.8 |
|
| Reading |
15 |
|
| Completed |
29 |
|
| On Hold |
9 |
|
| Dropped |
7 |
|
| Plan to Read |
2 |
|
| Total Entries |
62 |
|
Manga compatibility with MikeOnHighway61 is:
|
Displaying 15 of 44 Comments
|
ThatGoatDude | 04-25-13, 5:55 AM
Oh my god. Finally someone who agrees with me on 2.22. I love you.
|
|
You make a good point about the difference between light and Takashi. Light wasn't meant to be sympathetic. However I still think there is a difference in writing quality. Imagine the slap in HOTD didn't happen, would that omission make Takashi a good character.
No he'd still be boring and badly written, a cardboard cut out (or otherwise known as standard shounen hero). My problem wasn't that he did a bad thing (I don't expect a character to be a saint) but how it was handled. If the show had shown it to be a bad thing fine, instead it's treated as good almost an heroic act, a symbol of his manful power.
Now if they had done things differently, say the slap was seen as the result of him panicking, out of fear and desperation he hits her because he isn't thinking too well (after all considering what he has seen) and it was shown to be the wrong thing to do,(say it doesn't work) then it would have been much better. I would still disagree with the act but at least it would have been more understandable.
I've been considering what makes us like certain characters and not others. Now this is a subjective thing as I like many that are widely hated such as Jun Sakurada and Nishijo Takumi. I think it is down to partly the following.
How well we relate to them. I call this compatibility. Are you familiar with the work on inborn temperament by Hans Eysenck? He identified two spectrum of inborn temperament Extroversion and Neuroticism. A person may have for example low scores in both, in one or high in the two.
A person is probably more likely to relate to someone who is closer to them. So a high extroversion individual is probably going to prefer more extrovert people in a series.
Now this is not a rule as otherwise I would dislike all extrovert characters which isn't the case, but it may help explain why I have a preference for less outgoing characters.
Second is empathy. Can I understand where they are coming from and empathise with it. Even if he/she does something I disagree with as long as I can see why and empathise with the motivation I am more likely to like them. Take Jun Sakurada, I don't like all of his acts but there is a reason to them which I found sympathetic.
Third is quality of writing, though this is less about likeability and more about are they interesting. A good series can make any type of personality work while a bad one would fail to make even the most likeable person watchable.
I havn't played Final Fantasy viii so I can't say regarding Squall, the only one I played was some of VII. It was quite decent with the exception of the random attacks. When it comes to rpgs I'm more of a tabletop person and for crpgs I tend to go for more open world affairs like the Elder Scrolls. Note, I haven't played Skyrim and as good as Oblivion was Morrowind was better.
Since I'm a PC person most of the Final Fantasy games are unavailable to me. With regards to Squall I have little time for tough guys with no feeling. I would have to play the game to give you a proper appraisal.
Now I know I haven't got round to the Dual or Kiddy Grade reviews yet but I've been thinking about a Rahxephon one. The issue here is that it would mean having to watch it again. Something I regard more as a chore than something desirable. At least the first time there was the not knowing what would happen to keep me watching.
Any good shows in the current crop of ongoing anime? The only two I've been watching are Sengran Kagura, an okay time waster at best and Vividred, a poor man's Strike Witches. Though one thing Vividred is better in is the enemies actually seem to have a reason and a purpose. The Neuroi felt like they were there just to give the girls an excuse to fly around shooting their guns.
With Spice and Wolf, it was an okay show but no whre near as good as many claimed. The dialogue seemed to be mostly about coin values and economics and the characters, better than many others they may have been, were not good enough to carry the show.
Horo did not make much sensebut how do you write a character that is that old? I suppose you could go down the Elf (or Eldar if you are familiar with Warhammer 40k) route but that has it's own issues. Those characters can easily feel conceited and arrogant.
The thing which did annoy me though was how one sided it was against the church. Now I'm not a Christian and the church could certainly be a nasty bunch at times, but this was more like everyone associated with the church is either evil or a fool.
And why have a wolf ruling over a village's agriculture? The whole business of Horo eating the grain was particularly bad, unless I'm wrong about wolves
Note: Since I mentioned Dr. Eysenck I feel I should comment on his controversial nature. I do not agree with him on everything on the other hand I not not agree with his critics that he was a far right supporter. It's true that they adopted some of his theories but the same could be said of those of Charles Darwin. He simply allowed his work to be printed in publications regardless of whether he agreed with their policies.
