(no subject)

[timepiececlock]

I'm reading the Bleach manga right now. I've only gotten through chapter 1 so far (well that and the two first episodes of the anime).

I want the Bleach fans on my flist to know that so far I am reading this for YOU, and not for me, because at the moment I think it's a bad YYH (which I didn't even like anyway, either)imitation with delusions of Ranma 1/2, wrapped up in your run of the mill boring ass shounen cliches.

But you all seem so damn enamored, so I'll try, try, try, try try, try, try try try, try, try again.


EDIT: Bored, bored, bored... sometimes I feel seriously spoiled by things like FMA and Naruto. But dude, even InuYasha was more original than this, and as much as I love IY that's not the pinnacle of anime/manga splendor. Then again, like I said before this has delusions of Ranma. Too bad; I've already seen the wacky family members randomly battling each other and the whacked out, eccentric father engaging in daily fights with the son to make him stronger. Rumiko Takahashi did it first, and did it better.

And the whole thing with Ichigo instantly breaking the seal-- okay, that's standard magic-boy supernatural hero stuff. I can take that. But did the shinigami girl's reaction have to be so typical? The scene was pulled word for word out of a hundred other anime. That was a major lost opportunity for this anime to catch my interest. If the Shinigami girl had simply given his newly freed person a casual once-over glance, and a muttered "Interesting..." that would have been at least a little different. If she had followed up with "Well if you can do that, get your ass over here and help, but don't do anything until I say so," then I would have been mildly intrigued.

And him standing in front of the monster and having no fear, his FIRST time seeing a monster, especially one that has already hurt/possibly killed his family? Gimme a break. I'm so over that shonen cliche. I don't ask for reality in terms of events, but I ask for reality in terms of characterization. I think about this, then I compare it to Edward Elric in the butcher shop, running for his life and terrified that he's going to die, because as brave as he is he knows he's totally powerless. Or Edward giving himself up to Scar in a desperate attempt to save Al in episode 15. Or Uzumaki Naruto, frozen in place by just looking at Zazuba. Or Sasuke in the second part of the chunnin exam, willing to give up the scroll rather than get killed. I'm even thinking of a couple of different scenes from Fushigi Yuugi.

I know unexplainable unrealistic absence of fear the first time the new, untested or untrained hero faces an evil monster is a typical shonen anime cliche, but that sort of thing never sat well with me. And now that I've seen shonen and action/adventure anime that DOESN'T do that, I'm finding it even less interesting.

Comments

Re: I shouldn't come on LJ at work...

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

::laugh:: You definitely want to stay away from SM. It's sort of something that, if you don't get into it before you turn 16, it's sort of passed you by, and rightfully so. I started in 8th grade or so, at about 14. Most of the people who started watching anime 6 or 7 years ago, like I did, and started as kids or teenagers, started with Sailor Moon and/or Dragonball Z. Those were the first big-name series to be on American TV. But really, both were bad. SM wasn't as bad as DBZ, but it was kind of bad to anyone who isn't like 15 or younger. It wasn't terrible-- in fact if I had episodes on my computer I'd probably watch them out of nostalgia-- and I really got into the show in terms of shipper fanfic. But, yeah, there's a lot better stuff to watch, if you're starting anime nowadays instead of a few years ago. But it did have the first canon lesbian and gay couples I'd seen on anime, the former being good guys and the latter being villains.