Shelter Episode 1 Discussion

Aglaid said:
let's be honest here this was complete garbage. This kind of thing done right can be amazing and this one felt like it just tried to copy those before by it by making it look good but without putting any real thought or effort into it. Try watching Interstella5555, ME!ME!ME!, Furiko or Tsumiki no Ie instead.

Tiemuuu said:


comparing this with Interstella5555, an hour long movie, is just dumb. ME!ME!ME! shares

NOTHING

with Shelter on the thematical level. I don't know what Shelter is trying to copy as you allege, but it's definitely not ME!ME!ME!. these two shorts are so different there is nothing stopping you from appreciating both.

I just don't see what crimes Shelter has done. it's a straight forward scifi short that has a twist in narration. it's not trying to be anything else. it's beautiful to look at and I don't see anything wrong with the directing.

Aglaid said:

Hmm prehaps what I meant to say was with ME!ME!ME! the video and the music accompanied each other very well. The music changes as the tone of the video changes and with Shelter we have a generic EDM song i've heard a 1000 times pasted on to a short anime film that though is visually impressive seems uninspired even from a sci-fi point of view.

WisestOne said:

Seriously, someone who thinks this video is no good, link me to a music 6 minute anime that you would describe as incredible so I have something to compare this video to

LeCrazyPanda said:
Holy crap, some of these people calling Shelter "garbage"and "insulting" are exaggerating waaaaay too much.

There is a point that I will concede, that Shelter lacks substance. Well, of course it does, its a 6 minute video for a song. The mere fact that a cohesive, rather emotional story was squeezed into those 6 minutes while still fitting the music was already impressive in and of itself.

The main focus really shouldn't be on the plot, but on the audiovisual content. In fact, the entire reason the video exists is to present it's audiovisual content, and should therefore be judged based on that criterion.

Everything exists for a purpose. all series DO something, every single series exists to put forwards a point. For fanservice-filled crap, it's to make the viewer enjoy themselves. For more complicated works, it's to make the viewer actually stop and consider something. Series like these have morals, they have lessons, they have themes and symbols and complex plot arcs.

AND they're 12-24 episodes long.

Shelter is quite literally a 6 minute video designed to present a song. A SONG. It's entire purpose to exist is to present a song. The mere fact that it manages to fit in any "semblance of a story" at all is actually rather impressive. And you know what? That story was DECENT. It detailed the anguish of the father of a young child as he desperately tries to save her from his dying world, and her loneliness, then pain and later acceptance when she realizes what he had done for her. And it took all of that and condensed it into 6 minutes.

Sure, it used petty tricks. Depending on how you looked at it, it probably even forced emotional responses from the audience with feels all that. But, if you had to tell the same story with the same amount of emotional resonance and depth in a measly 360 seconds, how would you have done it? I'm not saying that there ISN'T a better way to present this, but the way Shelter did it sure as hell wasn't bad.

My arguments will probably get ripped apart and stomped on, but I just feel like some people are expecting waaaaay too much from this music video. I mean, it's meant for enjoyment, and it's only 6 minutes long. It was made for people to look at and enjoy, so don't hate on it and act all cynical.

Sorry for rant, I was feeling salty and I had some time on my hands.

Gnk said:
People is really, really funny.

I didn't see any hate on anyone's part when Me!Me!Me! came out and it was fanservice at its purest, yet people here and there seemed to think it was powerful and/or meaningful and stuff, probably just since khara was involved in it and the artist was already known.

Now someone gives us a music video with a coherent narrative and people not only bash it but uses it as a basis of everything that's wrong with the anime medium in salty reviews that are six paragraphs longer than they need to be, probably just because he's an american whatsisname and also lame-ass studio amirite?

Oh well.

Fai said:

There's this VERY toxic idea of what is "cool" or masculine" within MAL, it seems.

People feel the need to reassert how "cool" or "masculine" they are by claiming they felt nothing, because not showing emotions or not having emotions is still for some reason thought of as "cool" or "hot". Its a weird leftover in society from a bygone era. The idea that feeling emotional over something is "bad".

Suna_Kujira said:
Or you know, people just don't like the video and don't see why others would be emotional over it? Just because you liked the video doesn't mean others are "acting cool and masculine" when they say they felt nothing.

Gnk said:

Except elitists here do like to bash on things that give off an emotional response on the viewer for the sake of appearing rational and intellectual, that pretty much hasn't changed in the eight years I've been browsing this site. They'd be more inclined to give emotionally dry anime like the Monogatari Series a near-perfect score and disregard shows like Clannad ~After Story~ or Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso for this very purpose.

Suna_Kujira said:
Very few people are actual elitists, as in people who genuinely believe they are better than others for certain reasons. The people who get called elitists on this site more often than not also like shows which can evoke an emotional response from the viewer. Or is something like Tatami Galaxy, Mushishi or NGE devoid of emotion? The main reason why people might speak against these series which purposely try to evoke as many emotional responses from the viewer as possible, is that the ways utilized by the anime are often cheap and thus not deserving of any reaction but disappointment. I haven't seen either After Story or Shigatsu, but Monogatari was hardly emotionally dry. Especially one episode towards the end. I've never cried from experiencing any kind of media, but that doesn't mean I can't be touched by what's on the screen. If this makes me a poser or fake, so be it.

