2013-01-07, 21:38 | Link #264 | ||
Try me! <3
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Germany
Age: 40
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Others quite possibly think just like her, so fake-dating her will make them stop to think he's gay.
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2013-01-08, 04:23 | Link #267 |
Sayaka★Magica
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: Under the piercing blue sky
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Let the "carnage" (i.e. shuraba) begin.
Things were actually better than I expected. Eita and Masuzu's seiyuu did great. With the exception of Chiwa's voice which differed from what I wanted to hear. She didn't sound genki enough to me. I do applaud her seiyuu's effort, maybe I can get used to her voice after a while. Anyway, despite the voice I'll still be rooting for Chiwa, as usual from when I was reading the manga adaptation of the novels. Nice to see that I'm not the only one supporting her in this thread, among the throngs of early Masuzu supporters. If they had kept the original web radio cast she would really have been Silver Senjougahara (Chiwa Saito voiced Masuzu in the web radio show). Anyway, what's done is done and I thought Yukarin did an excellent job with Masuzu, so I can accept the change.
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2013-01-08, 18:43 | Link #271 | |
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In addition to what you pointed out, she is smart and devious enough to be Seto Kaiba's daughter, lol. Pretty interesting first episode, that I checked out largely due to totoum's suggestion. What I find most interesting is how a fair number of recent, prominent female anime characters wear these "moe masks" that hide a very different and harsher/sharper (depending on how you look at it) personality inside, and that this is the latest anime show to have a major female character like this. Other characters like this were seen in Accel World, Chuunibyou, and Kokoro Connect. I wonder what this trend might be pointing towards? Growing cynicism towards moe ideals best represented by, say, the K-On! girls? Maybe anime writers and mangaka and light novel writers just tried of more standard moe archetypes and hence wanting to invert them, or at least subvert them, a bit? In any event, I do find this recent trend of sly, smart, pretentious, moe mask-wearing anime girls to be intriguing. I also like the male lead of this show, Eita. A young man with a practical life/career goal that makes him very studious and industrious. He appears to be very different from most other anime romcom male leads, with the possible exception being that he seems to have a touch of chuunibyou to himself. So far, I like him. On the whole, I like how this anime has both of its leads starting from very cynical positions towards romance, which is pretty distinct for an anime romcom. Overall, it's looking promising so far!
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2013-01-08, 19:20 | Link #272 | |
Last Engage
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Florida
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2013-01-08, 19:59 | Link #273 | |
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NGE and Madoka Magica are two huge anime examples of this. The Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns are two huge comic book examples of this. No trope is absolutely perfect. Any trope will get tiresome if its constantly played straight in work after work after work, year after year after year. Heck, even "happy endings" in general became tiresome to many people for just this reason. Lately I get a sense that people want and appreciate happy endings more than what was the case just a few years ago. Going through some "bad ends" likely helped some people appreciate "happy endings" in a way that they didn't for a long time. Likewise, going through some "moe mask" girls might give some people a new and/or greater appreciation for sincere moe girls, like Clannad's Nagisa and K-On's Yui. So for this reason, and others, I'm glad that Masuzu is the way she is.
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2013-01-09, 02:08 | Link #274 |
Administrator
Join Date: Dec 2003
Age: 41
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I tend to agree that Masuzu probably isn't borne out of deep cynicism or dissatisfaction with industry trends. Rather, I think it's just an interesting hook for a romantic comedy. It's been done before too (although of course each case has a slightly different flavour); I'm thinking like Yukino from Kare Kano (~15 years ago), or more recently Tsukasa from Amagami ("Ayatsuji-san is a wonderful person with nothing to hide"). In a lot of ways, it also isn't so different from the tsundere, yandere, or ojou-sama trends either. It's also a relatively common thing in visual novels (see the genre tag); one of my favourites was Tsubasa from Kisaragi Gold Star (a relatively well-known title, if not translated).
The idea of "she looks perfect on the outside, but is quite different once you see past the facade" has certainly been done, anyway. I would just say that many have been interpreted to be about that... but it doesn't necessarily mean the author actually did that consciously or was really trying to express any sort of dissatisfaction. But there is a certain audience who gets really excited whenever they can interpret any show as being a deconstruction or a subversion of a trend or trope. Personally, as someone who doesn't care all that much for "uniqueness" (as long as a show contains elements I like), I don't think about it very often. I suppose there's no clear answer, because it's mostly about interpretation. I didn't see this as some sort of "counter-trend", though.
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Last edited by relentlessflame; 2013-01-09 at 02:20. |
2013-01-09, 02:42 | Link #276 | |
I Miss NEET Life
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Formerly Iwakawa base and Chaldea. Now Teyvat, the Astral Express & the Outpost
Age: 44
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I like Masuzu because she is a kind of a trickster, like Ayamine from the Muv Luv trilogy, and is a JoJoBro. The fact that she fits the white-haired kind of tall, dark and bishoujo archetype that I am fond of is a bonus.
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2013-01-09, 03:40 | Link #277 |
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Join Date: Jun 2006
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Though the act of blackmailing Kidou isn't praiseworthy, I really have to hand it to Masuzu for her thoroughness in picking a right target and doing her homework to make him go along with her charade.
Of course, it's a little too convenient in how she got that kind of leverage to blackmail him, but I'm willing to overlook it for the sake of moving the plot along quickly. It's also too convenient how she seemed to know instinctively that Kidou has no current interest in having a relationship. It's almost as if, while Kidou is busy reading his books, she had been reading him from those sideway glances. |
2013-01-09, 04:51 | Link #278 |
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Join Date: Jul 2010
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(to no one in particular) Yes yes, 'Masuzu' archetype has been done before, except that, this time round, the protag has the same value system (with regards to love) as her and they got into a fake relationship. Someone tell me how often do you get this? Is it ok to pass the 'cliche' judgment on a show based on its individual character archetypes and standalone plot elements, or look at it as a sum of its parts? Well, I leave it to each and every individual.
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2013-01-09, 08:51 | Link #280 | ||||
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To be clear, it may not be a counter-trend, per se. Perhaps its some sort of commentary/reflection on recent trends in the real world. Quote:
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And what's wrong with that? What's wrong with playing around with tropes and popular character types, and picking at the weaknesses or contradictions of them? Do we really want popular tropes to be played straight all the time, forever more? I can certainly appreciate K-On now and then too, but I wouldn't want all anime girls to be like the K-On girls. Quote:
True, that's rather different, as I mentioned before. And that's something I like about this - a romcom where both halves of the presumptive main pairing are very cynical towards romance. I honestly have never seen that done before. At least not in anime.
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comedy, coming of age, harem, romance, school life, shounen |
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