Nerawareta Gakuen Episode 1 Discussion

Kaioshin_Sama said:


Did something put you up to this or something? This is the most cliche reaction I've ever seen. Seriously it's all there, the comparison to Kotonoha no Niwa in style (I don't think it looks anything like that movie other than they both take place during summer), the bit about wanting to like it based on the trailer, the bit about it being the "worst movie ever made", the pity me line about how it apparently wrecked your sleep patterns. Are you trying to impress people or something by including as much raging frothing over the top ranting reaction cliches as you possibly can? Are you 12? I'm going to do what I suggest to a lot of people nowadays and say just stick to your Monogatari's, you'll be better off for it. That's what you kids like nowadays isn't it?

Anyway that said I'm more than willing to argue against the idea that Garden of Words had more story, romantic encounters (if you can even call the relationship between teacher and student a romance which I think is entirely the wrong way to look at it) and character development than this movie cause I'm pretty sure it didn't..

Seraveean said:


I agree. The movie and its story were we well animated and conveyed imo. It took me a minute to catch on once they got the ball rolling but following it afterwards was a pleasant ride. The ending was expected but nonetheless was still heart touching. Truly this is a movie not made for most fans of anime but for a niche group. From what I have seen most people will look at this show and compliments its art but as for the elements used to convey the story and the story itself, I fear it is a bit beyond their grasp. The move was well done but do not take it for its face value.

I gave it a 10 having read the story; I feel that the movie does it justice. truly iy is both a sci-fi novel and romance greatly blended together.

AiCon said:
^This.

This movie was just so damn confusing - with the time travel stuff a major part of the reason why. I think that this movie would have been more enjoyable if they had just avoided the whole time travel thing entirely.

One thing I really hated above all else was Natsuki as a really violent tsundere. If anyone thought that Kirino from Oreimo or any of Rei Kugimiya's famous characters where annoying - they'll surely hate this bitch! God is she one violent bitch! She takes every opportunity to beat the shit out of Seki at any slight offense he might have made to her - and she even sends the police after him in the beginning of the movie. WHAT A FUCKING BITCH!

KiraMustDie said:

I still hated this movie. If you didn't think it was that bad, that's perfectly fine. I hated Penguindrum just as much as I hated this, but that anime is loved by almost everyone who've seen it, but I don't go around telling them they're wrong. If you love it, that's great. That means you got more enjoyment out of it than me, and that's a good thing. Yeah, reading my comment again it does sound like your typical angry comment and kinda childish, but it doesn't make it any less valid as it's genuinely how I felt immediately after watching the film.

spirai said:
That's great and all for you guys, but if a movie's going to be named 'Physic School Wars', I expect it to actually BE about those physic school wars than shoving in some soap drama, talking about vague things in the future and past that were never revealed, and trying to make up for lack of action by blinding us with a magical glowing hourglass. Maybe the novel's better (is it possible to read it online?) but this movie seriously fails in my book.

ShadowlQQ said:
Alright, dunno why that was rated so high, it was boring and confusing.

So all I understand is that this guy trying to wake up people's psychic powers to save the Earth, dunno why he tried to do this by going into ONE school, he should of like...became president or something

So that ending....what...? Ya I dont understand this >>>>>

And the dad or old man w/e dies...?

TL;DR Just here to complain how bad this show was

Kaioshin_Sama said:
I think people really overlooked that, but then I think a lot of people missed the core theme of the movie entirely and saw it all as just a jumble of cliches, which is common when things get thematically complex.

ShadowlQQ said:
Alright, dunno why that was rated so high, it was boring and confusing.

Raigrex said:
So, a quick conclusion from what I've watched just now;

Seki = have similar trait with the grandpa, dunno if it's really him from the future though cause at the
end he's getting some-kind of heart attack and Kyougoku did mention time travel put a lot of strain on your heart, so I'll leave it at that.

Kyougoku = basically he is his father? maybe the first time he time travel, he fell in love with Harukawa and brought her to the future then the current one who time travel realized that and avoided from bringing her to the future. This might be some kind of repeated loop. I dunno, too confusing to think.

Harukawa = ^ Kyougoku's mom

Ryouura = First, she has physic power and used it to time travel to save Seki but died in his stead. Then the Seki that she saved maybe used time travel to save both of them too and the grandpa sealed Seki powers and maybe memories too.

Dunno what's the deal with Seki's sister though, might be grandpa/future Seki's daughter whom he brought from the future after Ryouura died in the future. Maybe that's why Seki's parents was never shown or mentioned?


TL;DR : This is all just infinite loop, don't bother thinking if you can't handle the brain smasher and just enjoy the show ^^

Anyone who've read the novel or maybe understand the full story can tell me whether I'm wrong or on the right track?

symbv said:
To be honest, I find this is one common problem with people who dislike certain shows. And we see it from Gargantia to this show and, dare I say, Bakemonogatari too (Yeah, I know how you feel about it, but as its big fan who thinks it changed a lot of how I view anime and LN in general pardon me to say it).

