Sword Art Online and sexual assault as tension(spoilers for SAO II)

Izanagi009_v1legacy

Anime Nerds Unite
Apr 25, 2013
1,460
0
0
Corey Schaff said:
Izanagi009 said:
Then I suppose that's where we differ. I unwind with a thematic story and looking at the interplay between characters and the world.
Have you seen Paranoia Agent? It handles mature subjects a lot better than SAO imho (watching the "tear licking scene" in the Alfheim arc for the first time made me start laughing because it reminded me of Cartman's "The Tears of Unfathomable Sadness! Yummy you guys!" from Scott Tenorman Must Die episode of SouthPark).
Probably should, I have a lot of shows on my back catalog to deal with so it will take a while to go through them
 

Kaimax

New member
Jul 25, 2012
422
0
0
The Wykydtron said:
I suppose the closest thing to weakness he has is his personality? Maybe?
He has a legit weakness though, Because he "Godly" excels at both Decomposition and Regrowth, he sucks at everything else, but the main problem is that weakness is insignificant to the plot.

So he's OP in the battlefield but will flunk any practical test in school, hence the title of the anime.

Nazulu said:
I somehow finished this anime, and regretted it. I really have no idea how I made it to the end.
Lol, how did you "finish it" when the final episode for the season 2 GGO arc hasn't aired this week? Also, SAO season 2 is slated for 24 episodes.
 

The Wykydtron

"Emotions are very important!"
Sep 23, 2010
5,458
0
0
Kaimax said:
The Wykydtron said:
I suppose the closest thing to weakness he has is his personality? Maybe?
He has a legit weakness though, Because he "Godly" excels at both Decomposition and Regrowth, he sucks at everything else, but the main problem is that weakness is insignificant to the plot.

So he's OP in the battlefield but will flunk any practical test in school, hence the title of the anime.
I dunno, does a weakness that has little to no impact on the plot past the first few episodes actually count as a weakness? Do exams matter anymore when he's singlehandedly solved many of the difficult to solve magic equations? He got Flying type magic to work consistantly for example, only a few years away from it being safe for civilian use I would say, if the military lets it go. He could be the Steve Jobs of the Mahouka universe, drops out of school then founds a magic-type software empire.
 

Kaimax

New member
Jul 25, 2012
422
0
0
The Wykydtron said:
Kaimax said:
The Wykydtron said:
I suppose the closest thing to weakness he has is his personality? Maybe?
He has a legit weakness though, Because he "Godly" excels at both Decomposition and Regrowth, he sucks at everything else, but the main problem is that weakness is insignificant to the plot.

So he's OP in the battlefield but will flunk any practical test in school, hence the title of the anime.
I dunno, does a weakness that has little to no impact on the plot past the first few episodes actually count as a weakness?
It's still a "weakness" though, but it simply didn't serve as far as the original premise. He's basically too OP for his own good, well the LN's own good. Kirito from SAO and Sora from NGNL has nothing when compared to Tatsuya.
 

kyp275

New member
Mar 27, 2012
190
0
0
Fieldy409 said:
At least she tried to fight instead of giving up and crying before the hero saves them.
The ironic part is...

In the end it was Shinon who takes out the the creep and saves Kirito via epic radio-to-head smash.

You know, the kind of things that these so-called "I've seen/read all of it" guys should've known. But I guess since that bit wouldn't have worked with their narrative, best not mention it right?
 

kyp275

New member
Mar 27, 2012
190
0
0
Izanagi009 said:
In addition, it would seem only hardcore people buy the dvds due to the lack of space for a collection. Now apprently, the few thousand hard core fans are the ones who help shows make profit.
That only applies to people who lives in the urban centers. Despite popular perception, Japan actually consists more than just the part of Tokyo where people are packed into closet-sized apartments. I would say the bigger reason is simply the exorbitant price of said DVD/Blurays. You're talking about $80~90+ each here. For those of us who are old enough to actually have built a home DVD/Bluray(or VHS, lol) movie library, that kind of price would've easily tripled the cost. How many of you would even consider buying a movie on DVD/Bluray at that kind of price?

So I was wrong about the merchandise, apparently the money comes more from DVD and Blu-rays than merchandise but this seems like a precarious situation having only a few thousand people supporting a show instead of having the large audience.
It's a broader issue with monetization in the industry as a whole. IIRC there's little to no advertisement revenue sharing between the network and studio, which means the studio have to find ways to fund and recoup cost themselves, hence the high price of discs.

