Ulyses
Lower-High Tier Otter
Posts: 275
Likes: 315
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Post by Ulyses on Feb 12, 2016 17:09:27 GMT -5
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Post by Noble Cactus on Feb 18, 2016 4:29:09 GMT -5
Local bear girl becomes god
Just finished Lain. It's alright.
I feel like it could have been condensed to a six episode OVA and it still would have been able to convey all of the themes it attempts to explore. There's a lot of fluff surrounding the genuinely juicy bits.
It's also strange to see how antiquated it is in some ways. But for that reason, it's best to watch the show from the perspective of someone living in 1998 Japan. The Internet had only arrived two years earlier. The notion that the Internet is merely closing the informational gaps that human exceptionalism had so valiantly struggled to separate was brand new, as was the idea that abstract ideals and concepts could take on corporeal forms of their own through shared public consciousness. We take this brand of necromancy for granted now in our wired world, but for your average Japanese citizen, it was probably both terrifying and fascinating at the same time.
That's where I feel Lain draws a lot of its strength from. It's a decent anthropological work that could have been much stronger if it had only focused on those themes. Unfortunately, the show has an odd tendency to introduce numerous plot points that only hastily get tied together at the very end.
Take the Roswell/alien hoax episode. The whole point of that segment is to demonstrate how it doesn't matter whether an event actually happened or not in the real world to be considered 'real'; ideas and concepts can become entire religions unto their own if enough people perpetuate them to become subcultures. So the idea is interesting. It's just not conveyed in the most elegant way possible, and ends up looking kind of corny. It also makes for a rather boring episode.
In short, I enjoyed the first four or so episodes, and the last two. The show raises lots of important themes about perspective and the "lives" that seemingly-lifeless things take on through interpretation, which is still relevant to us today. But I can't say that it presents all of those themes in an interesting or thought-provoking manner until after you think back on the show and set aside all of the narrative stumbling.
It's also important to remember that Lain is an experimental anime, where its creators tried alternative storytelling methods to weave together a narrative in which nothing is tied down (because, after all, ideas are given an anchoring form both through collective definition and, as Lain herself learned, through self-definition). That doesn't mean that the experiments always bear fruit, of course. But it gets a bit of a pass in that department for that reason.
It's also amusing, once again, to see where bits and pieves of Madoka's premise come from. Since we were on the subject.
Now back to SZS.
~
I just realized that the guy who directed Lain also directed the steaming pile that is the Crystania movie. That was actually his first project, and Lain was his second. Strange how things work out.
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Post by Noble Cactus on Mar 7, 2016 5:19:56 GMT -5
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Post by laziestusernameever on Mar 8, 2016 14:30:15 GMT -5
Honey and Clover is a good show
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Post by Noble Cactus on Apr 1, 2016 4:06:38 GMT -5
Things I have done recently:
- Rewatched Nichijou. A more sophisticated approach to gag comedy? Watch it if you haven't. Achieves great humor with zero smut, a rare feat for Japan. - Started watching Beck: God Damn Mongorians at a friend's behest. It's a well-done show, but not my cup of tea. When it comes to this kind of subject matter (edgy kids start a rock band), I'm always disappointed by how shallow it feels. Maybe it's the hipster that's been ingrained in me, or maybe it's my having grown up hearing my dad's tales of being an LA punk at the height of its short lifespan countless times. Whatever the case, I'm just not interested. - Watched Little Itis Academia 2. I'm pretty sure you're only supposed to watch these for the delightful facial animations (actually, all of the charming animations) and Sucy. And the redhead girl now, I guess. Don't forget to donate more money or something. - Ren and Stimpy.
Reading Material: - I've been wiling away the long work hours by reading Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou. It's a slow, easy, contemplative read with a very comfy minimalist style. Each chapter seems to be meant to be read as a small contemplation on the sweetness of a single moment, especially in a world that has lost much of its former busy lifestyle and now lives in quiet villages and humble towns. Also, the faces are just adorable in this manga. I can't power read more than a volume at a time, though. - Helck. A well-written, well-drawn Fantasy manga with a very unfortunate name. As if it were going to be anything beyond cult material anyway. Without spoiling too much, I'll just say that it tells a rather conventional Fantasy story with a lot of unique twists. There's also a fair amount of earservice, if you're into that kind of thing.
"A brown skinned cutie Immortal will never jab you in the cheek with her knifeears ;_;" - Someone in /a/ who may or may not also post here
Also, the main character is :stern: incarnate.
What's to Come:
- SZS season 2? - :opmsweat: ? - Who knows!
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Jin
Lower-High Tier Otter
Posts: 318
Likes: 310
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Post by Jin on Apr 1, 2016 14:30:41 GMT -5
I think that Nodame Cantabile and Sakamichi no Apollon are better than Beck if you want musical shows but maybe that's just me. They're pretty different overall but still have the band elements to them with the member's struggles and such.
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Post by Noble Cactus on Apr 6, 2016 4:05:08 GMT -5
I finished Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou. For once, I feel at ease with the passage of time. I think that Nodame Cantabile and Sakamichi no Apollon are better than Beck if you want musical shows but maybe that's just me. They're pretty different overall but still have the band elements to them with the member's struggles and such. Yeah, I suppose one watches these shows to see how individuals overcome their personal struggles through the power of friendship sharing their hardships with one another.
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