Aion
Time-Traveller
(My topic, C&Ped from MAL.)
This is a remixed version of a thread that was recently posted over in the manga section; a forum that's roughly as active as a graveyard.
Since I'm fully aware that most MAL users cannot comprehend the obvious, your mission is this: you must list five good AND BAD points about a title you've awarded a 9-10/10 score to. You can pick any title(s) you wish... providing you've given it a 9-10/10 score.
Simples, yes? With the above information, you have no excuse for failing to understand what you're supposed to be doing in my topic, and I'll point and laugh at you (virtually, of course) if you still require my expert guidance.
Also, there's one other, fairly minor thing that needs to be said: DON'T ******* TYPE A FEW WORDS AND LEAVE IT AT THAT. AT LEAST TYPE OUT A FULL, UNDERSTANDABLE SENTENCE FOR EACH POINT BEFORE POSTING, YOU (quite possibly) ILLITERATE ****!!!!!
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Now, with the pleasantries out of the way, I'll go first; leading by example:
Gankutsuou:
+1: It looks purdy. No, really - it looks sexy. The CG effect visible on the clothes and backgrounds looks wonderful... once your eyes adjust to seeing something unique. And the robot duels also looked rather sexy.
+2: It's based on one of the best, most in-depth novels of all time; one which has been stolen from time and time again. And, even though the anime is neither a full or faithful adaptation, it's still amazing in its own way; Gonzo having done a fantastic job.
+3: In spite of the Edmond Dantes in Gankutsuou only being half the character he was in the novel, his charisma still shined through. It was easy to see why Albert was so fascinated with him.
+4: The first half or so of the story is mostly build-up, and that meant I didn't 10/10 it straight away. But, once everything started to fall into place, the build-up made what happened pretty ******* amazing to sit through.
+5: Some of the tracks on the soundtrack are remixed classical pieces. That alone is worthy of a plus point... assuming the the small matter of track 18 being one of the most beautiful pieces of music in existence on its own isn't viewed as being enough, that is.
-1: In order for the story to be re-worked with a more mysterious edge, Albert was made into the lead in Gankutsuou. He was also given the IQ of a dog; constantly failing to see the obvious. He annoyed me.
-2: Due to time constraints, Dantes' past - which was covered with the first 300 pages of the novel - got crammed into a flashback that only lasted a few minutes. The prison section of the novel is probably my favourite part and, though the anime version of events wasn't bad, the lack of content did take away from Gankutsuou.
-3: Dantes' good side wasn't shown in Gankutsuou. Instead, only his 'evil' actions got time; changing him from being one of the best developed characters ever into being just another cool villain. It didn't bother me until I read the novel after the anime, but the difference between the two versions of Dantes is HUGE.
-4: Instead of Eugenie being a lesbian like in the novel, she got turned straight by Albert. And there was a cheesy as hell wedding rescue bit added in - it probably being the worst part of Gankutsuou.
-5: Though the anime only path Gonzo went on after episode 18 turned out to be quite good, the ending sucked as much as pretty much every other anime ending. Plot no justu was required for Albert to save Dantes' soul, and the final episode was a fairly dull epilogue.
-----
Death Note:
+1: Anime adaptations are inferior to the manga they're based on, nine times out of ten. Everyone and their cat knows this. But Death Note is different from the norm. Rather than it being a rushed, poorly executed attempt at cashing in on a highly rated manga, Madhouse actually attempted to fix the numerous flaws of the mostly disappointing second half of the story by fast-forwarding through it, whilst still retaining all the necessary information. By doing this, as well as being faithful to the best of Death Note - covering the first half of the story with around 25 episodes - they made the anime much more enjoyable than the manga, overall.
+2: Death Note was not made on the cheap. If the art consistency, artistic colour usage, 'camera angles' and all the rest weren't enough to tell you this, then the effort put into Light and L's little punching/kicking contest during the most poor section of the anime should've made everything clear. I mean, Madhouse even made eating a packet of sodding crisps epic through a combination of directing and over the top music - you can't say that about any other title!
+3: Mamoru put in a PERFECT performance as Yagami Light. I'd heard his voice before, it not remaining in my memory, but he truly became the character in the case of Light. In episode 36, my cheeks were tingling simply because of how excited Light sounded, and how well it came across that he was struggling to contain his laughter. And the 'evil laughter' in episode 37 was just AMAZING - it really did sound like Light was letting out all his rage and the feelings he'd worked so hard to hold within over the duration of the story.
+4: The soundtrack is, by some distance, my favourite soundtrack. When Death Note was still airing, way back when, I was actually more excited by each of the three soundtracks becoming available to download than I was by the release of the latest episodes. Some people have moaned to me about the chanting and whatnot being over the top, but I thought it made the exciting bits FAR more thrilling. Many months after finishing Death Note, I STILL listened to the soundtrack on a regular basis, and even now I still listen to some of the tracks when I'm bored.