He and the far right did share a belief against biological equality but he was against that being used to discriminate.
It is ironic that politically he seemed to have more in common with his opponents. "It is odd, and indeed paradoxical, that my most determined opponents should have been people with whose aims I completely agreed."
It's hard to see him as a supporter of racist ideology when he was a signatory of the very anti racist second humanist manifesto "The principle of moral equality must be furthered through elimination of all discrimination based upon race, religion, sex, age, or national origin."
|
|
I see your point with the issue of romance vs cravings for affection. I guess it does come down to interpretation. I would say that I believe Misato and Kaji are a romance, as despite their flirtations with others it seems to me they they only really haves eyes for each other. This is especially apparent nearer the end after Kaji's death.
I feel that what drove them apart as the fact that she realised she had fallen for someone who was just like her father.
Personally I still find the relationships in Evangelion far more interesting than the usual love triangles etc that we tend to get in more straight forward romantic stuff.
As for HOTD, I would have probably commented on the lead's unlikability in the review if he wasn't so boring that much of what he did I had forgotten about. I don't mind unlikable characters (Light from Death Note was repulsive but fascinating). What I object to is when they are both unlikable and boring, such a a certain person from a show starring Arturia Pendragon.
If it wasn't for Rei and Kouta I would have probably have dropped it.The hatred Rei gets is telling though, it shows that many people have no idea what good characterisation is.
I think that a good character is one that has more than one or two facets to them and acts in a reasonably believable way like a human. Now the amount of depth depends on the show, how serious it is as plus their role in it (a side character hardly needs the same level of depth as the main).
An important question is what kind of show is it which determines the level of depth needed. Orson Scott Card in his book Character and Viewpoint in writing raises this issue. He identifies four main types of stories and shows that some of them don't actually need incredible depth in this regard.
He uses the example of Lord of the Rings. We only really get one dwarf and one elf for most of the story since if we had more it would be difficult to tell them apart. However in a milieu story like this it doesn't matter so much. The people and plot are just there to reveal what the books are really about, the setting.
I should have a couple more reviews up soon, one for Kiddy Grade (not bad, could have been much better) and Dual (not as good as I remembered).
With Evangelion's flaws. Yes they did seem to have some budget issues, though I'm impressed at how well the non-visual aspects still held up. As for Kaworu, he probably would have been better in two episodes however I did not find the quickness of Shinji's attraction too bad. The show has revealed over the past 23 episodes that Shinji is someone who craves affection and probably would get attached to Kawaru quickly.
The flaws I would say it had are that the episode quality could be inconsistent, they were all good but some (especially during the early teens) were not as good as others. The send off of Tosuke and Kensuke and the rest seemed rather rushed ( it's a if the show had forgotten them with the exception of a single line). Also why does only Unit 1 go berserk and break the need for external power? Unit 00 goes berserk but still runs out of power. Is there something special about 01? Another related thing, if it can move even when it's energy supply has run out why the need for an S2 engine?
Now onto bad shows? But before I do if there is one kind of anime that is incredibly hard to review it's the average, forgettable ones. Stuff like angel Beats that is neither good nor bad enough to remember. They just fall into a vast sea of utter mediocrity where they can be summed up with "it exists".
I would probably have an easier time evaluating the letter B.
"B is an interesting letter though like most of it compatriots it has little functional use on its own. Still the sound can be used to identify a certain type of insect. So I guess it has more use singulary than H. What I particulary find agreeable is that it combines the vocal form of something like V with the softness associated with F. It rolls of the tongue easily and has a nice soft yet defined sound."
That was much easier than trying to review Angel Beats.
I have little interest in either To Aru Majutsu no Index or Hiden no Aria (well certainly not now). As for Zero no Tsukaima again I don't think I've ever had any plan to watch it.
The worst animes for me were Ittikousen, a truly awful show, if you are ever given the option of watching it or thumb screws take the thumb screws. The next thing would be Rosario Vampire, I don't mind harems but that one was indescribably bad (with one exception Mizore). Freezing was also another but that was unintentionally hilarious. Of course, Rebuild 2.