Perhaps, I've been hyperbolic and I will concede that but ultimately, this focus on the hardcore and not the general audience will prove detrimental to both the artistic and economic side of anime. Artistic, I would think that they would not change their formulas or themes in order to keep hold of the hard core and economically, the market will die off at some point taking the whole thing with it.
Eh, no. There are shows for the "hardcore" and general audience, you just seems to be ignoring them. Seriously, when's the last time you watched an anime that's aimed more at the general audience? You can't watch the "niche" shows only and not the "for everyone" shows, and then complain that the industry is too focused on the niche market.

That's like someone buying nothing but Corvettes for years complaining that that company doesn't focus enough on big money makers like trucks and SUVs, while standing in front of a shiny Silverado.

Edit: the reason i despise self-insert fantasy is that it's just not good writing. We know the fantasy will not usually punish the participant and so most everything will go well. In addition, i'm 20 at this point, I have reality to deal with and trying to project into a self-insert can create unrealistic expectations of what you are going to be. Thematically, it does not allow people to grow towards being better people and instead it gives them a comfy lie to hide in.
And the same goes for the vast majority of entertainment flicks/TV shows these days, so what's your point? Did you think Superman was going to lose to Zod? Or that Batman wasn't going to beat Bain in the end? Was there any doubt that Katniss will live through yet another Hunger Game? Or that any of the 23784923758329 procedural shows on TV will solve their crime-of-the-week via methods laughable to anyone who's remotely informed about the field in 45(or 90 if it's a two episode arc!) minute?

If you're trying to find well-written/deep/meaningful story, popcorn-style movies/tv/anime is the wrong place to find it.

Personally, I watch shows and play games to be entertained, not to find the meaning of life or give me life lessons. IMO, if people are "projecting" themselves into characters to the point they're creating expectations of who they're going to be in life based on that, they had better be characters like Sponge Bob - because you have far bigger problems if you're still seriously self-projecting into fictional characters after kindergarten.
 

Lugbzurg

New member
Mar 4, 2012
918
0
0
kyp275 said:
Lugbzurg said:
Why is it that when one villain has murdered 4,000 people, unlawfully imprisoned 10,000, and left countless more scarred for life, the show tries to pretend that this guy is some great hero and the main character idolizes him?
Probably because he wasn't, and Kirito didn't. Did Kayaba have his redeeming moments? Yea, but he's never painted as anything other than an anti-hero at best. And nowhere in the entire story did Kirito ?idolize? Kayaba after the SAO incident.
Excuse me? Kirito goes on and on about what a wonderful man he thinks Kayaba is. He chats with him like they're old pals, he went on to praise his "bravery" when he fought Sugou, and let's not forget that "ultimate revelation" of his. When faced wth the question of why he created this death trap to murder so many people, he replies with "I forget." Just look at the way characters (especially Kirito) talk to him and about him. Look at the expressions exchanged between them (even Kayaba). Listen to the music they weave in there. Look at how most of the fanbase hails Kayaba as being brave and heroic. Kayaba didn't have any redeeming moments. He didn't do anything good at all! What's the best thing he did? Oh, he handed Kirito a game dev kit. Big whoop. That makes his mass genocide so much more forgivable, doesn't it?
 

Izanagi009_v1legacy

Anime Nerds Unite
Apr 25, 2013
1,460
0
0
kyp275 said:
Izanagi009 said:
In addition, it would seem only hardcore people buy the dvds due to the lack of space for a collection. Now apprently, the few thousand hard core fans are the ones who help shows make profit.
That only applies to people who lives in the urban centers. Despite popular perception, Japan actually consists more than just the part of Tokyo where people are packed into closet-sized apartments. I would say the bigger reason is simply the exorbitant price of said DVD/Blurays. You're talking about $80~90+ each here. For those of us who are old enough to actually have built a home DVD/Bluray(or VHS, lol) movie library, that kind of price would've easily tripled the cost. How many of you would even consider buying a movie on DVD/Bluray at that kind of price?

So I was wrong about the merchandise, apparently the money comes more from DVD and Blu-rays than merchandise but this seems like a precarious situation having only a few thousand people supporting a show instead of having the large audience.
It's a broader issue with monetization in the industry as a whole. IIRC there's little to no advertisement revenue sharing between the network and studio, which means the studio have to find ways to fund and recoup cost themselves, hence the high price of discs.

