2012-08-12, 04:54 | Link #1161 | |
Sharing my world thru art
Artist
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: Anywhere I can draw inspiration from
Age: 41
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2012-08-12, 05:27 | Link #1164 | |
Me, An Intellectual
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: UK
Age: 33
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Right now the current anime airing with the most egregious male emasculation would be Rinne no Lagrange. Kokoro Connect is nowhere near that bad.
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Last edited by relentlessflame; 2012-08-12 at 12:14. Reason: edited quote |
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2012-08-12, 05:43 | Link #1165 | |
Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2012
Age: 31
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I'm hoping that the characters' problems will come to surface in a more natural way than in the first arc. In other words, less Taichi-to-the-rescue. I like the lighthearted feel the series has due to its switching between drama and comedy, however, the more subtle way it was handled in the first season worked much better. Also, I don't think Inaba hitting Taichi was that big of a deal. Slapstick violence tends to get very emphasized in animation and what he said was pretty insensitive. I don't like how it reminds me of crappy harems where the males only serve as buttmonkeys so (like with the fanservice) I hope they won't go overboard with it. Also, I'll never miss an opportunity to complain about the treatment of teenage male characters in anime. For me it shows a very common problem in anime today and that's audience pandering at its worst. Treating a part of your main cast as unimportant and simplistic just because they can't attract the audience with their boobs...that's bloody offensive. The story is already suffering from main-character-centricity. I wonder how creative they could've gotten if they didn't require everything to be taken from Taichi's POV and instead included the whole cast. Last edited by Blonto; 2012-08-12 at 06:13. |
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2012-08-12, 05:52 | Link #1166 | |
Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: United States of America
Age: 32
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It's pretty common to get punched in the guts for something that raunchy lol. Especially if you're really close. And they obviously are.
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2012-08-12, 06:52 | Link #1167 | |||
<em style="color:#808080;">Disabled By Request</em>
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As for bringing in the comparison of Harry Potter which is a British fantasy series where the premise in that is all about wizards, magic ... Quote:
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2012-08-12, 06:56 | Link #1168 |
Human
Join Date: Aug 2004
Age: 37
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Heartseed is the premise of the show. He's an uncontrollable force of nature (basically God) who uses magic powers to tear down the social walls between people and force them to confront their true feelings. That's... the entire show. Take that out and there's nothing left.
Frankly, given that Heartseed is essentially omnipotent and omniscient, I find the fact that he bothers to come down and explain himself at all rather than just sitting back and doing all this stuff without telling them why to be rather endearing. |
2012-08-12, 06:57 | Link #1169 | |
Senior Member
Join Date: Nov 2003
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Concerning this ep, I'm really worried about both Iori and Himeko. Inaba's biggest weakness seems to be that she can't accept others, or herself, enough to put herself forward, instead bottling everything up until it explodes. In a way, this is a good thing for her because the way she's going, eventually her feelings would overwhelm her anyway; this forces her to release them and show herself, so if she's able to accept the good and bad within her a bit from this she'll be far better for it. Anyway, all things considered, it may be difficult for everyone to get through this one pure. As high schoolers, even Yui must have some strong desires at times, and if they're not careful any one of them may follow Inaba's example to its ultimate conclusion. |
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2012-08-12, 07:20 | Link #1170 |
Black Steel Knight
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Indonesia
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I’d say “acceptable” in the context that’s it’s the comedic nature of many anime series most of the times. Just like the many times they show some violence in Tom & Jerry. Most of the said violence scenes are played for humor/laughs. I mean, imagine if all audience think too deeply of a scene where Porky Pig pointing a rifle at Bugs Bunny’s head at point blank and threaten to blow his head off .
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2012-08-12, 07:43 | Link #1171 |
Franco's Phalanx is next!
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Little England, Europe and Asia
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Heartseed, that troll turned the boring high school life of these kids into a show interesting to read/watch
Also horny and then embarrassed "little princess" was presented magnificently! The other two girls were somewhat ditched this episode (particularly Yui), but there are still 6 more episodes to work them out... unfortunately this won't happen with the male duo, not as two-dimensional as most anime male characters, but there their personalities are simplistic and undeveloped. Another thing the character designs are too blant, but fortunately the director and VAs pulled out some amazing work, especially when taking into account the complexity of the situations. |
2012-08-12, 07:46 | Link #1172 |
Romanticist
Join Date: Aug 2009
Age: 33
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Well, it looks like Heartseed still lacks any understanding of subtlety when it comes to writing a plot.