I was looking through your list and Hooray someone else who doesn't think Spice and wolf is that impressive. I found it one of the most overrated things I've seen.
|
|
I can see your point that Evangelion and Rahxephon do share story elements and characters. However they felt different to me at their heart.
Evangelion was a deconstruction of the giant mecha story, with interesting and most of all realistic characters acting in a realistic way. Rahxephon wasn't.
Shinji being a normal human is what makes him to me so great. And it possible it's why he is hated so much. Many people don't want realism they want escapism and life affirming messages. They would rather watch a show with a lead who acts in ways they want to believe they would act. Now there is nothing wrong with that but personally I found NGE's honesty refreshing. It took the viewer and said "no you are not great and fearless".
Anyone who could go through what he does without feeling fear and self doubt is either an idiot or crazed. As for the fans that call him a coward I have two points to make. One, how well would we do in his situation. I think many people would have broken long before he did. Two, watch the fecking show. There are plenty of times when he shows bravery. Every occasion he fights an angel he's risking his life. He even rescues someone from a volcano, now if that isn't brave what is? But of course he's still hated for feeling fear and self-doubt like any real person would.
What really annoys me is when those like Ayato are called better for acting less realistically. Your point "shinji being a normal human being instead of a blindly active shounen hero"
pretty much sums up why the first was so much better.
With regard to the relationships, I think it depends on how you view romance. We had Kaji and Misato, Shinji, Rei and Asuka to name just two. The difference between Evangelion's and Rahxephon's was that the first's had a sense of reality, they were full of sexual tension and complex emotion. Now personally I though Rah handled the relationships quite well, especially since it had so many, but most just felt like standard dating sim love triangles.
I hadn't considered Rahxephon's lack of humour or lightness but looking back on it your're right. One thing that makes darker moments work is that they have something to be contrasted with.
I would be interested to know what if any flaws you feel NGE had.
If you had to name one show as your all time worst what would it be?
Finally I actually have a review up, which already has mostly unhelpful s. I guess that' what happens when you point out that a fan favourite isn't actually well written.
|
|
Well I finished Rahxephon and I give it a 7 which is higher than it probably deserves but since I gave it a point to make up for me being biased towards Evangelion.
Now what I did was watch both shows concurrently (an episode of one followed by an episode of the other) and to give Rahxephon a chance I watched NGE dubbed.
Rah still came out a distant second. Now a few good points about the show. It is not in my opinion a rip off. The audio and visuals are also extremely good, especially the music.
Rahxephon's characters lacked the emotion, depth and realism of Evangelion's particularly the main guy Ayato. Now it did have some interesting characters but they chose to with Mr dull as the lead. I would have probably preffered it had they chosen someone else as the focal point such as Buchi.
"Look at Shinji. Why does he continue to fight as an Eva pilot? The story keeps changing. He said it's because everyone tells him to. Because only he can do it. Because it has to be done to save humanity. Selfless and lofty sentiments for sure, and he believed those reasons to be genuine. Wrong; he wanted his father to approve of him. To say he was a good boy. How selfish of him, really, to be a human being." --Megumi Hayashibara
That quote sums up what was great about eva's characters. They were so human with real motivations. At the heart of any worthwhile tale there is a humanity. The issues that most of its cast have are very real ones, their motivations and behaviours are not those of fictional people meant to inspire us but of real people with all their failings. Rahxephon's were certainly not bad and most of them were quite interesting it's just that they felt like a bunch of typical heroes and villains.
The other main issue with Rahxephon was how badly certain story events were handled. Scenes that should have been full of emotion had very little, partly due to my not caring about the involved characters and the poor set up of the scenes. Take Asahina's death for example. It could have been heart breaking but ended up just utterly unconvincing.
Now I should add that I'm not some uncritical Eva fan boy, it isn't my favourite (that's Haibane Renmei) and yes it does have flaws. Also despite what I've said Rah wasn't bad, it just okay, not bad, not particularly good just okay.
|
|
I've heard from a few people that the V/N of Fate Stay Night was much better than the show and even Mr Sexist was better as it actually explained why he acts like that.
