Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Neonivek]

God-Eater is giving me serious Anime whiplash

Because on the one hand it is a very typical anime... but on the other hand it is also a good anime.

And these two styles fighting for supremacy just kind of jostles me. Because sometimes the characters are just typical "Cool" anime characters who might as well be aliens for all they reflect actual human beings... But then all of a sudden they become human for a scene or two...

It kind of feels like this anime was made twice, one time as a archetypical shonen anime and the other as a horrors of war anime... and someone edited them together.

And this isn't like Higurashi where the differing styles are meant to create a artful and impactful dissonance either. It isn't like the main character will suddenly be really awesome and be all smug and then a monster falls on top of a fleeing family. Just the hero will act all "anime" one second and then become a genuine person the other.

Mind you my anime experience tells me what when an anime sort of walks between the line of being trashy and genuinely good... It pretty much will become trashy.

But hey I can hope it isn't good.

[Andres]

So I was just about to watch Magical Index before I looked at the genres. The genres are Action, Comedy, Magic, Drama, Science Fiction, Superpowers...and Harem.

Is there any reason why I should ignore that last one and watch it?

[Neonivek]

Man... Goku sure got wimpy.

It is like Akira knows the Goku versus Superman fights and intentionally went out of his way to make Goku weaker.

Including this time where

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

He was taken out by a dislocated shoulder. And not like a serious dislocation, like a minor one... it wasn't even injured afterwards.

Mind you this is all to make his new form super DUPER special... but goodness did he do it at the expense of making Goku look FAR weaker then he has any right to be... Dragon Ball Super seems to be developing a bit of Bleach Syndrome in "Immediately after the arc the characters get depowered", which is odd because DBZ tended to make all the previous transformations seem stronger (which I actually liked, Goku actually improved and thus all the forms improved with him)

Also... a little "What the heck does that mean?"

"Super Saiyan 2's punch is strong enough to send you to another dimension"

[i2amroy]

So I was just about to watch Magical Index before I looked at the genres. The genres are Action, Comedy, Magic, Drama, Science Fiction, Superpowers...and Harem.

Is there any reason why I should ignore that last one and watch it?

Honestly the "harem", for what it's worth, doesn't really kick into effect that much. (though it's a little stronger in the light novels). In the show itself it's pretty much just Misaka and Index, and beyond that it's not really noticeable at all (and even twixt those two it isn't really that noticeable, IMO).

[UXLZ]

Neon, your personal experience says that every anime ever will be trashy. I'm not sure if I've ever seen you not complain. >_>

[Reelya]

The harem in index amounts to basically a different heroine in each novel (usually the person who has a problem that the hero needs to fix), who you basically see just for the arc. So it doesn't amount to one of those things where the hero collects an ever-growing entourage of girls. And there's basically zero romance element, so it's not one of those domestic comedy things.

This is what we've discussed in this thread before. "harem" in the broad sense - some show or thing with multiple female characters and only one main guy, vs "harem" specifically slapstick romantic comedies such as Tenchi. Where the line is drawn is vague. For example. Steins;Gate, Haruhi, Clannad, Higurashi, Bakemonogatari, all have elements of "harem". Yet none are carbon-copy harem comedies.

[i2amroy]

The harem in index amounts to basically a different heroine in each novel (usually the person who has a problem that the hero needs to fix), who you basically see just for the arc. So it doesn't amount to one of those things where the hero collects an ever-growing entourage of girls. And there's basically zero romance element, so it's not one of those domestic comedy things.

It gets played up a little bit more in the novels (though it does lead to a funny joke at one point where some of the bad guys think that the hero is setting up some sort of super squad because he's charmed so many powerful girls to join his side of things), but yeah, no real romance from the MC's side, and not too much from the other side either, so it's not really noticeable in the anime at all.

[Andres]

Episode 3 had way too much faffing about. Is the show perpetually like that or does it get better?

EDIT: God damn the dialogue sucks. I don't know if I've been spoiled by TTGL/DBZ/KLK/FMA but in this anime they just go on and on talking about pretty much nothing coupled with crappy "totally not" romance. It doesn't help that the protagonist only seemed to have a personality during the first half of episode 1. He's basically Naruto except bland and without any backstory to explain his personality. Alternatively, he's like Ichigo but without being badass enough to justify it.

EDIT2: And Jesus Christ they have a god damn loli character. What the hell is with Japan that produces so many artistic pedophiles?

[i2amroy]

Episode 3 had way too much faffing about. Is the show perpetually like that or does it get better?

Honestly if you are looking for a deep, character driven show I'd probably not suggest it, since the vast majority of the plot boils down to "Touma punches bad guys in the face" (a fact that they even lampshade in one of their OVA's ).

If you like the world but want a bit more characterization in your characters I'd say hit up the Toaru Kagaku no Railgun companion anime instead, it tends to be a fair bit more character driven than Index is IMO (and it has somewhat better production values).

[Reelya]

Not just bad guys, Touma is an equal-opportunity puncher. That's actually a pretty refreshing plot point. A psycho woman trying to kill everyone? She gets whacked just as hard as the guys.

[Andres]

If you like the world but want a bit more characterization in your characters I'd say hit up the Toaru Kagaku no Railgun companion anime instead, it tends to be a fair bit more character driven than Index is IMO (and it has somewhat better production values).

Um, are you talking about Scientific Railgun? If so, why use the Japanese name? If not, does it take place before or after Scientific Railgun?

[Reelya]

That's the original name. Not everyone watches dubs. Also, you can't assume everyone is American / English speaking. Why use the American title when discussing a show made in Japan on a world forum? I guess French people could demand it's called Railgun Scientifique and the Germans could call it Wissenschaftliche Railgun.

Toaru = "A certain" as in "a specific"
Kagaku = "science"
No = "of" (but in the opposite direction it's like adding 's to a word)
Railgun = a fekking railgun.

[UXLZ]

Hmm, well, personally I tend towards using the English name for things, though some are exempt like Jitsu Wa. I mean, I know the Japanese names (I know that Black Butler is Kuroshitsuji) but most people are used to the English names. At least, most of the people you'd talk to here.

[GreatJustice]

The first season of Index is a teensy bit formulaic at times. Arcs are split into 4 episodes each (with one or two "extra" episodes in between), consisting of: Touma encounters villain with evil plot, villain throws shit at Touma, Touma closes the gap to punch villain in the face, rinse and repeat. Also Index bites Touma sometimes but very occasionally does something interesting or useful. Not a lot of character or setting development, generally speaking, but enough to get by on. It also manages to avoid being even a pseudo-harem by having a reasonably large cast of relevant male characters like Smoking Fire Mage Guy, Kung Fu Guy, and possibly the greatest character ever, Accelerator. Unfortunately, while there is a reasonable amount of development for side characters, Touma himself doesn't get a whole lot besides the inherent badassery of beating enemies with supernatural powers via punch to the face.

Railgun is a lot better when it comes to developing the setting and characters, but it comes at the cost of having decidedly less in the way of plot, to the point where I'd almost say its more "slice of life" than anything else. Also, for various reasons, the plot can't have the main character actually encounter anyone stronger than her up until it intersects with Index, so most "fights" consist of "Watch Misaka effortlessly crush her opposition!" or occasionally "Watch Kuroko crush her opposition with a small amount of effort!". I think there were maybe two instances through the whole show in which a main character was even theoretically at risk of losing a fight, so it began to suffer from a similar issue to the one that 00 Gundam had. Still a worthwhile show, but don't go into it expecting Index (or vice versa).

[ToonyMan]

goddamn eotena