Perhaps, I've been hyperbolic and I will concede that but ultimately, this focus on the hardcore and not the general audience will prove detrimental to both the artistic and economic side of anime. Artistic, I would think that they would not change their formulas or themes in order to keep hold of the hard core and economically, the market will die off at some point taking the whole thing with it.
Eh, no. There are shows for the "hardcore" and general audience, you just seems to be ignoring them. Seriously, when's the last time you watched an anime that's aimed more at the general audience? You can't watch the "niche" shows only and not the "for everyone" shows, and then complain that the industry is too focused on the niche market.

That's like someone buying nothing but Corvettes for years complaining that that company doesn't focus enough on big money makers like trucks and SUVs, while standing in front of a shiny Silverado.

Edit: the reason i despise self-insert fantasy is that it's just not good writing. We know the fantasy will not usually punish the participant and so most everything will go well. In addition, i'm 20 at this point, I have reality to deal with and trying to project into a self-insert can create unrealistic expectations of what you are going to be. Thematically, it does not allow people to grow towards being better people and instead it gives them a comfy lie to hide in.
And the same goes for the vast majority of entertainment flicks/TV shows these days, so what's your point? Did you think Superman was going to lose to Zod? Or that Batman wasn't going to beat Bain in the end? Was there any doubt that Katniss will live through yet another Hunger Game? Or that any of the 23784923758329 procedural shows on TV will solve their crime-of-the-week via laughable to anyone who's remotely informed about the field in 45(or 90 if it's a two episode arc!) minute?

If you're trying to find well-written/deep/meaningful story, popcorn-style movies/tv/anime is the wrong place to find it.

Personally, I watch shows and play games to be entertained, not to find the meaning of life or give me life lessons. IMO, if people are "projecting" themselves into characters to the point they're creating expectations of who they're going to be in life based on that, they had better be characters like Sponge Bob - because you have far bigger problems if you're still seriously self-projecting into fictional characters after kindergarten.
To address each point

Yes, there are a lot of spaces in Japan that are very open- particularly rural areas. I will concede that error. Now lets ask the question, Why set the prices so high? Yes, there is very little revenue sharing between networks and studios. So why don't the studios try to get more people buying anime instead of appealing to specific people. yes, it has been shown that lowering prices wasn't enough to make up lost revenue but I would argue a feedback loop: the prices were set so high that the audience has isolated itself to hardcore to the point that there is no real ability to an audience to expand so they need to set prices high and so on and so forth. In other words, the high prices are making it very difficult for the audience to grow and the lack of growth is forcing high prices.

yes, there are generalist anime such as Sazae-san but most of the anime that Americans get exposed to are the hardcore show and I think some of us want the community to grow in that area. Also, let me ask you, how many general audience shows are there other than Sazae-san; I can think of Doraemon and not much else and then compare that number to the amount of specialist shows. In the american movie market, general audience media vastly outnumbers niche media. I doubt that will be the same with anime.

Yes, there are shows out there designed to be entertaining but lets compare Jojo's and Naruto. Both are meant for pure entertainment but one has more entertaining characters, shorter story lines and has not carried on for over 500 chapters, the other is the show named after a fish cake. Just because it's popcorn entertainment doesn't mean that there aren't varying levels of quality. That's like saying Pacific Rim and the Bayformer movies should be put on the same level which is completely false; again, one actually enables us to see the action and doesn't feel like American wanking off, the other has the two ebonics speaking robots with gold teeth and wreaking ball testicles.

Also, lets face it, SAO is on the lower end of popcorn action anime; no tension, no real development for Kirito, so many characters are sidelined and unlike Index with the insane powers, the fights actually are boring.

In addition, do you honestly think that you can't have an entertaining show and a deep story at teh same time. Gundam Wing and Psycho pass say otherwise
 

Fdzzaigl

New member
Mar 31, 2010
822
0
0
First off: I don't think SAO is well written at all, nor is it my favourite show. The anime has way too many "deus ex machina" moments for its own good and Kirito is obviously way too central to the entire thing as the overpowered godlike hero (he even becomes an effin Jedi in GGO, seriously)

That said: OP, the whole point of the story flew right over your head.

