2011-07-19, 10:48 | Link #263 |
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Join Date: Dec 2010
Age: 31
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Aside from the already elucidated issue of the main character being a doormat, I'm rather confused as to where his sudden jolt of motivation for seeing Alice's work through to the end came from. It can't have been more than a few days since some random high school dropouts coerced him into joining this little game. What could have happened between then and now to get him to take such a sense of responsibility to being the assistant to a haughty and unsociable freeloader? To make him risk his neck for someone he just met? Being pulled along with the flow is one thing, and to be expected when you have so little strength of personality, but no one is going to get involved with criminal underworld matters just because. Even doormats ultimately feel the sense self-preservation too strongly for that. As of yet there's just no believable reason for anyone's convictions here.
I'm also unsure as to whether our detective here simply has all the necessary information spoon fed to her by the writer (the main issue of the early half of Gosick) or that the cases here are so simple that they can be solved with easily accessible information. One thing that's for certain is that she's not demonstrated herself to be much more clever than average. She simply chooses from a number of obvious conclusions based on some easily obtained information. The one thing this does have on Gosick is that the cases are more believable and relatable to the real world, but what matters the most for this genre is the audience catharsis. What are we left to ponder and play with here? What actually happened can only be one of few things. The motivations? In a crime of this nature, possible motivations are generally very few. With nothing really to think about, we're just watching and not participating much, which is anti-ethical to what a good mystery should be. I'd say that most of these problems can be traced back to the speed at which this is moving along. It's not enough time to build any compelling mystery nor to build any attachment to characters or outcomes. Whether we find out that he laundered the money to give his daughter a better life (which I will preemptively say is an utterly ridiculous plan - to help your daughter by making you both prime interests of the Yakuza) or he was forced to under some tenuous circumstances, I honestly will neither be surprised nor will I feel particularly strongly one way or the other. I just don't care what happens to these people and why because it's the second episode and already we're on to something new. TL;DR it's all just really shallow to me. It might be better to lower ambitions and just stick with one thing for a longer story arc. |
2011-07-19, 11:12 | Link #264 | |
Also a Lolicon
Join Date: Apr 2010
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It feels a bit shallow as well imho. Hopefully it will improve. How many episodes? Its just a waste of time if we have a lot more 1 ep and 2 ep story arcs in any case, a longer one would be nice for the reasons you mentioned anyways though. |
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2011-07-19, 13:48 | Link #266 | |
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Join Date: Feb 2011
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Spoiler for mention to novel:
The anime is going quite fast, I hope they let us track Narumi' character development, because that's the strong point of this story, the rest is quite much any detective story. |
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2011-07-19, 15:18 | Link #267 | |
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Location: Virginia Tech
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2011-07-19, 15:47 | Link #269 |
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Join Date: Jul 2011
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I'm afraid I am going to drop this series. Episode 1 was simply too generic to me, I'm afraid. All the side characters are generic too.
I skimmed through the manga and it appears to be a lot better than the anime. From what I can see, the first few chapters of the manga primarily focuses on Alice and Narumi, which I like very much. I cannot get into the first episode of the anime because it tries to introduce too many things at once. Before even developing side characters like Shousa and Yondaime, the first episode should have developed a more solid foundation around Alice and Narumi. >: |
2011-07-19, 17:45 | Link #271 |
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Location: Redgrave City
Age: 35
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Nay, the fact that he finds it generic is weird to begin with; the main character yeah, but as far as mystery/detective stories go, this one doesn't follow the same pattern as the likes of Kendaichi, Conan, and the reason Gosick. The cases are more... Down-to-Earth I would say.
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2011-07-19, 18:11 | Link #272 | ||
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Join Date: Jul 2011
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Spoiler for :
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2011-07-19, 19:47 | Link #273 |
We're Back
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Redgrave City
Age: 35
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Can I ask, what crime scenes are there? In the two cases we've seen they are both about missing persons. And it's not about someone breaking into the house and kidnapping them either, they've just gone missing.
