2010-01-07, 19:03 | Link #281 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2007
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Now that I can understand the episode, that certainly was....an unexpected way to start the show. Sort of giving us a view of what a normal Japanese would be seeing if they were watching this show.
Still, I hope they stick with the manga material from here on out since they only have 11 more episodes to go. And the Omake sort of made fun of the fact that Spoiler:
Last edited by bigdeath; 2010-01-07 at 20:49. |
2010-01-07, 20:06 | Link #283 |
(ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻
Moderator
Join Date: Mar 2006
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This isn't Dance in the Vampire Bund. This is an atrocity using the names and throwing everything else out the window that made the manga a great read. If it wasn't Dance, I wouldn't care...I'd just pass it off as some generic crappy vampire anime (which it is thanks to this pile) but this just makes me weep for what could have been.
How shameful for the mangaka. I hope his royalty check is nice.
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2010-01-07, 20:16 | Link #284 |
Human
Join Date: Aug 2004
Age: 37
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I think you people are underestimating SHAFT or something. Yeah, this contradicts what happens in the first chapter of the manga, but why are you expecting them to animate the first chapter, ever? I'd be very surprised if the next few episodes followed the manga in any detail. I did like the manga's beginning, but it wasn't the greatest thing ever that should be preserved at all costs. This episode replaces the first chapter, or at least parts of it. It's a new introduction to the series and the premise. The anime is a different thing entirely from the manga. Note that this doesn't mean it'll be good, but your specific complaints are most likely meaningless.
As for the episode itself, I like the idea of it, but I think the execution was very flawed. The whole premise of the series is that vampires suddenly announce themselves to the world and openly get involved in politics, etc. That's sort of interesting on its own, but the manga only focuses on the main characters, which means we only see it from the perspective of the relatively important vampires, and not the general populace. Or at least not until much later. This episode tried to show it from the other side, which imo is plenty more interesting than the main characters usually are. So I don't fault it for that. What I fault it for is the slow pace and the decision to emphasize some rather uninteresting bits about vampires. It made me interested to watch the next episode, but mostly because it's obviously not going to stay like this. It wasn't particularly exciting or emotional, which they'll have to fix in the next episode if they want to keep the audiences that's sticking around only for curiosity. |
2010-01-07, 20:19 | Link #285 |
Kupo
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Sleeping
Age: 32
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Dang, I was kind of looking forward to watching this :/. Now I'm not really sure if I'll even give it a try.
Unless I hear better things about the second episode, I'll probably just jump right over to the manga to get my taste of this series.
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2010-01-07, 21:05 | Link #286 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2006
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In the first 30 seconds I was like this is neat, never seen a game show like this. Maybe there is a game show like this really in japan. And then I was annoyed more and more the longer it went on. They should have stopped at the first 2 to 3 balance judgement and gotten right to the another anime.
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2010-01-07, 21:18 | Link #287 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Vancouver
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Coming into this series having never read the manga, I thought it was... okay.
Nothing special, and having been introduced to SHAFT's works through Bakemonogatari and Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, I found the animation somewhat disappointing. But maybe I'm just spoiled by the trippy psychedelic animation in those series. Furthermore, I found the TV talk show sequence highly boring. Since this is going to be a 12 episode series, I expected an immediate jump into the action, "hook" episode (a la Ga Rei Zero), but hey, it might get better...
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2010-01-07, 21:24 | Link #288 |
Member
Join Date: Jan 2009
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If I didn't know any better, I would think this series is some kind of monster-of-the-week type show just by watching the first episode, the reason being:
Spoiler for Geico Monster:
I haven't read the novel or manga or whatever but I do see potential romance blossom between certain characters, which is the main reason I am sticking to this show. I'll at least give them props for portraying that aspect which I got without knowing anything about the original material. |
2010-01-07, 22:44 | Link #292 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Pacific Northwest
Age: 57
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In the end, eps1 actually dealt with several issues. Mina discusses how a vampires "true form" is a reflection of their soul (gekko-vampire); we know that there are three great clans, and that Mina is descended from Vlad Tepes, garlic and cross don't work but sunlight kills; there's a gel that can protect vampires from sunlight; hell, we even meet Wolfgang, Akira's father. You may not like the container, god knows it wasn't my favorite, but it does its job well.
Spoiler for story line:
Personally, I'd love for this to be 24 or even 52 episodes, but that's not going to happen. I still have hope that they will do well with what they have, we'll just have to see how the next few episodes do.
