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Seiji
Totoro
Registration Date: 07.29.06
Location: USA
Posts: 968 |
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Maybe you should read the manga Saddle. It probably isn't so disjointed at the end. Anyways, yeah, I've been meaning to check it out. I'll go watch some on youtube when I get the chance.
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 03.30.2007, 07:35 PM |
  
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foreignfilmfreak
Miyazaki's Best Friend
Registration Date: 10.02.06
Location: Japan
Posts: 7589 |
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I'm getting my guinea pig to.
I have to finish four small series, and catch up watching Bleach and Tsubasa. And I've got too much manga and books as it is. My friend likes what I say guinea pig means.
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| 03.30.2007, 07:38 PM |
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Roarkiller
Your Daddy-O
Registration Date: 06.03.03
Location: Home, resting...
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As Will Smith said, "Somehow, I told you so... just doesn't quite say it."
I watch a fair amount of romance anime (more so than other enres actually), so I have a good respect for the genre. So, no.
For romance, I recommend Ai Yori Aoshi, and again, preferably in subs. The series may not seem like much in the beginning until you reach the end. Also, DO NOT watch the sequel; it's just 12 eps of fillers.
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quote:
Originally posted by fenkashi
Screw your opinions, they are not relevant ^^.
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| 03.30.2007, 11:50 PM |
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Saddletank
Miyazaki's Best Friend
Registration Date: 09.28.06
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quote:
Originally posted by Roarkiller
As Will Smith said, "Somehow, I told you so... just doesn't quite say it."
It's not that, until the last 3 or 4 eps when things get very disjointed and its painfully obvious that someone at GAINAX just wasn't doing their management job proiperly, the series was excellent.
I would even stick my neck out and say that for lovely artwork, strong character design, character depth and development, complex relationships and angst, this is probably up there alongside NGE.
No, don't laugh, I'm serious. What it does it does bloody well. EVA has a stupendous ending (even the TV series, forget the movies) and the inner struggle theme is unequalled anywhere in anime, but with Kare Kano you get the most eye wateringly good humour, a deliciously pretty female lead who is both cute and tragicallly mixed up at the same time and of course some heartstopping lovely romance.
Because the strong romantic moments are so rare they are that much more effective when they do come - their first hug takes them a month to reach and their first kiss about a month after that. And when they do finally make love the build up (a whole episode of him gradually having more and more urgent thoughts about her) is tension perfected, the final acceptance by her in a bus shelter whose roof is dripping rain is symbolically exquisite and the actual encounter is a blank screen with peaceful music and some coloured lights followed by a much younger her losing her hat in a strong wind - it blows away across a field and is caught by a young him. The symbols are just lovely, the whole scene brought a lump to my throat.
I did in fact see the manga today in a city bookshop near me. I would have started collecting it but vol 1 wasn't there. I checked out the holding hands, kiss and lovemaking scenes in the manga and I can tell you the anime does it much better.
The character artwork in the anime is superior to that in the manga, the colour alone brings the thing alive.
What the manga does is go on a lot longer. I'd say the anime is just the first (ooh, rough guess) 6 or 7 manga vols out of 15.
But for angst and some dark moments the anime seems to have everything the manga does.
But, no, Roar, do please watch the anime, at least up to ep 23. The last two-three are messy although we do get a sort of conclusion for the 2 main characters, even if it's a "despite the doubts and setbacks we'll carry on" conclusion.
@Roar - thanks for the heads up on Ai Yori Aoshi, I'll check it out.
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Post last edited by Saddletank on 03.31.2007, 05:27 PM.
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| 03.31.2007, 05:22 PM |
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Roarkiller
Your Daddy-O
Registration Date: 06.03.03
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From what I heard, the anime barely has half the amount of drama the manga has. But then you have to remember that the anime is geared towards humour, while the manga is geared towards drama.
---SPOILERS---
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...
For example, Yukino's history is a little simple, so I guess it should be covered pretty well in the anime (she simply wants everyone to see her as perfect, hence her outer shell), but the secret Arima has goes much deeper. According to summaries, the anime barely touched on Arima's life, which holds the biggest storyline in the series. From his distorted family history to his own nightmarish childhood, to his having to face the "family curse" and his nightmares right there and then.
The manga also has a twist towards the end which pretty much almost made things even more complicated, if not for the obvious hints and the predictability of romance stories.
Besides that, the manga also focuses on other relationships as well, like Maho's relationship with a man much older than her, Tonami and Sakura's (slightly) twisted relationship, just to name a few.
The anime is only the tip of the iceberg. In fact, a LOT of anime based on manga is but the tip of the iceberg. You look at titles like XXXholic, Here is Greenwood, Ai Yori Aoshi (although the manga sux bad for this one), Prince of Tennis... the list goes on.
I'm not really dissing the anime. But the manga just offers so much more.
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quote:
Originally posted by fenkashi
Screw your opinions, they are not relevant ^^.
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| 04.01.2007, 11:49 AM |
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Saddletank
Miyazaki's Best Friend
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SPOILERS
I'm going to disagree. All the dark background of Arima's family history was in the anime to a very twisted degree. The physical abuse, the hatred by his living relatives, the sordid background of his parents... The one thing missing was the twist in the ending because the anime simply stops at about vol 7 or 8 of the manga.
