Anime Chat Thread

[Zoma]

AHH! Those are good, but the second one is too large of a file size. ;_;

Slightly reduced

[Solo mish]

If you have an image in mind, I can try shrinking it down to avatar limits.

my avatar needs a nice black frame like those ones.

[Fuzzykins]

Slightly reduced

I only have Reddit anime gifs, so they'll have to do.

[Zoma]

my avatar needs a nice black frame like those ones.

[Solo mish]

Cheers m8.

[Maxweii]

You never showed me that song to explain why Rob Swire reminds you of Serj!

Ah shit, effort. I will try to before I get absorbed by Naxx, which is already happening

Heading to bed peepz. only said this so i can remind Maxy to not forget to link the manga he found last night with bals.

It wasn't last night it was like a week or so ago lol

[NotValidAnymore]

I only have Reddit anime gifs, so they'll have to do.
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/BL2BelG.gif[IMG]

I can hear Rikka going "auw" just from that gif. It's so cute.

[Radio]

O-oh jeez... Well, I'll definitely try to be a bit less idiotic than that. >_>

That would be wise, Otae is a fearful woman.

[Sesto]

Jormungand: Perfect Order - Well, finished it. Can definitely see why people might dislike the ending. The end to the 3rd last episode where Koko reveals her plan was absolutely amazing, as was the beginning of the 2nd last episode. I especially liked Jonah's reasoning for denying Koko: he just thought it was wrong, and didn't have much of an rebuttal to argue against her. With a normal MC I would have rolled my eyes, but seeing as he is just a child I thought that was amazingly well done.

That said, the last episode was just a mess. A sudden 2 year skip, with a bunch of exposition about how the world is fucked. Jonah leaves Kasper, not surprising. But him joining with Koko again and her activating Jormungand seems... silly. Even with a quantum computer Koko is going to have a hard time controlling the world to keep world peace. What Kasper said about how he'll sell cudgels if he has to is exactly right -- war isn't going to go away just because she has control over everything, it'll just become more contained.

It's just silly to end it with that, especially when apparently the anime adapted the entire manga. Honestly I would have preferred her dropping the idea of Jormungand or something, and have Jonah not join up again so he can leave war behind. Because as it stands Koko being "right" is just plain dumb, and the ending itself is incredibly anticlimactic since Jonah leaving was entirely pointless.

Anyway, ignoring that, it was amazing. Gunfights were fucking awesome, characters were all great, and the plot was (mostly) good. Koko is probably the best part -- undoubtedly one of my favourite female characters in all of anime. She's hilarious, insane, dangerous, and good looking to top it all off. Pure perfection.

[Neichus]

Gankutsuou - The Count of Monte Cristo - 8/10

Gankutsuou is not a duplicate of The Count of Monte Cristo, nor does it aspire to be. It makes some significant changes to the plot, focus, and pacing. My experience as somebody who has read and enjoyed the original was that most of their alterations worked, and worked well. It was simply best to forget exactly how the original played out, although of course I was privy to the whole story from the beginning. However, at the same time there were some liberties that I did disagree with and feel made the series worse for its departure from the source.

When judging this series I tried to keep them separate, but frankly failed (I know how you manga readers feel now). My "bad" section is principally given over to comparison. Whether this is fair or not I'm not sure, but I try to explain why I feel the changes were bad ones rather than simply saying, "Oh but it's different!"

The Good: The visuals are strange, but oddly mesmerizing after a while. It doesn't look like any other series I've seen, and that definitely lent a certain charm to it. The kind of surreal aspect worked particularly well at the Carnival at the beginning as well as the ritzy scenes in Paris, highlighting the superficiality of the society: full of glitz and glamour but oddly two-dimensional. Beyond this it was just plain enjoyable to see how they used it at times, even if it didn't have meaning.

The Count. It's hard to go wrong with the source material and for the most part he transitioned well. He is foreboding, charismatic, impressive, terrifying, commanding, mysterious, generous, and dangerous. He's one of the main reasons why the original book is so riveting, and continues his dominance into the anime as well. In particular, what makes the Count so interesting is his mixture of traits. Edmond Dantes is like a gentle painting, through which a sword has been slashed. Neither the original painting nor the cut are the "real him"; it is only together that they make up the man who is now the Count. Because of this there is no simple way to separate the two any more, and it makes his acts all the more interesting as he visits generosity on some and hellfire on others. It is no longer easy to say, "He is a good man who does some bad things" or "he is a bad man who does some good things." He is the checkered person that he is.