It was never about Sinon or Kirito saving themselves at all.

On the contrary, attempting to do so was what caused hardship to the characters throughout the entire series. Sinon making her own superhero character ingame didn't do any good for her, it didn't help her recover from her anxiety or depression at all.
Why? Because she wanted to do it all alone and didn't let anyone else help her get over it. Because depression and PTSD are not things that any person is able to handle alone.

We even see rare moments of weakness in the otherwise all-powerful hero Kirito when he tries to tackle feelings of guilt and fear without the support of others (like the nurse and Asuka).

Not being able to react adequately when you wake up in your house and some psychotic stalker wants to murder you is perfectly normal for anyone, male or female.

Yes, SAO has clear "save the princess" themes in there. Quite literally so in the first season even. But they are what makes this series tick. It's a classic story, themes like that are there to stay. Just like the "mother protects children" theme and many other clichés.
 

kyp275

New member
Mar 27, 2012
190
0
0
Lugbzurg said:
Excuse me? Kirito goes on and on about what a wonderful man he thinks Kayaba is.
Please, do point out where this happened. No really, point out where in the LN or the episode where this occurred.

He chats with him like they're old pals
I?m going to assume you?re talking about the scene after their duel was over and SAO was shutting down. No, they?re not talking like ?old pals?, by that definition, anyone who?s not screaming at each other Jerry Springer style are ?chatting like old pals?. For a conversation between those who knows they?re about to die, it wasn?t something I thought was out of place.

he went on to praise his "bravery" when he fought Sugou
Citation needed, I?m fairly certain what Kayaba said was something along the line of the typical ?is this the best you can do?? speech.

and let's not forget that "ultimate revelation" of his. When faced wth the question of why he created this death trap to murder so many people, he replies with "I forget."
I?m also fairly certain that he also said that what he wanted was to build a ?real? virtual world. That said, that is a legitimate issue since:
Kayaba was the lead researcher behind Project Alice, which arguably is far closer to said real virtual world. Though I suppose the failure with getting the artificial fluctlights to behave like their human counterpart could be the reason behind him setting up the whole SAO bit

Just look at the way characters (especially Kirito) talk to him and about him. Look at the expressions exchanged between them (even Kayaba). Listen to the music they weave in there.
I don?t even?

Look at how most of the fanbase hails Kayaba as being brave and heroic.
Yea, citation needed for this one. Here?s a hint, generalization is bad mkay?

Kayaba didn't have any redeeming moments. He didn't do anything good at all! What's the best thing he did? Oh, he handed Kirito a game dev kit. Big whoop. That makes his mass genocide so much more forgivable, doesn't it?
Sigh, did it ever occur to you that since SAO goes far beyond just the Aincrad/Fairy Dance arc, that Kayaba may show up later as well? Also, since when did characters who did bad things do something good to ?redeem? themselves means their prior offenses are forgiven?

In the end, (digital)Kayaba sacrificed himself to help save Underworld, which prevented the deaths and/or enslavement of hundreds of thousands of lives. I?d certainly say that?s a redeeming moment for his character. No, it doesn?t excuse what he did, just like Riddhe helping Banagher in the end doesn?t excuse him killing Marida earlier in Gundam Unicorn, but it nevertheless is a redeeming moment for his character.
 

Izanagi009_v1legacy

Anime Nerds Unite
Apr 25, 2013
1,460
0
0
Fdzzaigl said:
First off: I don't think SAO is well written at all, nor is it my favourite show. The anime has way too many "deus ex machina" moments for its own good and Kirito is obviously way too central to the entire thing as the overpowered godlike hero (he even becomes an effin Jedi in GGO, seriously)

That said: OP, the whole point of the story flew right over your head.

It was never about Sinon or Kirito saving themselves at all.

On the contrary, attempting to do so was what caused hardship to the characters throughout the entire series. Sinon making her own superhero character ingame didn't do any good for her, it didn't help her recover from her anxiety or depression at all.
Why? Because she wanted to do it all alone and didn't let anyone else help her get over it. Because depression and PTSD are not things that any person is able to handle alone.

We even see rare moments of weakness in the otherwise all-powerful hero Kirito when he tries to tackle feelings of guilt and fear without the support of others (like the nurse and Asuna).

Not being able to react adequately when you wake up in your house and some psychotic stalker wants to murder you is perfectly normal for anyone, male or female.