A number of other characters in the anime are explored in enough depth that their stories take up whole episodes or two episodes each: Arima's uncle (now his surrogate father); Yukino's youngest sister; Tsubasa Shibahime who's backgroud is really really mixed up.
Agreed we don't see Maho's involvement with the older man although it's mentioned in passing. We see only Maho's battle with Yukino and their later friendship.
I think the level of humour is much higher (for TV obviously) and perhaps replaces some of the darkness but enough angst is left to make these characters all interesting and in some cases very sympathetic. As you say the manga goes on longer and the relationship between Takefumi Tonami and Tsubaki Sakura only begins in eps 25 and 26, and the anime ends before we really get to understand much about them (apart from Sakura's bullying of Tonami in elementary school).
But I would say that the romance aspects of the story come across better when animated - perhaps GAINAX concentrated on these more for TV, knowing it would pull in ratings?
But, yes, I will get hold of the manga when I can find vol 1.
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Post last edited by Saddletank on 04.01.2007, 02:29 PM.
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| 04.01.2007, 02:26 PM |
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Saddletank
Miyazaki's Best Friend
Registration Date: 09.28.06
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Which I have now read, all 21 volumes.
And yes, it is pretty dark and intense. Its really two stories isn't it? The high school romance ends at about half way through the manga and after that the focus shifts to 'family stories' I guess, for want of a better name, mainly Arima's.
And yes, agreed there is some very bleak and grim stuff in there. I was moved to tears several times - suicides, gang violence, severe child abuse, extortion, rape (referred to in a person's past not actually depicted).
So, yes, a very tough story.
I was quite mortified and even uncomfortable with Maho's relationship with the man 12 years older than her. Considering she met him when she was 14 and went into his apartment and confessed that she loved him, that really spooked me. You just would not get such a subject being raised outside of 18 rated movies in the west; the whole paedophile thing of modern times made that set of scenes some of the darkest and most unsettling (even though he never laid a finger on her - the potential was there and made turning each page something of an ordeal).
But immensely satisfying too, it wasn't all "happily ever after" for everyone but close enough to not leave you looking for the razor blade drawer.
Highly recommended. In fact the anime and manga complement each other very well.
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"An old man like me stands no chance fighting against a high school girl in her underwear" - Oshino Meme, Nekomonogatari (Kuro)
Post last edited by Saddletank on 05.24.2007, 05:01 PM.
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| 05.24.2007, 04:56 PM |
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Roarkiller
Your Daddy-O
Registration Date: 06.03.03
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Then again, the legal age for sex in Japan is 15  And honestly, it ain't uncommon for a girl that young to fall in love with a guy that old. Some local survey states that the girls do that because they feel older men are more mature and can take care of them better.
Not that I know anyway, I'm loveless for all 23 yrs of my life.
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quote:
Originally posted by fenkashi
Screw your opinions, they are not relevant ^^.
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| 05.25.2007, 12:24 AM |
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arren18
Administrator
Registration Date: 08.15.06
Location: Edinburgh
Posts: 10671 |
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quote:
Originally posted by Roarkiller
Then again, the legal age for sex in Japan is 15
I'm having to resist making a very immature comment just now.
But really, isn't a 12-year gap a bit much?
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| 05.25.2007, 05:22 AM |
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Saddletank
Miyazaki's Best Friend
Registration Date: 09.28.06
Location: On your case
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She was 14 when she began the relationship - however the manga makes it reasonably clear that she was still a virgin at 18 when she went to New York to visit him (and presumably marry?). He went to the States to do research at the end of her first year of high school when she was 16, and she waited two years before finishing school, so in the end a 'clean' story.
Even so, not the most comfortable of subjects, regardless of the age of consent in Japan being lower than in the UK (where it's 16).
The fact that she is such a beautiful child and that in more than one scene the older man is seeing struggling with his natural urges (and just overcoming them) was what made me so nervous.
I'd like to mention that I ploughed through the last 4 volumes all in one sitting ending at 2am in the morning. I just could not put these books down, they were that gripping.
Seeing the way Tsuda draws the kids as they get older was interesting, gradually almost all the manga-y stuff fell away and it became a fully adult story, both in subject matter and art style.
What was nice was that there wasn't a single ecchi image in the whole thing, no nudity, no underwear, nothing. All the sexual relations were implied or abstracted or dealt with 'off stage' and that seemed to heighten these events rather than detract from them.
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"An old man like me stands no chance fighting against a high school girl in her underwear" - Oshino Meme, Nekomonogatari (Kuro)
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| 05.25.2007, 03:51 PM |
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Roarkiller
Your Daddy-O
Registration Date: 06.03.03
Location: Home, resting...
Posts: 6077 |
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quote:
Originally posted by Saddletank
What was nice was that there wasn't a single ecchi image in the whole thing, no nudity, no underwear, nothing. All the sexual relations were implied or abstracted or dealt with 'off stage' and that seemed to heighten these events rather than detract from them.
You'll be a big fan of Shoujo manga. Mostly, anyway. But of course, manga targeted at girls wouldn't have those sort of things.
__________________
I am me.
I am who I am.
I am Roarkiller.
No one else is me.
Roarkiller.net
Isakaya High RPG Site
quote:
Originally posted by fenkashi
Screw your opinions, they are not relevant ^^.
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| 05.25.2007, 11:48 PM |
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