That said, I also want to give a special mention to Haydee and other female supports. While Haydee's general role and major scenes don't change between the two (spoiler?), they enhanced her character a bit and animated it beautifully. I have to admit, I was captivated by her when she was on-screen. Her varied expressions of anger, shock, sadness, longing, terror, and complete rage (spoilers in last?) were amazing to watch. Peppo was also a fun character who's role was massively expanded from the original, but who also worked quite well (and I still maintain he was FAR too cute to be male). Even Eugenie develops reasonably and is given enough screen time to transform her elegantly from my first impression of "aristocratic shopping bimbo" to somebody worthy of interest.

Finally, I want to tip a hat to how they translated so much of the show into the future. I in fact avoided watching this series for some time because the premise struck me as so absurd. But it was the little things like the Count using a recorder hidden in the watch, the DNA evidence against Villefort, etc that fit right in despite obviously not belonging to the original.

The Bad: Some of the Count's changes. There were two primary changes which I strongly disagree with in the series. The first is that the Count dies. The second is that he gained his power through a contract with some sort of supernatural being.

The reason I dislike the first is because it was important to the message in the original. (Book spoilers)In the original the Count is successful with his revenge: he destroys Villefort's reputation, Danglar's finances, and Morcerf's future (in fact, in the original his son and wife simply leave and realizing he's lost everything he commits suicide; the whole attack-on-Paris thing never happens) and gets his revenge. However, the final scenes are of him now intending to commit suicide after he's returned Valentine (who in the book was actually thought to be dead for most of it) to Maximilien (who is really Albert's inspiration, since he is the innocent one in the book). He has nothing to live for in his mind. This is when Haydee comes in and importantly impresses on him that there were people who did care for him and that his life wasn't entirely encompassed by revenge. They depart on a voyage around the world, the end.

The change to having the Count die in the anime modified this greatly, since he essentially was consumed by revenge until the end. While the counterbalance that he did some good (like saving Haydee and others) is still there, it isn't nearly as strong. Especially because they eliminate the vast majority of scenes in the book where the Count uses his great wealth and power for kindness. And this leads me into the next aspect...

And that is that the Count becomes significantly less interesting in the final few episodes. In the original (I bet you're getting tired of that phrase) the Count is the Worlds Most Interesting Man by his own merit. He was granted immense wealth because of his association with an imprisoned priest at Chateu d'If, but all of his other skills were the effort of self-training and will. Again, that's what makes his character so great because he's come to where he is after much roaming about the world, seeing and experiencing many things; this also highlights the essential waste of his revenge, that he's done so much only to return just for this. Also as I mentioned above, the Count's character is a checkered one that is not easy to classify as good or evil. In the anime, Edmond Dantes is good, Gankutsuou is evil. While that can be seen as a metaphor, it lacks the depth that somebody who's good and evil is twisted up together has.

In fact, in the original (that phrase again) he is upset by some of the collateral damage he causes. The biggest thing is actually an aspect the series makes much more light of: Madam Villefort commits suicide and takes her son with her. The Count is shocked by this because it totally fell outside his expectations and he feels great remorse, and even questions his revenge, knowing that it has resulted in the death of an innocent child. In the end he continues because his rage drives him, but it's not the same, "Bwahahaha evil" Count you get in the end of the anime.

Albert as the main character. Like every powerless young male character ever, his principle abilities are to cry the names of his friends repeatedly and break down in tears (I'll give him credit, he wasn't Raki-level at least). The problem is that there are so many better characters in this show, namely the Count himself. But being an anime, it's like it couldn't resist making the protagonist a teenager with his first love interest. I guess I should at least be grateful he wasn't attending school and sitting in the back left corner near the window.

Anyway, I still give this series a hearty recommendation. Despite my above complaints I was still enthralled through most of the series and a respectable adaptation of the original (he said it again!).

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Anyway, ignoring that, it was amazing. Gunfights were fucking awesome, characters were all great, and the plot was (mostly) good. Koko is probably the best part -- undoubtedly one of my favourite female characters in all of anime. She's hilarious, insane, dangerous, and good looking to top it all off. Pure perfection.

Sorry I can't read most of your review. The series is on my list to watch so I don't want to read the spoilers. That said, I'm guessing from watching the gif that Koko is not quite Balalaika.

[Hemoglobin]

@Neichus - Do you think your score would of been higher if you'd gone in not having read the original? The alterations you disagreed with may have not been as much of an issue (or potentially not an issue at all) had you not had the original to compare them to.

[Neichus]

@Neichus - Do you think your score would of been higher if you'd gone in not having read the original? The alterations you disagreed with may have not been as much of an issue (or potentially not an issue at all) had you not had the original to compare them to.

