Quote:
Originally Posted by Deconstructor
Is it me, or is this conversation rapidly veering away from the show?
|
Well, we could spend some more time discussing Hanabi's dietary habits or the possibility that she's a skank playing with Kimimaro's feelings, if that's what you want...
All my previous posts were meant, at least to me, to be no more than a short aside and, in the spirit of learning and inquiry, one could always take it as background knowledge for the setting upon which this anime is based.
It ties in, moreover, with concerns about
[C]'s apparent pretentiousness, a view which I'm inclined to share at this point.
Quote:
Originally Posted by sapphire-pyro
If I understood your point correctly, [C] has become "pretentious" just because it raised more questions than answers on its first episode?
If yes.... then what about all those mystery-centric anime? They can't be a mystery series/film if they have nothing which is mysterious (because the answers are still a mystery) in the first place
|
No,
[C] has not become "pretentious" just because it raised more questions than answers, but rather because it appears to pretend to be more profound than it really is. Much of its premise does not yet bear up to close scrutiny, especially for those who have at least some grasp of how finance and economics actually work.
And, as I've said earlier, I'm not necessarily looking for something convoluted like the "sea of information" that characterises the dystopian world of Major Kusanagi Motoko (which to me classifies as hardcore sci-fi). I'm also fine with something fun and whimsical, like
Summer War's Oz (not really, sci-fi; more like science fantasy).
But as
lordshadowisle said, as it currently stands,
[C] comes across as shounen fighting/fantasy drapped in some "fancy financial setting". In other words, it appears to be adopting these fancy costumes and financial mumbo-jumbo to disguise what looks, at the moment, to be just a shallow story.
Of course, it's just one episode. We don't yet know how the show will develop, so I'm reserving judgment and giving the story's outlandish premise some benefit of doubt. Moreover, I well know that most anime fans dislike heavy-duty topics in their entertainment. I'm under no illusion, for example, that viewers loved
Spice and Wolf not because of the opportunity to learn about the mechanics and history of mediaeval economics, but simply because of cute and coquettish Horo.
Don't get me wrong. I love shallow entertainment as much as any other guy. I wouldn't have salivated over
Highschool of the Dead otherwise. But I do have a problem with shows that pretend to be more intelligent than they really are. Revel in being shallow! Why pretend to be otherwise when you're not?