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Feb. 4th, 2005 12:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
timepiececlockI'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.
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.
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Your Mighty Pimptress Says....!
Date: 2005-02-05 06:58 am (UTC)IT'S SO DAMN BEAUTIFUL!!!!
THE MUSIC! THE CHARACTERS!
THE MOST FUCKING PERFECTLY WRITTEN LOVE STORY IN ANY ANIME EVER!
::cough:: Um, I haven't read the manga. For a couple of reasons.
1) people tell me it's waaaaaay different from the anime, and I loved and adored the anime
2) apparently in the manga Hitomi's lifeforce is used to power the Escaflowne and that sounded way to weirdly sexualized to me, and more oriented toward teenage boys
3) I just totally wasn't interested because I loved the show so damn much
4) No one's ever told me it's good... they haven't told me it's bad, either, but I would think that if it was great it would get praised, and I haven't heard that.
It makes me *so* happy you're watching Esca. Until I watched FMA, Esca was my choice as "most well done anime ever". It's still my choice of "best anime of the 90s". It's so ambitious. And beautiful. And richly developed. And...gah. Whoever thought of combining mecha and classic fantasy was whacked, but it ended up in this perfect combination.
A gift... my only Esca icons:
Re: Your Mighty Pimptress Says....!
Date: 2005-02-06 12:48 am (UTC)-Downloaded it ... turned out to be some weird type of files that I couldn't figure out how to play.
-Netflix ... chopped up Fox version.
-DVDs ... elusive creatures thought to be extinct until shortly after Christmas when The Perfect Collection appeared at Best Buy. Psycho rejoiced and ran to the checkout.
I have plans to screen cap and icon. Oh yes, there shall be icons!
Squee! *steals icons for later usage*
Re: Your Mighty Pimptress Says....!
Date: 2005-02-06 01:08 am (UTC)I'm glad you've seen it. Did you finish the last episode? Which language did you watch it in?
You *have* to make some reaction posts in your LJ about it! I want to hear your thoughts.
Definitely looking forward to the icons. :)
Re: Your Mighty Pimptress Says....!
Date: 2005-02-14 03:54 am (UTC)There will so be a reaction post after my second viewing. Too much squee after the first viewing for anything more than a post saying, "Squee! Escaflowne! Squee! Mad love! Squee!".
Re: Your Mighty Pimptress Says....!
Date: 2005-02-14 05:43 am (UTC)For me, how perfect versus how good something is usually has a direct inverse effect on how much I want to read fanfic for it. If something is perfect for me (Escaflowne, Farscape), my urge to read fanfic is small to nonexistant. It feels complete already. I've read maybe ten Esca fics in the last 4 years, and those were mostly comedy/parody fics or crossovers. I just feel like it ended at exactly the right place for the main characters.
The two big exceptions to this are FMA and Fruits Basket, but those get exceptions because they were SO open-ended in how they finished that I had to look to fanfic until I got the movie or manga, respectively, to tell me how it really finishes.
One of the things of many that so impressed me about Esca, though, was the love story. The perfect, perfect, love story. Unlike most anime, the Esca love story was more like literature than like typical movies/tv/anime. The long, long progression where you don't get resolution till the end... the separating of the two lovers after they've finally realized their love... Unlike most anime or tv, where there's a pairing or couple throughout the whole thing and it's a relationship story... Esca is a love story in the most traditional literary sense. It all comes back to that.
And yet, it's so, so much more. I want to tell people "It's a fantastic love story." But then I'm afraid it'll be seen as just a shoujo chick flick thing.
I bet you never thought "medeival giant robots" could make such an awesome series, huh?