At this point, I'm pretty much convinced that he serves no purpose beyond acting as the author's avatar. That said, I have to wonder how much of Heartseed's speech in the episode reflected the sentiments of the show's actual writer. But in all honestly, it really did make sense. Once the body-switching schtick stopped being interesting, it would have made perfect sense to change it into something that could make the story more interesting. From a general writing perspective, I'd have to say that this show is pretty bad. However, this show manages to make up for it through the sheer strength of its cast, so it still comes off as rather charming. The characterization of the female cast in this recent episode was particularly impressive. As such, I'm fine with overlooking some of the show's flaws as long as it doesn't strain my suspension of disbelief as much as it did last episode. As for the episode itself, I absolutely loved it. All the Freudian themes scattered everywhere glued me to the screen for the entire episode. The premise is simple: "What would happen if the 'ego' (and possibly the 'superego') was to somehow become unable to suppress the urges of the 'id'?" This is a prime opportunity to explore the nature of identity and its constituents. So far, this shows seems to be drawing a distinction between two different "selves" that can be found within each person. One that represents the "self" that individuals create around the standards stipulated by society, Iori in particular takes this to the extreme. The other "self" represents the individual's desires and needs that society deem inappropriate. In Freudian terms, these two "selves" are called the ego/superego and the id respectively. For now, it's looking like Himeko is under a lot of stress now since she was especially dependent on her surface self to keep her "true" inner self in check. Now, I'm just looking forward to seeing what the show does with the ideas it brings up.
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2012-08-12, 07:52 | Link #1174 |
Franco's Phalanx is next!
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Little England, Europe and Asia
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In-universe, Heartseed is not human, and therefore applying human mental processes, like motivation is somewhat inappropriate. In any case, his action (however crude) help a bunch of stupid pretentious kids to grow up by understanding themselves as well as their loved ones.
Meta-thinking though of course Heartseed's actions are the starting point for the girls' character development, but IS THE WHOLE PREMISE OF THE SHOW... simple and effective. You and Inaba too |
2012-08-12, 07:57 | Link #1175 | |
Guess what time it is?
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: Nova Scotia, Canada
Age: 38
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Something else that occurred to me watching this week: Yui is REALLY strong. Like, even stronger than I realized before. Smashed hand aside, she split that table clean in two. The same table had just moments before easily supported the weight of an amorous high-schooler.
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Even so, I can't help but feel that her primary motivation is related to her apparent belief that Iori is more emotionally fragile than her, and needs to be shielded from anything that might lead her to think that she has competition. It could also just be a self esteem thing, putting others before herself. Like Taichi, she's not above degrading herself in front of her friends for their sake. The "I was looking at dirty pictures" dodge reminded me of his "I've masturbated to you" confession in that both were done with the goal of bringing some measure of comfort to a friend at the cost of potentially serious damage to their own reputations. It's exactly this lingering reputation stuff that really drives me nuts about Heartseed. Is there really no one at home or school who questions the likelihood of Iori "accidentally" taking a tumble off a bridge? What kind of delinquent rumors were Yui and Aoki risking when they tangled with the law? What if Inaba hadn't been there when Fujushima started toying with Iori? Would Taichi have punched his class rep? His much smaller, female, glasses-wearing class rep? Can you ever recover from something like that? |
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2012-08-12, 08:32 | Link #1177 | |
Senior Member
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Star Trek has Q, as well as a host of lesser one-shot antagonists that liked to toy with and test humanity. Superman has Mr. Mxyzptlk. Heartseed isn't hugely different from Q and Mr. Mxyztptlk. The main differences are: 1. Heartseed's less charismatic about it, so maybe that makes him less entertaining for some people. Q is a joy to watch for his scenery-chewing alone. 2. Heartseed's messing around with everyday teenagers, rather than the likes of Jean-Luc Picard or Earth's mightiest hero. This can make him seem somewhat more cruel, as the people he's toying with aren't as well-prepared for handling this sort of thing. 3. Heartseed never goes away for long. So ultimately the basic character/plot concept is much the same, although Heartseed does take it to new heights by never going away for long. And I suppose that might be why some viewers dislike his presence in the show - It gets in the way of more naturalistic character development. Still, that would leave Kokoro Connect as no different than dozens of other slice of high school life shows, wouldn't it? If Heartseed needs to be there in order to differentiate Kokoro Connect from dozens of other slice of high school life shows then Heartseed probably should be there. I suppose you could have left the cause behind these body-switchings, and now these Id Mode moments, a complete mystery. But I honestly think that would infuriate more viewers than Heartseed himself does. I can just imagine all the viewers going "When are they going to explain what causes all this bizarre stuff?!" Honestly, I'd probably be singing much the same tune myself at this point, if not for Heartseed. All of that being said, I do get your issues with Kokoro Connect. But I also think that those issues are kind of a hurdle you simply have to clear in order to enjoy Kokoro Connect. Once you get used to the "anime-ness" of Kokoro Connect (the audience-winking ecchi mixed with serious drama, the conventional anime comedy mixed with heartwarming character moments, how the two genders are treated way differently and in conventional anime style), I think you find a nice gem of a show. It's not flawless, of course, but it is a genuinely ambitious show that executes it well-enough to give us very compelling and interesting characters. At least right now I think that Kokoro Connect's strengths greatly outweigh its weaknesses.