Almost certainly. I tried really hard to not spend every bit of the series thinking "gee, did this happen in the book?" And for the most part I was successful. I didn't even mind Franz dying as a change, since it was a good way to demonstrate the collateral damage that occurred due to revenge. But it really hit me near the end when it diverged the most and I found myself thinking, "I liked the book a lot better on this part." The end just had a more anime-y feel to it. I don't know how to describe it, but that generally means being a bit more dramatic, sentimental, and waxing poetic on war-and-peace.

[Brincamian]

Gankutsuou (from the perspective of someone who hadn't read the original) was best when there was mystery surrounding the count. Once all was revealed, the show was not quite as good. Still far from bad, though.

[Maxweii]

I can hear Rikka going "auw" just from that gif. It's so cute.

Danmit Grading now that's all I see from it now >.>

[Hemoglobin]

Almost certainly. I tried really hard to not spend every bit of the series thinking "gee, did this happen in the book?" And for the most part I was successful. I didn't even mind Franz dying as a change, since it was a good way to demonstrate the collateral damage that occurred due to revenge. But it really hit me near the end when it diverged the most and I found myself thinking, "I liked the book a lot better on this part." The end just had a more anime-y feel to it. I don't know how to describe it, but that generally means being a bit more dramatic, sentimental, and waxing poetic on war-and-peace.

That's unfortunate. Having only seen the movie it's obviously different from reading the book, but I think it actually enhanced my experience with Gankutsuou. I enjoyed the alterations they made and seeing how they would spin certain aspects of the original plot. I don't think it would have been as good if it had been a straight adaption and I enjoyed Gankutsuou considerably more than the movie. My thoughts could of course change if I read the book, which I'm sure is a lot better than the movie. Which I should do. It's currently a few feet from me in my closet lol.

Everyone should watch Gankutsuou. One of the best anime ever made.

[Neichus]

My thoughts could of course change if I read the book, which I'm sure is a lot better than the movie. Which I should do. It's currently a few feet from me in my closet lol.

Yeah, it's an enjoyable read. I'm not any kind of sophisticated literary critic, but it seems like when I read classics they only sometimes transition well. For instance I'm re-reading Crime and Punishment right now and still impressed by its power (although can't say I "enjoy" it in the same way). By comparison I read Moby Dick years ago...never again. What a long, dull book that takes 500 pages to get to its point and iconic scene of Captain Ahab shouting, "From the depths of hell I stab at thee!" as he pursues the white whale to his ruin.

Monte Cristo was definitely on the more enjoyable end of the spectrum.

Edit: Interesting side fact: Alexandre Dumas' family history was an inspiration for the story. His father was a popular military officer who, very unusually for the time, was also half-black. But he fell afoul of Napoleon and court politics and was stripped of his rank and money.

Edit edit: every time I read his name I think of this scene from Shawshank Redemption.

[Sesto]

Oh lol, just read a scene in F/HA that might as well be renamed "fixing inconsistencies: the scene".

One thing that always bothered me was how in Fate/Stay Night, it says Kiritsugu leaves his wife and child behind (image has F/Z spoilers). Which literally makes no sense, given that Irisviel clearly goes with him in F/Z. F/HA's solution to that inconsistency is to just flat out say the line in F/SN was a lie. Which makes sense, I suppose, given that (I think) the first scene was narrated by Shirou, who would have no idea about what happened in the fourth war.

Then there's how (very minor f/sn spoilers) Saber doesn't recognize (or even say anything about) Illya when they first meet, which doesn't really make sense, again given what happened in Fate/Zero. This one was also given a reasonable explanation.

It kinda felt weird reading it seeing as they were clearly put there to fix inconsistencies that were created with Fate/Zero, but they were actually pretty reasonable explanations. And I think the ending to the scene makes it one of my favourites so far.



And for the Gankutsuou talk: I had no exposure to the Count of Monte Cristo before watching it, so that may explain why I enjoyed it so much. And yes, Neichus, Peppo was extremely cute.

[Zatheyll]

Pure genius.

[Solo mish]

Pure genius.

thanks japan.

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why havn't i dropped this show yet?

[Deleted]

Oh lol, just read a scene in F/HA that might as well be renamed "fixing inconsistencies: the scene".

One thing that always bothered me was how in Fate/Stay Night, it says Kiritsugu leaves his wife and child behind (image has F/Z spoilers).

Retconning?
F/SN came 2004, F/Z 2006.

Pure genius.

Sasuga Japan