Yes, SAO has clear "save the princess" themes in there. Quite literally so in the first season even. But they are what makes this series tick. It's a classic story, themes like that are there to stay. Just like the "mother protects children" theme and many other clichés.
I suppose that thematically, that is not the case but the issue still is that Kirito keeps popping in again and again saving people is getting really tiring and stupid. Using a trope once is fine but use it too many times and we get pissed off.

I admit that I could be jumping the gun and looking back at the forum, it seems that the book and anime differ greatly but it has happened way too many times for me to give them the benefit of the doubt.
 

crypticracer

New member
Sep 1, 2014
109
0
0
Izanagi009 said:
I suppose that thematically, that is not the case but the issue still is that Kirito keeps popping in again and again saving people is getting really tiring and stupid. Using a trope once is fine but use it too many times and we get pissed off.

I admit that I could be jumping the gun and looking back at the forum, it seems that the book and anime differ greatly but it has happened way too many times for me to give them the benefit of the doubt.
If it's purely a self-insert fantasy then it explains why Kirito's always saving everyone. That's literally the point of the genre. Now, I don't think that rape should ever be used in this genre with a couple of exceptions. If the author was raped and wishes they had been saved, then that's their fantasy, makes sense. If someone close to them had been raped and they wished they could have saved them, makes sense. I don't think we have any information when it comes to the author, on this. But considering the sad number of sexual assaults there are, and that almost everyone knows a victim of it, I feel we have to give him the benefit of the doubt.

However this doesn't excuse the quality of how it's done or if it's appropriate for the characters, story, etc.
 

kyp275

New member
Mar 27, 2012
190
0
0
Izanagi009 said:
To address each point

Yes, there are a lot of spaces in Japan that are very open- particularly rural areas. I will concede that error. Now lets ask the question, Why set the prices so high? Yes, there is very little revenue sharing between networks and studios. So why don't the studios try to get more people buying anime instead of appealing to specific people. yes, it has been shown that lowering prices wasn't enough to make up lost revenue but I would argue a feedback loop: the prices were set so high that the audience has isolated itself to hardcore to the point that there is no real ability to an audience to expand so they need to set prices high and so on and so forth. In other words, the high prices are making it very difficult for the audience to grow and the lack of growth is forcing high prices.

yes, there are generalist anime such as Sazae-san but most of the anime that Americans get exposed to are the hardcore show and I think some of us want the community to grow in that area. Also, let me ask you, how many general audience shows are there other than Sazae-san; I can think of Doraemon and not much else and then compare that number to the amount of specialist shows. In the american movie market, general audience media vastly outnumbers niche media. I doubt that will be the same with anime.

Yes, there are shows out there designed to be entertaining but lets compare Jojo's and Naruto. Both are meant for pure entertainment but one has more entertaining characters, shorter story lines and has not carried on for over 500 chapters, the other is the show named after a fish cake. Just because it's popcorn entertainment doesn't mean that there aren't varying levels of quality. That's like saying Pacific Rim and the Bayformer movies should be put on the same level which is completely false; again, one actually enables us to see the action and doesn't feel like American wanking off, the other has the two ebonics speaking robots with gold teeth and wreaking ball testicles.
Your idea about the pricing is missing some key elements.

First off, anime is not a new industry. It has developed into what it is today not because they haven't tried anything else, but rather because this is what the market condition has dictated it to be. They didn't set out to limit their revenue base to consumer purchase only - but it was an inevitability given the way the industry's practice is setup over there. Without revenue-sharing or network funding, the studios simply have little choices in the matter.

Second, to me this is primarily a business issue. Without investors willing to back you up with funding, you cannot produce your product. Since investors generally don't like to throw their money away, you need to have a valid business plan on how to recoup the cost and make profit. To step into uncharted or previously-tried-but-failed territory usually means you have to put up your own money, or be able to promise some high rate of return, neither of which is easy in an industry that's as old and established as anime.

I also don't think you quite get the dynamics between the anime and regular mainstream media over there. It's not so much that the ratio between general/niche shows are skewed in anime vs their western counterpart, but rather that anime itself IS a (sizable) niche in the regular media. The whole manga/anime industry is far more socially-accepted/common than, say, the comic book crowd in the US (how many comic book stands did you see the last time you went to a 7-eleven?), and so is more "integrated", so to speak.

