Comments on: Dropped: Shangri-La

By: Kiriska

Kiriska — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 09:17:30 +0000

Haha, I suppose you're right. There are more than a few series that I seriously don't know why I bothered sticking with them to the end. (The Loveless anime and Romeo x Juliet come to mind immediately.)

By: Hynavian

Hynavian — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 08:57:02 +0000

The picture you posted looks good though but as we know, nice looking anime doesn't last long without a good plot.

Cheer up, at least you dropped it after 7 episodes. I hung on to Ikkitousen Great Guardians because I believed that the plot (if any) would become better. I followed it till the end and it was total rubbish. That's 13 episodes of wasted time for me. :-(

By: dm00

dm00 — Thu, 28 May 2009 20:56:35 +0000

Figuring out the real plot is part of the mystery/puzzle. Some series are like that, but that sort of thing isn’t for everyone.

By: Kiriska

Kiriska — Thu, 28 May 2009 20:13:37 +0000

I suppose that’s true enough, though if I were looking for meta-shenanigans, I’d be watching Lucky Star, which I’ve admittedly never gotten into. I just wanna know what the damn plot is. ;\

By: dm00

dm00 — Thu, 28 May 2009 19:40:48 +0000

I'm continuing with this series --- while I don't have a lot of emotional involvement with the characters, I think it's a lot of fun at a meta-level.

The "bad fanservice" is an example --- they're very obviously playing a game with the audience. They've got a cartwheeling heroine in a miniskirt, but the audience only hears about her panchira second hand --- this from the makers of Strike Witches!

Then there's the okama bodyguard --- the reductio-ad-absurdum of otaku trap-fetishization. Those scenes in "Neo-Akihabara" were the giveaway, especially the three aging otaku's ecstasy at "a real girl in a school uniform"!

But if you're not into it for its subtle digs at anime cliche, then I can see it not being a very compelling series.

By: Kiriska

Kiriska — Wed, 27 May 2009 21:07:47 +0000

Well, that's why I called it really bad fanservice. :P

I'm notoriously bad at getting out early. I mean, Jesus, I watched ten episode of the 4Kids One Piece dub before I quit. =_=

By: Omisyth

Omisyth — Wed, 27 May 2009 19:16:10 +0000

I KNEW IT AND I GOT OUT EARLY AHAHAHAHA!!!

And I wouldn’t consider showing a portion of the upper back very good “fanservice” :P.

By: Kiriska

Kiriska — Wed, 27 May 2009 03:13:59 +0000

@TJ, I seem to have lasted much longer than most people, though I'm kinda surprised there are still people trucking along with Kurokami -- I lasted longer than a lot of people on that too haha.

@usagijen, Oh really? I've only seen a small handful of neutral reviews, but none outright positive. :O That's one downside of watching something as it airs though -- no final verdict to reassure you that it eventually gets better.

@Kairu, Yeah, I'm a stubborn idiot. I really wanted to see the plot develop, but I guess we can't all have what we want. :(

By: Kairu Ishimaru

Kairu Ishimaru — Wed, 27 May 2009 03:02:17 +0000

You had watched 7 episodes until you dropped it? Haha. Oh wow.

By: usagijen

usagijen — Wed, 27 May 2009 01:23:22 +0000

To think that I just read Kabitzin’s fairly positive review of the series before this, hmm. Guess I’ll wait till the series is over to roughly see how everything turns out, before finally diving into this.