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2012-08-12, 08:33 | Link #1178 |
Senior Member
Join Date: May 2004
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ahh, my ship already sank
Anyways, is Heartseed's system following an escalating pattern or is more targeted at a specific person? Because if it were the former what will gonna happen next arc? Anyways letting aside the "side characters" Aoki and Yui, Iori seems to be the most difficult to read. I mean, Aoki role reminds me of Nobuse from TT, except for the dumb and annoying stubbornness of the latter. If I have to guess he masks himself with dumbness that could imply that his problem is to not be taken into consideration. but it's hard to say given he is the less developed and on-screen character of the show. Yui uses, well I don't know, kindness, naivety as a mask, but in her inner self she needs to vent out her anger. Iori is the hardest to read, because it seems that she fakes cheerfulness and even silliness to hide herself, but she is the most thoughtful, rational and apparently cold (?) of the group, what confused me was her last line about not screwing up things this time, which things? And Why that unhappy creepy-like face? Or are they hinting at some more serious disease? Taichi is another matter, because he suffers of less build-up given his male character status, but after the PV I guess that what could crush him little by little could be seeing his friends not being worth his efforts. Betraying him, or better, disappointing him in some way or another. The next episode already showed us something about Inaba. Like every white-knight'd actions he made were meant to be rewarded with a sort of loyalty or subtle gratitude (i.e. praising him) in his mind or something along this line. Anyways so far I had no problems with Taichi white knight persona, if he wasn't lacking in sensibility. I mean, if you are a white knight you can't be dense like a common harem MC. (don't you see how Himeko is suffering???) ehm, that's the aspect of him that in a bit jarring. I guess there's nothing more to add, because about Inaba, well she is the most developed character of the five and the most interesting and cute and... well since I'm totally devoted to her I restrain myself because I would be surely biased, and plus right know I'm trying to come to terms with her "ero queen" side that I wasn't expecting Joking aside, I guess that Inaba is not fighting over Taichi because she feels not being worthy for him (and even for her friends) because she doesn't trust him so how could he love someone like that? But HS screwed up his plans. And she is like a perfect self-defense machine, she acts and reacts sharply to close every open a situation would create. She is like a nut, the only way (or fastest way) to reach her is crack her, so the direction HS is pushing things seems to be the right one. Even for Iori, who is instead more condescending. And this new "threat" seems to be more favorable to her and in fact more overwhelming for Himeko. Talking about HS, basically I came up to terms with heartseed-plot-device figure, I see him like a game menu that I open when I need to check something out. This time he popped out simply to explain us the new rules, that were quite clear to be honest, but as I said, every time he pops up I'm kinda able now to remove him from the scene, sort of. He still chills my enjoyment down when I see him, because I find him disconnected from the show. What I don't like is that his role could have been replaced by a most complex, and surely hard to write, natural chain of events instead of embody it into a character. Not a real complain here, but so far I haven't seen nothing strong enough to justify the supernatural element (if not for the convenience of the writers and lack of time). Again don't get me wrong I'm quite satisfied with the show, but HS figure is like watching behind the scenes while watching the episode and not later. I'm starting to worry about the number of episodes, iirc this show is supposed to have 17 episodes, but be aired only the conventional one cour number, right? Did they will finish at least the main plot (supposed triangle love)?
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Last edited by Arya; 2012-08-12 at 08:44. |
2012-08-12, 09:05 | Link #1179 | ||
Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2012
Age: 31
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Yui the rapist? I can't even imagine it since she looks so uninterested in boys, but then again she did blush quite a bit when Aoki started stripping in the manga. Quote:
Last edited by Blonto; 2012-08-12 at 09:17. |
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body swapping, comedy, drama, romance, shounen, slice of life |
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