+5: When being negative about Death Note, a number of people have mentioned that it lacks character development; that the characters start and end the same. But what these people don't realize is that one of Death Note's strongest points is that there weren't any flashbacks explaining why Light was the way he was and did what he did. Light, quite simply, was a guy with more smarts than the vast majority of people and an equal amount of selfishness. He viewed himself as superior to the rest, was bored with everyday life and didn't let the rights and wrongs of society hold him back - that's all. There are many people similar to Light around, and many people who are selfish. A traumatic childhood (which would've taken away from his character, rather than adding anything) isn't a requirement for being a self-absorbed git. Many people can relate to/understand Light BECAUSE there was no attempt to make him into a sympathetic character.
-1: Even though Madhouse improved the last half of the story considerably by rushing through it, it still wasn't on the same level as the first half. I can't ignore the fact that L was replaced by a soulless, younger version of himself. The introduction of Takeda and Mikami did make me like the last half a lot more, but Near never went away.
-2: Madhouse could remove some of the content, but they weren't willing to go as far as to re-write the story in order to cover for the failings of the author, and that left the second half with some bothersome holes. The first issue I have is the way Mello went from 'I'LL WIN NO MATTER WHAT; EVEN IF IT MEANS KILLING OTHERS!' to 'I'M GOING TO DO SOMETHING TOTALLY POINTLESS, GOING AGAINST MY CHARACTER BY DOING SO, IN ORDER TO UNINTENTIONALLY HELP NEAR AND GET OUT OF THE WAY!' After the whole mafia business, the author clearly had no clue what to do with Mello, and he ended up getting discarded as a plot device. Not good writing.
-3: There was a lot of Death Note swapping towards the end, which resulted in Mikami going to the bank to get the 'real' Death Note in order to assist his God. What you have to ask yourself is this: instead of risking getting the full Death Note, why didn't Light instruct his servant to keep a piece of the Death Note himself? If he had, then the Death Note swapping fuckery wouldn't have mattered. The author was really struggling to come up with a way for the story to end how it ended, I guess...
-4: Madhouse did a wonderful job. Seriously. Aside from the bizarre short diner scene at the end of one of the earlier episodes and some foot rubbing business, it was as close as I'll ever to get to seeing a perfect adaptation... BUT, right at the end, Madhouse ****** up by having Mikami *somehow* do something very gory with a pen and Light go on some kind of marathon in an attempt to make him into more of a sympathetic character. WHY!? By doing so, they removed the last twist of the story and made Ryuk seem like a nice guy... when he was supposed to look like evil personified. The people in charge of the Death Note anime MUST have been Light fangirls, and they probably also stroked themselves whilst reading LightxL porn.
-5: I did not like the episode where Matsuda played the part of Solid Snake, or the episodes around it. At all. I highlighted the second half of the story as being a negative, but I only ever considering dropping Death Note when Matsuda got his own little comedy episode. At the time, Light had become one with his inner woman, and Death Note just wasn't interesting me. I'm so glad the series returned to being epic shortly afterwards!
This is a remixed version of a thread that was recently posted over in the manga section; a forum that's roughly as active as a graveyard.
Since I'm fully aware that most MAL users cannot comprehend the obvious, your mission is this: you must list five good AND BAD points about a title you've awarded a 9-10/10 score to. You can pick any title(s) you wish... providing you've given it a 9-10/10 score.
Simples, yes? With the above information, you have no excuse for failing to understand what you're supposed to be doing in my topic, and I'll point and laugh at you (virtually, of course) if you still require my expert guidance.
Also, there's one other, fairly minor thing that needs to be said: DON'T ******* TYPE A FEW WORDS AND LEAVE IT AT THAT. AT LEAST TYPE OUT A FULL, UNDERSTANDABLE SENTENCE FOR EACH POINT BEFORE POSTING, YOU (quite possibly) ILLITERATE ****!!!!!
------
Now, with the pleasantries out of the way, I'll go first; leading by example:
Gankutsuou:
+1: It looks purdy. No, really - it looks sexy. The CG effect visible on the clothes and backgrounds looks wonderful... once your eyes adjust to seeing something unique. And the robot duels also looked rather sexy.
+2: It's based on one of the best, most in-depth novels of all time; one which has been stolen from time and time again. And, even though the anime is neither a full or faithful adaptation, it's still amazing in its own way; Gonzo having done a fantastic job.
+3: In spite of the Edmond Dantes in Gankutsuou only being half the character he was in the novel, his charisma still shined through. It was easy to see why Albert was so fascinated with him.
+4: The first half or so of the story is mostly build-up, and that meant I didn't 10/10 it straight away. But, once everything started to fall into place, the build-up made what happened pretty ******* amazing to sit through.
+5: Some of the tracks on the soundtrack are remixed classical pieces. That alone is worthy of a plus point... assuming the the small matter of track 18 being one of the most beautiful pieces of music in existence on its own isn't viewed as being enough, that is.