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2010-01-07, 22:49 | Link #293 |
Udon-YAAAAAAAA
Join Date: Jan 2008
Age: 35
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i think you guys are overreacting... it is ep one (one might consider this ep zero), and they need to suck the crowd in before getting into the story. so unless they completely butcher the next 3 eps or so, i still have hope.
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2010-01-07, 23:36 | Link #294 | |
Member
Join Date: Oct 2009
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Quote:
Other than the opening sequence I was completely bored to death by a completely pointless discussion about vampires in modern media. If they wanted to show how modern media may not reflect what the vampires in this world are like they could have used countless other ways, instead of having a long winded discussion from talking heads. When the murloc finally appeared I just got a confused look on my face and started wondering if this was even about vampires anymore(though yes I do kinda see the point about the true forms). The only thing of interest I found was the ending speech, and that isn't really saying as much since you can learn that from the synopsis of the series. Anyways I'm still going to give this another episode or two, since I was planning to anyways, but anymore of these half useless episodes and this wont go far for me. |
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2010-01-07, 23:44 | Link #296 |
Senior Member
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It's funny how my perception of the show is really almost the total opposite from what everyone else is saying.
I really liked the start of the episode, showing us what the public opinion on vampires is like, how they are portrayed more like a popcultural item that can be used for marketing, nobody actually took it serious and so it became clear that it isn't much of a problem for vampires to actually exist unnoticed as long as they make people believe they don't exist.... I have to agree I never really got past the first 3 or 4 chapters of the manga, because even though it wasn't bad, it was typical vampire fantasy without much any inspiring sides to it. I thought I'd give the anime a try because so many people are mad over Vampire Bund, so I wanted to check it out in a less stretched out version. The end of the episode pretty much killed it for me, as it made the same impression on me as the manga did, namely vampire action for the Otaku crowd. Well I think I will watch at least the next episode too and see how it develops before deciding wether to continue or not.
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2010-01-07, 23:48 | Link #297 |
The Owl of Minerva
Join Date: Apr 2006
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In my opinion one's enjoyment of ep1 is directly proportionate with the number of crappy Japanese variety shows they has watched in their life.
As someone who is completely new to the franchise, I found this episode highly amusing and have to applaud Shaft's fine attention to detail in recreating a believable Japanese-style variety program in animated form (try dialling the tel no. shown on the screen btw). Now I am waiting eagerly for ep2 to know more about the loli vampire and her friends. Furthermore, the harsh criticisms here aroused my interested in the manga and I am going to read it in a few days. I think one of the major purposes of animating a manga series is to attract more fans to the franchise, instead of just to please the current fanbase and leave it as such. Ep1 of this series IMO has done this beautifully, sufficiently interesting to draw the attention of the normal Japanese (who watch variety show everyday) and at the same time get them interested in the manga too. Shaft doesn't give a (*) to someone who is outside their radar and won't care to fill up the JP-Western cultural gap, as shown from all the Japanese-centric references and jokes in many of the Shaft series. This is probably why most people here find this ep boring. If you want an animated series that is truly loyal to the source material: get rich now, buy the franchise rights, and let KyoAni animate it. You should be watching Shaft stuff for GASP and LOL and fun, not for stressing yourself in thinking about how much it deviates from the source.
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2010-01-08, 00:21 | Link #298 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: In a world all my own
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I'm afraid I'm one of the totally underwhelmed watchers of the first episode. I was rather looking forward to this show, but if the first episode is any indication I doubt I'll be watching the whole thing.
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2010-01-08, 01:13 | Link #299 |
Yuuki Aoi
Join Date: Jul 2004
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As a reader of much of the manga, at first I was shocked, then the word "brilliant" sprang to mind.
Quite unique. Yes, the game show felt a bit dragged out, but then the whole feeling of it began to work for me. And I thought the fleshy character design was amazing. I hate monsters, but this one was such a joke that I liked it. The juxtaposition of the humor and the power worked for me -- and I began to anticipate how this will feel as we get into episodes more like the manga. It's the overall feeling of the way the disparate elements interact that has me fascinated. And Mina Tepes. Chalk up one episode for Yuuki Aoi. "We'll talk about Akira later." Lol.
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Tags |
action, romance, seinen, shaft, supernatural, vampire, violence |
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