Kaioshin_Sama said:


Well a lot of it looks like the usual her behavior on MAL too. Whenever those types see a show is getting pummeled they jump in with their one liners to take part. In general yeah todays anime fan very much does not like having to read between the lines which is what this movie is kind of about both in terms of theme and in terms of direction.

Then again people didn't seem to mind doing this for Garden of Words, but then again that has a big name behind it that people want to succeed and name is everything so that also probably had some herd behavior going for it only in the positive. That's just another reason I find anime fandom kind of shitty today cause the right established name makes such a huge difference and people want to keep praising the same old established names from recent years whereas I look at this, see a guy that is getting his first big break and first directing gig and I kind of want him to succeed. I felt he did a fine job other than expecting people to have read the book personally. It's clear there's room for improvement, but then that's to be expected.

I also swear some people are made at the movie because they expected some big psychic action battle piece based on the title and didn't get it. As we all know now few people on MAL like to take responsibility for their own expectations so that's clearly the films fault right. :/

Also this film actually has a pretty normal and agreeable rating, its other shit frankly that is largely over rated on MAL and skews the whole thing cause the average is around 7.5 /instead of 5.5 which would be more normal for such a large sampling size as several 1000 works.

Lastly there is a world of difference between a plot hole and something that is vague like who Kogyoku's mother is. There's subtle hints but that is not a plot hole though I guess its just the age we live in where people think anytime something isn't made expressly clear its a failing of the plot. I just find it annoying that people don't properly use the term plot hole anymore and its become a general catch all term. Very rarely is it ever used in the proper context or meaning anymore.

Raigrex said:
So, a quick conclusion from what I've watched just now;

Seki = have similar trait with the grandpa, dunno if it's really him from the future though cause at the
end he's getting some-kind of heart attack and Kyougoku did mention time travel put a lot of strain on your heart, so I'll leave it at that.

Kyougoku = basically he is his father? maybe the first time he time travel, he fell in love with Harukawa and brought her to the future then the current one who time travel realized that and avoided from bringing her to the future. This might be some kind of repeated loop. I dunno, too confusing to think.

Harukawa = ^ Kyougoku's mom

Ryouura = First, she has physic power and used it to time travel to save Seki but died in his stead. Then the Seki that she saved maybe used time travel to save both of them too and the grandpa sealed Seki powers and maybe memories too.

Dunno what's the deal with Seki's sister though, might be grandpa/future Seki's daughter whom he brought from the future after Ryouura died in the future. Maybe that's why Seki's parents was never shown or mentioned?

wakka9ca said:


About expectations:

In terms of expectations, I would say it depends on the individual. For instance, I had a high expectation because of the author and the original story (novel). That is also why I was angry (very rare that I get angry) because I felt the themes of the story were not being conveyed properly to the viewers. To think back on my original comment, you can see I completely lost it. Because I actually cared about the movie.

About accessibility:

I personally do not believe that a true masterpiece should only be understandable to the select few who possess the intellectual capability to comprehend it. I believe a good work should be layered and offer good hooks across different depths of analysis. To me, this movie seemed like a missed opportunity to present the works of the author to the western viewers.

About interpretation and subtleties:

I am not a big fan of omitting too much information. Depending on the viewing habits of each individual, missing crucial information could lead to side effects such as not being able to relate to the characters. Of course, if you start doing a detailed analysis of the scenes you will be able to recover some of these information but only based on your interpretation of the events. However, as a reader/viewer I also want to know about the interpretation of the author/creator as well. I felt there was a severe unbalance in this case.

About ratings:

Despite me being angry, do I consider this a bad movie? Bad is such a generic word. Bad in what sense? Bad in the sense that I got frustrated at it yes. Is it bad compared to the usual generic harem series? Nope. If you look at it in that perspective, this movie is a masterpiece. However, does that mean all generic harems are bad? Nope. Because you don't expect the same things out of a generic harem series. The problem with ratings on MAL on something like anime (or media in general) is that there are too many different genres. It's nearly impossible to objectively compare between them.

About personal interpretation and perspective:

It seemed you abhor the Monogatari series. In fact, from one perspective, the Monogatari is pretty much a harem series in disguise. However, from another perspective, you can actually see the intricate interaction and exchange (play of words and circumstances) between the characters. In that sense, there is a delicate balance between the two. Sometimes, I feel the balance is lost, leading to some portions of it being no different from another generic harem series. However, when the balance is maintained, it is actually quite interesting. Did I like it? So-so. Not among my favourite series by far. It's a question of how well the balance can be maintained.