With Haibane Renmei what I like about it is that the show feels moving in a natural unforced way. Often when things try to pull the heart stings it tends to feel a bit forced as if the makers are screaming at us "feel sad dammit".
The ice princess, Mizore, was the one I suspected your one fine character in Rosario Vampire would be, as she's the only good thing in it. I'd say she's simply much too good for the series and really deserves one of her own. Personally I'm not against harems or ecchis but Rosario Vampire was a particularly bad example. I think what ruins many of them is what I call low bow trying to be high brow. What is meant by this is that there are some things which are just there for entertainment (low brow) and aren't meant to be masterful plots with deep complex thought provoking character. Then there are the high brow ones which are. Both are fine but the trouble often comes when the former types thinks it's the latter. This leads to shows having more gravitas then the writing deserves.
|
|
Even if you try to watch rebuild 2 as a stand alone with and not related to the series it's still awful. I'd like to comment on a few of the other shows in your list.
Starting with Fate Stay Night. I've tried twice and have not been able to get past episode 15. Apart from the incredibly slow pace Shirou is one of the characters who has annoyed me the most; a sexist idiot who doesn't seem to understand that the fighting should be left to those who are actually competent.
I agree with you on Fate/Zero. I liked it but the over melodramatic nature did stretch credibility at times.
I see you haibane Renmei a 10 as it well deserves. For me this was one of those show were the whole is far greater than the sum of its parts. Individual episodes were good but it was really only when I had seen the whole thing did I truly appreciate the show. As for Angel Beas one of the best comments summing that up was "Haibane Renmei for retards".
One last thing who was your one fine character in Rosario Vampire?
Oh just checked out your deviantart page, some nice pics.
|
|
It's good to see that there are some others who share my opinions on how bad Evangelion 2.0 is. It is as if they decided to take out nearly everything that made the series so good.
The way the characters have been reduced to standard flat cut outs is bad enough but when added to how they've removed the intelligence of the story I wonder if we should even call it Evangelion.
I agree with you on how baffling it is that so many people like it. now I can understand those who didn't like the series preferring 2.0 (after all they seem to be the people it was made for) but how fans of the original could prefer this I doubt I'll ever figure out.
I'd be interested in knowing more about your views on Rahxephon. I've only seen a few episodes and so far it isn't the better than Eva show that so many have told me it is. Still I'll leave out forming any concrete opinion until I've seen more of it.
|
|
Lucus-FeriaaA | 04-30-12, 5:46 AM
Wusste gar nicht, dass du auch SteinsGate magst ! Okarin ist schon abgefahren !
|
|
orion26lj | 03-11-12, 4:41 AM
It's all.... your fault!!!!!! >///<
|
|
orion26lj | 08-22-11, 10:13 AM
Sag bescheid wenn du Shana Season 3 schauen willst :)
|
|
Lucus-FeriaaA | 04-09-11, 5:27 PM
tatami galaxy kannte ich noch gar nicht ! Sieht gut aus.
Und warum ist Needless ein Gurren Lagan Klon ? Gurren Lagann hat das Bohrer Motiv doch selber nur von alten Go Nagai Anime wie Getter Robo oder Mazinger Z abgekuckt ^^ Mich hat Needless eher an Prügelspiele wie GuiltyGear oder BlazBlue erinnert. (Ich versuche nicht den Anime zu verteidigen, wollte es nur gesagt haben. Nicht falsch verstehen, also ich mag Gurren Lagan und Needless)
|
|
Lucus-FeriaaA | 04-09-11, 3:55 PM
"die erste staffel war einfach nur perfekt, ein wunder dass bei so einem wust von bullshit animes die nur noch rauskommen noch solche perlen versteckt sein können "
-Ich hab ne Zeit lang auch so gedacht, aber man sollte auch durchschnittliche Anime eine Chance geben (zum Beispiel Needless oder GunXSword, die mir trotz fehlender Tiefe gefallen haben)
Momentan gucke ich DogDays, gefällt mir recht gut !
|
|
Lucus-FeriaaA | 04-09-11, 3:09 PM
Gut, ich werde deinen Ratschlag befolgen und es nicht gucken :D Letztens habe ich die erste Staffel von Arakawa Under The Bridge beendet, war ziemlich cool ! Hoshi ist ne cole Sau und Sister einfach nur Badass !
|
|
