Bless you. I re-read that Shelter review from time to time because you captured my thoughts about it completely. The first time watching it I didn't mind it up until those last few moments, but then it quickly turned to disgust. Totally a case of shallow and cheap manipulation, and seeing people rave about it makes ME feel disconnected. I fucking love your comment section and how people are still upset about it.
About your SHELTER "review", this is how I see it, read carefully:
A guy watches SHELTER, puts his hand in his pants and grabs his woody, but is immediately reminded woody is very tiny and small. Guy loses will to play, is enraged, goes to MAL and writes about his small woody.
And that is all your SHELTER "review" really is - a reflection of your own complexes and physical insufficiency / limitation.
EDIT: Like in any and every Japanese Anime, story is completely secondary, cute girls are first. If you can't fathom that then you shouldn't watch Japanese Anime. You don't seem to realize cute and beautiful girls are the meaning of life and the meaning of Anime. When I see a cute girl like Rin in any story, I feel happy and I focus only on that. Look at the Japanese market, everywhere you look you will see a cute girl or cute anime girl on media covers and also on adult toys box covers. There are even entire occupations and places where cute women dress like underage schoolgirls.
You seem to be enraged because Rin is beautiful... What you write about is reflecting your own complexes and insecurities and as such YOU are offending people who love SHELTER. Don't use a "review" to push your opinion on others.
I see your so-called review as calling to hate and gather other males with insecurities.
LEAVE YOUR INSECURITIES IN YOUR PANTS. DON'T WRITE REVIEWS BASED ON THEM.
And your taste for music is awful. EDM is amazing.
Just read your Hourou Musuko review.It was a really wonderful series but I have to say that I had a hard time believing that I was actually watching some school anime thanks to the maturity level of these kids.It is nice to see someone really appreciates this as this anime is really underrated.
A bit random*, but I’m curious where you draw the line between taking inspiration from something (which is generally perceived neutrally) and outright “copying” it (which tends to have a negative perception). Though for all I know you may not esteem originality that much, I’m still curious what you thought the difference is. Both involve a degree of borrowing ideas.
*Random thought generation process:
Thinking about how Slayers is a fun fantasy anime —> thinking about the fantasy genre generally —> thinking about how Tolkien is considered the “father” of the modern fantasy genre, especially in novels —> thinking about what would separate taking inspiration from Tolkien and copying him —> thinking about how Zerg thinks most people shouldn’t try to be writers —> wondering what Zerg specifically thinks about taking inspiration vs. copying
Do you ever plan on bringing back your Yudina character? I found it amusing.
I also enjoyed your essay on anime criticism, although I'm surprised you didn't arrive sooner at the most obvious answer. You want to know why Digibro, Snob, and us MAL reviewers can't write and think at the level of Harold Bloom? That's like wondering why my Prius is losing drag races against Lamborghinis. To paraphrase Carville, it's the engine stupid! Now I personally think Harold Bloom is kind of an Anglo-centric asshole whose strong objective over subjective approach to art feels a tad antiquated. However, the man has an Ivy League education. He was born with a genius IQ. It's unsurprising that his overall capacity to think and write vastly eclipses what any of us current anime reviewers could ever do. I'm perfectly fine with accepting that Mr. Bloom is a LOT smarter than I will ever be. Anime is mostly a small and niche community of geeks with shitty education and average intelligence. At least the English speaking anime community. The best anime reviewers will ALWAYS be vastly below the best art critics and literary theorists. I will transmute my own excrement into gold before Digifag becomes Clement Greenberg.
Oh and as to why there is no definitive interpretation of Ergo Proxy, I have ideas. I think the more abstract and avant garde a work gets, the more elusive a generally agreed upon interpretation becomes. Let's look at the final scene for example.When Vincent claims that the real fight is just beginning and he is the Proxy at Death, is he really going to kill the returning humans and do exactly what Proxy One wanted? Perhaps he's saying the fight for humanity's survival and rebuilding the Earth is just beginning and his Proxy of Death quote is meant to evoke Heisenberg's somber quoting of the Bhagavad Gita. Vincent is showing remorse for having killed all the rest of his species.The writer of the series sure hasn't said anything. I think he wants us to create our own answers like Oshii stated with Angel's Egg or Anno has said about End of Eva. At least no definitive answer is better than the whole community swallowing a stupid interpretation like Eva was all about Hegel and Hideaki Anno is secretly a Hegelian scholar like Karl Marx. I'm pretty sure Anno was too busy watching Cutie Honey and collecting Tokusatsu figures to have read all of Hegel. He has read some Freud and Jung though to help with depression. That's why he named a character Jung Freud in Gunbuster...because subtlety.
A cute character design isn't 'manipulating our basest emotions' its just moe, which is what anime is about
'The idea that this should be taken as a story or a music video', Oh but this IS a story in a music video, PROFESSIONALLY drawn, animated, edited and produced by PROFESSIONALS
'Its ability to bring out the loneliness lost in the profundity of memory', Is not completely superficial. It's relatable and human.
'One might say that it's only a six minute short', But it is though ? The video's own neglect of that story', What ?