Outside of your slice-of-life shows, the place occupied by the kind of "generalist" shows you're probably thinking about are filled by the exact same thing as their western counterpart - live action shows/movies. There is little reason or incentive for anime to compete in that arena.

On Transformer vs Pacific Rim. TBH I was somewhat disappointed by PR. Outside of the much better choreographed action scenes, the rest of the movie wasn't anything to write home about, and not a whole lot better than the first Transformer movie. Frankly, I thought the "prequel" comic had better stories than the actual movie itself.

Also, lets face it, SAO is on the lower end of popcorn action anime; no tension, no real development for Kirito, so many characters are sidelined and unlike Index with the insane powers, the fights actually are boring.
/shrug, that's your opinion. Personally I think it's average, with above-average production in certain parts.

In addition, do you honestly think that you can't have an entertaining show and a deep story at teh same time. Gundam Wing and Psycho pass say otherwise
Really? Did you just put entertaining and deep story in the same sentence as Gundam Wing? Please kindly launch yourself into the sun :p Seriously, you can just replace every one of Relena's line with "Peace!!!!" and the show wouldn't have changed one bit (but they made sure to add that to her name just in case they weren't heavy-handed enough). But I suppose it's slightly less annoying than Setsuna's whole "I am Gundam!" schtick in 00, but maybe that's just because it's been longer since I've seen Wing.

But back on topic, no, that's not what I was saying. Nor was I implying the two are mutually exclusive. However, I don't expect them to be all entertaining AND deep at the same time, all the time. Just because I love shows like Mushishi and Monster, it doesn't mean I can't enjoy shows like Aldnoah or SAO, or expect them to have the same tier of story as the former.
 

Fdzzaigl

New member
Mar 31, 2010
822
0
0
If you're saying that SAO is way too cliché-driven, then I agree 100%

Kirito saving everyone all the time is indeed stupid, but there's no real other motive behind the whole deal, that's just the way this series is. At least we got to see a few weak spots in his impenetrable armor this season.

But I pretty much just watch this show for the (sometimes) cool animations atm.
 

Izanagi009_v1legacy

Anime Nerds Unite
Apr 25, 2013
1,460
0
0
kyp275 said:
Once again addressing points

Okay, fine so the market is pretty much stuck in its position because of industry practice. I still feel they are pandering to the audience way too much with self-insert and waifu bull and that it can't hold for too long but to each their own

Lets put this into perspective, Pacific Rim didn't insult me with the stupid that was the wreaking ball testicles. Pacific Rim actually didn't make me want to bash my head in.

huh, so you say to each their own and then tell me to launch myself into the sun. If I didn't know it was meant to be sarcastic, I would say that you were being hypocritical in dialogue. While Wing does prattle about peace a bit long, They did present both sides of the conflict, its proponents and the consequences so I'm wiling to say it's a meaningful story though it seems I'm in the minority about it

Funny you should mention Aldnoah, I made a review of it here [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.861799-Anime-review-Aldnoah-Zero#21452323] and lets just say it pissed me to no end because of it's writing.
 

kyp275

New member
Mar 27, 2012
190
0
0
Izanagi009 said:
Once again addressing points

Okay, fine so the market is pretty much stuck in its position because of industry practice. I still feel they are pandering to the audience way too much with self-insert and waifu bull and that it can't hold for too long but to each their own

Lets put this into perspective, Pacific Rim didn't insult me with the stupid that was the wreaking ball testicles. Pacific Rim actually didn't make me want to bash my head in.

huh, so you say to each their own and then tell me to launch myself into the sun. If I didn't know it was meant to be sarcastic, I would say that you were being hypocritical in dialogue. While Wing does prattle about peace a bit long, They did present both sides of the conflict, its proponents and the consequences so I'm wiling to say it's a meaningful story though it seems I'm in the minority about it

Funny you should mention Aldnoah, I made a review of it here [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.861799-Anime-review-Aldnoah-Zero#21452323] and lets just say it pissed me to no end because of it's writing.
Welcome to the capitalist market, where companies produce things that makes them money. You can complain about it all you want, but unless the consumer base shifts, that's just how it is. I'm a huge fan of the space-sim genre, but I've got no delusion that it's going to make a comeback or that the industry is "pandering" too much to the FPS crowd. It's an entertainment industry, pandering to their audience is literally at the core of what they do.

