Neo's review - Podcast 24

Neoculture here, with the much belated Episode 24 review. I apologise for the delay but, as I said in my previous review, I had somehow managed to miss this webcast.

No worries, let's get cracking!

This episode looked at Anime in America - more specifically, can mature Anime be brought to mainstream TV? My take on this is "no". Not as things stand. Look at the stuff being brought over to US TV at the moment and it is all tied to a toy line - from Pokemon onwards. Anything which has to stand on its own merit (i.e., not make money from plastic crap or CCG sold to little kiddies) has no hope of even being considered. Which is a shame, but seems to be endemic of how the US citizenry (at large) views things. Anybody remember when a Manga called Xenon got brought over to the States? One chapter had the protagonist's girlfriend escaping from a combat zone with a head-wound and ripped (ok, missing) clothes. The US censors reaction to the bare nipples was very loud indeed - the compromise was to add more blood to the panels and obscure anything. Ahhh, America - violence is OK, but heaven help you if you have a wardrobe malfunction. When free-to-air TV here in OZ shows Anime movies such as "Grave of the Fireflies" (last Monday), Evangelion and DeathNote I despair for our trans-Pacific neighbours.

Lupin III - blast from the past, although the Bond reference was not quite right... Lupin is the grandson of the famous (fictional) French thief, Arsene Lupin.

Will live-action help promote Anime outside of Japan? Maybe. I have high hope for the "Uchuu Senkan Yamato" ("space cruiser yamato", a.k.a. "starblazer") live-action movie which is due out of Japan circa Christmas 2010. It can only be better than the (thankfully) aborted attempt by Hollywood.

Chiaki read the news and I must say I enjoyed her enunciation of the Japanese names - nice and clear. Hats off to you, C!

"Umineko no Naku Koro Ni" (a.k.a. "When Seagulls Cry", "Where Seagulls Cry", "When They Cry 3") got a bit of a beating, and I don't really understand it. I really liked the series. I can see why if you started watching it as a mystery series, you'd get confused. The show is actually a duel of wits between Battler and the current Beatrice. Yes, Beatrice is a title, passed on from witch to witch as each student proves itself to the current Beatrice. For Beatrice to win the contest, she needs to get Battler to admit that the murders on the island could have only be accomplished through magic (i.e., by a witch). Because of this, the events on the island get replayed over and over again - each time slightly differently as each player attempts to influence the events.

So, another enjoyable webcast - I'm looking forward to number 26. Meanwhile, should I review the Hentai episodes....? Hmmm....




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Boring ol' fart. Watching Anime since 1975. According to AniDB, has only watched 6.67% of all available anime - working hard to make it 10%.

Oh boy. The hentai episodes are getting raunchy. Be prepared...

Also, great write up! Sorry if you liked Umineko. I didn't think it was awful. It had a novel concept, simply I found the execution to be poor.

I still say that Lupin the Third could be made into a movie here in the US.

Great review indeed..Neoculture... This is pretty much my agreement note towards your response

But I would love to put my input on Mitsugi's Umineko no Naku Koro ni's review. A good review nonetheless, yes it did have problems here and there creating huge plot holes here and there. But this is what I think this is the direction or risk this anime is attempting in going through this kind of setup for it's 2nd season,which won't come up anytime soon because each VN Chapter release on Comiket. Just to harken back, NO WAI this is better than Higurashi. But then is it Higurashi? No. I for one saw it with a similar "arc" structure of Higurashi with it's own world where pretty much anything happens. One of the things is that this anime would pretty would what I call a "forced contradictory" within the existence of witches. You have the main character Battler trying to prove the existence of witches wrong but then you have this other arc backing and going in depth about the witches powers, which pretty much left me dazed and confused in what's going on. Just to wrap this up Higurashi by it's season one merits can stand on it's own and fine without that second season. 07thExpansion 2nd series Umineko no Naku Koro ni NEED that second season dramatically just to tell the story in it's full circle. That's one of the true problems that Umineko did for me is because it didn't feel complete as a whole anime in general. I think I pretty much said what I said about Umineko. I don't think it's terrible nor good, but it just has sooo much potential especially coming from Ryukishi07 (makers of Higurashi, and now Ookamikakushi).

I believe I gave it a 3/5 and I think that's probably what it deserved. The anime does not stand on it's own and the way the story is presented can leave the viewer confused. If the anime needs to have that second season to function, then it should have been planned as a 52 episode series. By the time the 2nd season comes out, if it comes out, nobody will remember the first season. They'll only remember that it was mediocre and that will be enough for them not to want to re-watch it.

Merit for its attempt and its novel concept.

Still, Neo, I do appreciate your willingness to voice your opinion. There is only benefit to be gained from friendly debate or discussion.

Mitsugi wrote:Still, Neo, I do appreciate your willingness to voice your opinion. There is only benefit to be gained from friendly debate or discussion.

Thank you. And I pledge to keep the "friendly" in "friendly debate".