You then say 'Sure it can be cute, but that does not preclude it from being utterly trite.' which is the truest thing you do say. Followed by 'Shelter offends its audience by presenting us with its fascinating visuals, the ostensible undertones of a post-apocalyptic world, the perceived loneliness of being potentially the last human in the universe, but gives us nothing more than the lowest common denominator of a story, one that galvanizes its sympathies out of the most mundane and pathetic tricks in the book, and half-expects us to take it seriously'. Lol.
Thanks for this review, i haven't had a good laugh all day.
Edit: This comment took 6 minutes to write like your review did all while listening to Shelter
All Comments (2197) Comments
Just too busy with other things.
How is this still a thing? Came online just to comment on this hilarity.
A guy watches SHELTER, puts his hand in his pants and grabs his woody, but is immediately reminded woody is very tiny and small. Guy loses will to play, is enraged, goes to MAL and writes about his small woody.
And that is all your SHELTER "review" really is - a reflection of your own complexes and physical insufficiency / limitation.
EDIT: Like in any and every Japanese Anime, story is completely secondary, cute girls are first. If you can't fathom that then you shouldn't watch Japanese Anime. You don't seem to realize cute and beautiful girls are the meaning of life and the meaning of Anime. When I see a cute girl like Rin in any story, I feel happy and I focus only on that. Look at the Japanese market, everywhere you look you will see a cute girl or cute anime girl on media covers and also on adult toys box covers. There are even entire occupations and places where cute women dress like underage schoolgirls.
You seem to be enraged because Rin is beautiful... What you write about is reflecting your own complexes and insecurities and as such YOU are offending people who love SHELTER. Don't use a "review" to push your opinion on others.
I see your so-called review as calling to hate and gather other males with insecurities.
LEAVE YOUR INSECURITIES IN YOUR PANTS. DON'T WRITE REVIEWS BASED ON THEM.
And your taste for music is awful. EDM is amazing.
Has this person actually copied your hourou musuko review???
https://oocentral.ca/2018/02/07/hourou-musuko-an-underrated-anime/
*Random thought generation process:
I also enjoyed your essay on anime criticism, although I'm surprised you didn't arrive sooner at the most obvious answer. You want to know why Digibro, Snob, and us MAL reviewers can't write and think at the level of Harold Bloom? That's like wondering why my Prius is losing drag races against Lamborghinis. To paraphrase Carville, it's the engine stupid! Now I personally think Harold Bloom is kind of an Anglo-centric asshole whose strong objective over subjective approach to art feels a tad antiquated. However, the man has an Ivy League education. He was born with a genius IQ. It's unsurprising that his overall capacity to think and write vastly eclipses what any of us current anime reviewers could ever do. I'm perfectly fine with accepting that Mr. Bloom is a LOT smarter than I will ever be. Anime is mostly a small and niche community of geeks with shitty education and average intelligence. At least the English speaking anime community. The best anime reviewers will ALWAYS be vastly below the best art critics and literary theorists. I will transmute my own excrement into gold before Digifag becomes Clement Greenberg.
Oh and as to why there is no definitive interpretation of Ergo Proxy, I have ideas. I think the more abstract and avant garde a work gets, the more elusive a generally agreed upon interpretation becomes. Let's look at the final scene for example.When Vincent claims that the real fight is just beginning and he is the Proxy at Death, is he really going to kill the returning humans and do exactly what Proxy One wanted? Perhaps he's saying the fight for humanity's survival and rebuilding the Earth is just beginning and his Proxy of Death quote is meant to evoke Heisenberg's somber quoting of the Bhagavad Gita. Vincent is showing remorse for having killed all the rest of his species.The writer of the series sure hasn't said anything. I think he wants us to create our own answers like Oshii stated with Angel's Egg or Anno has said about End of Eva. At least no definitive answer is better than the whole community swallowing a stupid interpretation like Eva was all about Hegel and Hideaki Anno is secretly a Hegelian scholar like Karl Marx. I'm pretty sure Anno was too busy watching Cutie Honey and collecting Tokusatsu figures to have read all of Hegel. He has read some Freud and Jung though to help with depression. That's why he named a character Jung Freud in Gunbuster...because subtlety.
A cute character design isn't 'manipulating our basest emotions' its just moe, which is what anime is about
'The idea that this should be taken as a story or a music video', Oh but this IS a story in a music video, PROFESSIONALLY drawn, animated, edited and produced by PROFESSIONALS
'Its ability to bring out the loneliness lost in the profundity of memory', Is not completely superficial. It's relatable and human.
'One might say that it's only a six minute short', But it is though ? The video's own neglect of that story', What ?
You then say 'Sure it can be cute, but that does not preclude it from being utterly trite.' which is the truest thing you do say. Followed by 'Shelter offends its audience by presenting us with its fascinating visuals, the ostensible undertones of a post-apocalyptic world, the perceived loneliness of being potentially the last human in the universe, but gives us nothing more than the lowest common denominator of a story, one that galvanizes its sympathies out of the most mundane and pathetic tricks in the book, and half-expects us to take it seriously'. Lol.
Thanks for this review, i haven't had a good laugh all day.
Edit: This comment took 6 minutes to write like your review did all while listening to Shelter