Gnk said:

If there's some sort of emotion on the Monogatari series then it get lost among Shinbo's stylistic choices, which is exactly what people praise about the series. Characterization in the Monogatari series is pretty dull and mostly composed of meaningless monologues. Also, the fanservice pretty much distracts from every ounce of depth the show might have, to the point both fans and haters of the franchise I've known had made fun of this fact.

That being said, yeah, there is hardly a lack of emotion in the shows you mentioned, yet these are shows where the stylistic choices in direction/animation also overshadow everything else, which just shows the mentality of the average know-it-all on this site, "Different = Good." The most voted review for this anime shows the range of this awful mentality: in hindsight and analysis it's just a big "This MV is cheap 'cause it puts a generically designed attractive anime girl into a situation of sadness and distress."

For example, I guess if this video was animated on the vein of Stuck in the Sound's "Let's Go" (One of my fave music videos of all time, in fact) it won't have been this bashed. However, because we seem to have what "intellectuals" here would call Generic Anime Girl #245, suddenly, it turns out it is bad and you should feel bad for liking it?

Well, precisely because I think the character design should not detract from appreciating good storytelling it's why I think this mentality should work both ways, not just praising something when it's different and bashing it when it seems like more of the same. And fantastic visuals aside, this has pretty damn fine storytelling for a MV. Yeah, most of the credit might go to the visuals, but that's why it's a freaking music video, for crying out loud.

Suna_Kujira said:
I can agree with stylistic choices getting in the way of other messages at times, but a good series uses these visual elements to enhance the messages it tries to convey. Failing to understand what an anime was trying to do because of its visuals might be the fault of either the anime itself or the viewer. It depends on the sound arguments one can make in favor of either interpretation. Different doesn't automatically mean good, but neither does it mean the show tries to hide itself behind 'meaningless' visuals. I've only read that review briefly yesterday, but from what I can remember, if you praise the visuals so much, something shouldn't receive a 1, no matter how subjective scores are. As for the girl's beauty behind a negative point, I believe the problem with this music video is the fact that there's nothing more to it than looking beautiful. The girl realizing the truth behind the world she's living in doesn't carry any weight to it because we don't know her, the person who created this world or anything. We just know she's sad without possibly being invested enough to make an emotional connection. But apparently a lot of people found it touching even without this connection and that's perfectly fine. But don't go after people who like to point these shortcomings out. I wouldn't care either way because this just isn't my type of music.

OppaiSugoi said:
lol the story was nonexistent, seriously people are looking way too deep with these tinfoil theories on an underlying plot when there's none. All this is, is to promote Porters new bro-step single.

OppaiSugoi said:
lol you're looking way too deep, lay off the LSD. Brostep isn't all its cracked up to be.

Fai said:


There's this VERY toxic idea of what is "cool" or masculine" within MAL, it seems.

People feel the need to reassert how "cool" or "masculine" they are by claiming they felt nothing, because not showing emotions or not having emotions is still for some reason thought of as "cool" or "hot". Its a weird leftover in society from a bygone era. The idea that feeling emotional over something is "bad".

Gnk said:

Hey at least it isn't Pharrell Williams's "It Girl." Goddamn I hated that thing.

OppaiSugoi said:
seriously people are looking way too deep with these tinfoil theories on an underlying plot when there's none. All this is, is to promote Porters new bro-step single.

Gnk said:


Except elitists here do like to bash on things that give off an emotional response on the viewer for the sake of appearing rational and intellectual, that pretty much hasn't changed in the eight years I've been browsing this site. They'd be more inclined to give emotionally dry anime like the Monogatari Series a near-perfect score and disregard shows like Clannad ~After Story~ or Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso for this very purpose.

sword123 said:
I understand that many found the story to be generic, but generic =/= bad.

I'm not particularly into the genre, but the music video had great animation and a simple story told extremely well in 6 minutes. While I agree that because we know very little about the girl we couldn't feel as emotionally connected as we maybe should have, I got the message of the song (your loved ones will always be with you, essentially) and was impressed. When the (almost) 7 years without any messages was shown I was immediately intrigued and wanted to know more. I also really like the concept of being able to create whatever you want and she was certainly happy while doing so. In the end we see reality but no matter how frail her body is, she still clings to hope. This is what I appreciated.

8/10


Assuming that just because it's a music video you can't possibly have any creative or meaningful interpretations is frankly outright stupid. It doesn't have to mean anything but why would you not like people having fun when they're not shoving their interpretations down everyone's throats? People react differently.

OppaiSugoi said:
lol this exactly the kind of people I'm talking about, thanks for validating my point. I'll have what you're injecting.