I've said before the cases are different from Kendaichi, Conan, and the recent Gosick in that this isn't about solving an unexplainable mystery like a murder in a locked room, or how can one person be at two places at the same time- The cases (or at least the ones we have seen thus far) are more like the type you'll find on TV drama. While the NEETs are an added fantasy flavor, if you want to talk about unrealism I can point out that the other detective Animes have their own suspension of disbelief so it's kinda pointless to bring that up.
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2011-07-19, 19:50 | Link #274 |
~Official Slacker~
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Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Xanadu
Age: 29
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What I've learned from a certain popular anime. You should always give it a 3-5 episode chance before dropping it, especially an anime with this type of plot and setting. By that time is usually when things develop or start to get serious after introduction/preview of who the characters are and what type of personality they have.
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2011-07-19, 20:25 | Link #276 | |
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2011-07-20, 04:13 | Link #278 |
Princess or Plunderer?
Join Date: May 2009
Location: the Philippines
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^ Gosick also vastly improved since Episode 14. Yes, it's far off, but there are much more characters developed with the plot advancement.
Well, the problem with Detective Conan is that it is too focused by the mystery that we start to forget about the characters. It's already more than 500 episodes since the Shrinking Incident, and there has been too many retcons for Shinichi's biggest case ever: the case involving him himself. Meanwhile, Gosick merely used the mystery to develop the characters. I'm not yet sure as to how J.C. will handle Kamimemo, but I hope it ends more like Gosick; ending the series with the resolution of a big case (which is not involved with Alice's or Narumi's character development, take note) instead of the improvement of Alice and Narumi's relationship is not a good example of handling this adaptation. @MeisterBabylon: Seems that my fanfic snippet of Victorique's incoming face-off with Alice has piqued your interest.
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2011-07-20, 05:28 | Link #279 |
Licensed Hunter-a-holic
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 35
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I have to question all the three tags this series has gotten here. Comedy? Drama?
Slice of Life?? What's next, mecha? Horror? Anyway, after a bit of a hiccup last week, I ended up falling behind a bit on the seasons shows, but I managed to get caught up before it got too serious, and since there wasn't anything else to watch today, I got around to the second episode of God's Memo. The result for me was more or less the same as the first episode, meaning that I once again find myself involved more with the victims than any of the leads or the rest of the cast. The case itself was fairly interesting, Meo's situation was not only understandable but also helped me relate to her even if I never experienced the same thing. Her pain felt very realistic and her story drew me in from start to finish, and I only hope she gets a happy ending of sort now. Other than that though ... well, aside from the designs still reeking of generic JCStaff look that make me sad that Kishida Mel's designs were watered down, the music and the direction I felt were better than the first episode (which was already good) but the voice acting remains an issue. I said it once and I will say it again, Yui Ogura just can't sell Alice to me. The scene where she stands on bed and delivers that dramatic introduction to Meo and how she was going to help her was clearly meant to be a powerful scene, from the way the camera movement to the lighting, but she maintains the same monotone she has through out the episode in that scene, so it ends up just falling completely flat. A shame really, since the voice it self is fine, but the acting is really lacking here. I guess it might've helped if they at least had some background music playing to at least carry some of the responsibility off her back so the scene retained some impact, but alas ... Narumi remains as dull as ever. Had they not continued to call him by his name, I would've forgotten what they called him by the end of the episode. So in the end, the same reaction I had with the first episode, a series that by all rights I should like, but I remain unimpressed thus far. The cases themselves are engaging, the score is good, and the oxymoronic nature of the show could be interesting (could is the key word here), but the lead is a bore, Alice VA is very weak, and the designs are just washed out JCStaff designs. I really don't want to drop this show. Honestly, I want to love it but nothing about it is gripping me other than the cases. Sigh, another episode. Maybe next episode will make it or break it for me.
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2011-07-20, 07:21 | Link #280 | |
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Location: Redgrave City
Age: 35
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More importantly, there doesn't seem to be a big main plot in sight yet, but then again, it's hard to remember that this is only the second episode, when we've watched like 3 episodes worth of content already Some how, you two are like BFF when I wasn't around huh
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bromance, comedy, drama, slice of life |
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