I'm not sure why you're so stuck on the wreaking ball (tbh, I don't even remember that part, the entire franchise is really that forgettable to me). TBH I found the terrible portray of supposed secret agency and military far more jarring myself, but I didn't take offense because that's just how these things are in these type of stories.

If I apply the same type of scrutiny to Pacific Rim, I'd have to rip their basic premise apart as well. For starters, the sheer advances in energy and materials engineering that would be needed to even begin to think about building a robot that big is mind boggling, much less one that can run around in combat, survive an atmosphere reentry, and go to the bottom of the ocean. And if that's the case, they can create FAR better and more effective weapons platform than a giant robot to fight the Kaijuus with. But if I do that, I'd be missing the point of the story, which is to have giant f-ing robots rocket punching giant monsters :p


As for Gundam Wing, I would've thought the ":p" was obvious enough of a sign that it's a joke (and Wings fan should immediately recognize the whole launch things into sun reference :3). My problem with Wings was that it ended up being a more blunt take on the core of the UC theme that ultimately didn't really offer anything new other than extra fan-service and worse characters. To be fair, this is a problem that IMO has plagued almost every AC-based Gundam story in varying degrees.

Having read your review on Aldnoah, one thing I have to disagree with is the effect the Urobutcher has on the show. This story has his fingerprints all over it - ie. "cold calculating logic is superior to all, except my butcher knife. When my knife falls, heads will roll, no exceptions!"

To me, Aldnoah's pacing is the major issue. It feels like it's progressing as if it's a 4-cour( 40+ episodes) show to me, since the first season has done little else other than setting up the story. Compared to, say, Gurren Lagan, it feels like the Aldnoah crew had just gotten out of the underground caves, but only has enough time left for the epic showdown with the Anti-Spirals.

Maybe they can kick it into high gear during the second half, but they've got their work cut out for them IMO. There are many characters that are "ready" to get fleshed out, but I'm not sure there's enough time to do it properly.
 

Izanagi009_v1legacy

Anime Nerds Unite
Apr 25, 2013
1,460
0
0
kyp275 said:
Point time

Yeah, I almost forgot about that reference, but now I wonder how I missed it and honestly, Gundam is still a higher caliber than a lot of shows out there

If cold logic ruled all; Kyubey would have won. Kyubey is the cold logical one, Madoka was the hopeful and optimistic one. But that's a thematic argument and this is not the time or place.

I severely doubt Aldnoah will change course for me to like it. it's pretty much rock bottom for me now and it will take a miracle for it to get back to passable
 

Aaron Sylvester

New member
Jul 1, 2012
786
0
0
So we're just going to ignore the 1000 other anime out there that feature rape for all the wrong reasons? Is that what we're going to do now?

That too for SAO, an anime universally acclaimed for having a terrible plot and terrible characters. SAO II is even worse. Pretty much the only thing this anime has going is production value.

No offense to OP, but I'm pretty sure he/she was just looking for an excuse to throw more shit into the ever-spinning fan of politically charged topics like this one. Still, could've picked something better than anime.
 

Izanagi009_v1legacy

Anime Nerds Unite
Apr 25, 2013
1,460
0
0
Aaron Sylvester said:
So we're just going to ignore the 1000 other anime out there that feature rape for all the wrong reasons? Is that what we're going to do now?

That too for SAO, an anime universally acclaimed for having a terrible plot and terrible characters. SAO II is even worse. Pretty much the only thing this anime has going is production value.

No offense to OP, but I'm pretty sure he/she was just looking for an excuse to throw more shit into the ever-spinning fan of politically charged topics like this one. Still, could've picked something better than anime.
When I actually see an anime that has a scene like that (I heard Elfen Lied and Brynhildr are somewhat exploitative with their scenes) I will complain about it but I can't see every anime with an exploitative sex scene so I will comment as I find it.

Also, I post these topics because I feel there are worth mentioning to improve our medium. I keep up with real news as well but at this point in time, my position on anime and the politics of it are more firm and easier to back up than the real world which often has so many sides I feel like I should just stay on the outside and observe for a while. Besides, do you really want me to start a discussion about ,say, gender roles in Japan because I can and I don't think any of us will be sane after that; we probably be very tired, broken and angry and the conversation will dissolve faster than ice cream in a cremator.