About Penguin-drum, did I enjoy it? So-so. Again, despite the symbolism, it's not among my favourite series by far. Same thing about Madoka, which also angered me on how irritable some of the characters were (which completely destroyed the series for me). What about Gargantia? Is Gargantia a bad series? Nope. In fact, it's actually above average if you look at it from an objective point of view in terms of execution and overall quality. However, that doesn't mean I was not disappointed by the direction it went at exploring classic SF themes. Despite that, it's still a good series, just not as good as it potentially could have been. Now what about something completely different like Valvrave? Despite the hate it gathers, I think it stands out from most of the series in the last year. Like you said, people overuse the term "plot hole", "trainwreck", "cliche", etc. without necessarily pointing out what the problem are exactly. To put it in engineering terms (I'm an engineer), it's like saying "system X is more efficient". I will frown very hardly whenever I heard a statement as generic as that. What part is more efficient? In terms of what? Even if you give me a percentage, what does that percentage mean or imply and why is this important or relevant? If the person cannot answer these questions then it means they are not really thinking when they came up with the statement.

Kaioshin_Sama said:

You understand moderation, believe me when I say you are a rare treasure on MAL then. Basic human interaction and being able to combine more than one thought and emotion and convey it via some form of empathy and understanding of another's values is at a premium here, though I've already noticed this about you from our crossing paths in certain mecha threads.

wakka9ca said:


There are just some days where I just spout random non-sense too lol.

Maybe it's my engineering background that makes me somewhat flexible in thinking. I don't think there is only one way to approach a problem. I also think stepping back a little to change my perspective is a good approach. But this also means I am a bit more rational and less emotional. Thus, this influences my preferences to mainly hard and soft SF.

However, it is very difficult to have a good discussion on MAL nowadays. Just look at the Valvrave forums. I cringe every time I enter that forum. Despite its flaws (notably of excessive pandering), it is actually worthy of more interesting discussions than what is currently on MAL.

About Monogatari: yes, it's a series specifically made as reference to modern Japanese otaku culture. I wouldn't call it necessarily an excessive pandering yet. Pandering of course but that in itself is not necessarily a bad thing. After all, the modern Japanese otaku culture in itself is rather young and not extremely well-developed yet. You might not find much depth in it. I personally believe that given more time and development cycles, it will eventually become more matured and well-established than it currently is. However, with the current half-baked reactions from semi-anonymous users, I am a bit worried about its development. This could be also simply a biased view of Internet forums in general. Animesuki, a heavily-moderated forum, doesn't seem to suffer as much as MAL though.

Seki = grandpa - he ends up dieing at the end because they can only time travel once. If they are the same person that means 'grandpa' went into the past to watch over himself (This would be his second time travel). Then present day Seki goes into the future to bring back Kyougoku (This would be his first time travel). That is when it cuts to 'grandpa' dieing.

mayukachan said:
But Seki doesn't die at the end... Huhhhhhh
I'm confused as fack on what happened LOLOL

Kaioshin_Sama said:
I just find it annoying that people don't properly use the term plot hole anymore and its become a general catch all term. Very rarely is it ever used in the proper context or meaning anymore.

wakka9ca said:
The problem with ratings on MAL on something like anime (or media in general) is that there are too many different genres. It's nearly impossible to objectively compare between them

symbv said:
I notice this problem too. So many people used it the wrong way - while in fact the word means Contradictions within the story and the fictional world, many people now use it to mean simply "things not explained sufficiently". I have just had a long debate with a user in another thread about the use of this word, and I must admit that I find the attitude of "hey this is internet, and I use the word like I always do with my chums on internet, so I am not wrong and this is my freedom" quite disappointing and upsetting. It is as if they are contented with using any word (mostly strongly negative) to express ideas that do not warrant it or even not what the word means, just to express disappointment at it. This is lazy, shallow and inarticulate writing -- and too bad there are so many who prefer to write this way (and get unhappy when told they can write in better way).

About Bakemonogatari, I won't spend a lot of time to talk about it in this Nerawareta Gakuen thread, but I can tell you that after watching the anime I thought about it a lot and not so much of it is about its otaku pandering aspect of the dialogues. This got me to read the LN and then I realized how much of a good job the anime did for the novel, because it was really a hell of a job to adapt such a conversation and monologue heavy work. So dismissing it as pure otaku pandering is to me misses much of the point. Yes, it has a good deal of otaku pleasing elements, from the visual to the audio, but there is quite a lot more to it than that, and it is easy to get blinded by those otaku elements and ignore its other appeals. As wakka9ca said, there is the BALANCE (interesting he uses the same word that I used to describe why some anime like GirlPan achieved the success it so deserves) achieved. Well, I think I would just stop here lest I digress too much...

wakka9ca said:
The problem with ratings on MAL on something like anime (or media in general) is that there are too many different genres. It's nearly impossible to objectively compare between them

symbv said:
It is as if they are contented with using any word (mostly strongly negative) to express ideas that do not warrant it or even not what the word means, just to express disappointment at it. This is lazy, shallow and inarticulate writing -- and too bad there are so many who prefer to write this way (and get unhappy when told they can write in better way).

Nehtor said:


No, Seki doesn't die. But if he and the grandpa are really the same person from different time periods then that would explain why the grandpa randomly died at the same time that Seki time traveled.

Ohh the joys of time travel. ^_^