-1: In order for the story to be re-worked with a more mysterious edge, Albert was made into the lead in Gankutsuou. He was also given the IQ of a dog; constantly failing to see the obvious. He annoyed me.
-2: Due to time constraints, Dantes' past - which was covered with the first 300 pages of the novel - got crammed into a flashback that only lasted a few minutes. The prison section of the novel is probably my favourite part and, though the anime version of events wasn't bad, the lack of content did take away from Gankutsuou.
-3: Dantes' good side wasn't shown in Gankutsuou. Instead, only his 'evil' actions got time; changing him from being one of the best developed characters ever into being just another cool villain. It didn't bother me until I read the novel after the anime, but the difference between the two versions of Dantes is HUGE.
-4: Instead of Eugenie being a lesbian like in the novel, she got turned straight by Albert. And there was a cheesy as hell wedding rescue bit added in - it probably being the worst part of Gankutsuou.
-5: Though the anime only path Gonzo went on after episode 18 turned out to be quite good, the ending sucked as much as pretty much every other anime ending. Plot no justu was required for Albert to save Dantes' soul, and the final episode was a fairly dull epilogue.
-----
Death Note:
+1: Anime adaptations are inferior to the manga they're based on, nine times out of ten. Everyone and their cat knows this. But Death Note is different from the norm. Rather than it being a rushed, poorly executed attempt at cashing in on a highly rated manga, Madhouse actually attempted to fix the numerous flaws of the mostly disappointing second half of the story by fast-forwarding through it, whilst still retaining all the necessary information. By doing this, as well as being faithful to the best of Death Note - covering the first half of the story with around 25 episodes - they made the anime much more enjoyable than the manga, overall.
+2: Death Note was not made on the cheap. If the art consistency, artistic colour usage, 'camera angles' and all the rest weren't enough to tell you this, then the effort put into Light and L's little punching/kicking contest during the most poor section of the anime should've made everything clear. I mean, Madhouse even made eating a packet of sodding crisps epic through a combination of directing and over the top music - you can't say that about any other title!
+3: Mamoru put in a PERFECT performance as Yagami Light. I'd heard his voice before, it not remaining in my memory, but he truly became the character in the case of Light. In episode 36, my cheeks were tingling simply because of how excited Light sounded, and how well it came across that he was struggling to contain his laughter. And the 'evil laughter' in episode 37 was just AMAZING - it really did sound like Light was letting out all his rage and the feelings he'd worked so hard to hold within over the duration of the story.
+4: The soundtrack is, by some distance, my favourite soundtrack. When Death Note was still airing, way back when, I was actually more excited by each of the three soundtracks becoming available to download than I was by the release of the latest episodes. Some people have moaned to me about the chanting and whatnot being over the top, but I thought it made the exciting bits FAR more thrilling. Many months after finishing Death Note, I STILL listened to the soundtrack on a regular basis, and even now I still listen to some of the tracks when I'm bored.
+5: When being negative about Death Note, a number of people have mentioned that it lacks character development; that the characters start and end the same. But what these people don't realize is that one of Death Note's strongest points is that there weren't any flashbacks explaining why Light was the way he was and did what he did. Light, quite simply, was a guy with more smarts than the vast majority of people and an equal amount of selfishness. He viewed himself as superior to the rest, was bored with everyday life and didn't let the rights and wrongs of society hold him back - that's all. There are many people similar to Light around, and many people who are selfish. A traumatic childhood (which would've taken away from his character, rather than adding anything) isn't a requirement for being a self-absorbed git. Many people can relate to/understand Light BECAUSE there was no attempt to make him into a sympathetic character.
-1: Even though Madhouse improved the last half of the story considerably by rushing through it, it still wasn't on the same level as the first half. I can't ignore the fact that L was replaced by a soulless, younger version of himself. The introduction of Takeda and Mikami did make me like the last half a lot more, but Near never went away.
-2: Madhouse could remove some of the content, but they weren't willing to go as far as to re-write the story in order to cover for the failings of the author, and that left the second half with some bothersome holes. The first issue I have is the way Mello went from 'I'LL WIN NO MATTER WHAT; EVEN IF IT MEANS KILLING OTHERS!' to 'I'M GOING TO DO SOMETHING TOTALLY POINTLESS, GOING AGAINST MY CHARACTER BY DOING SO, IN ORDER TO UNINTENTIONALLY HELP NEAR AND GET OUT OF THE WAY!' After the whole mafia business, the author clearly had no clue what to do with Mello, and he ended up getting discarded as a plot device. Not good writing.
-3: There was a lot of Death Note swapping towards the end, which resulted in Mikami going to the bank to get the 'real' Death Note in order to assist his God. What you have to ask yourself is this: instead of risking getting the full Death Note, why didn't Light instruct his servant to keep a piece of the Death Note himself? If he had, then the Death Note swapping fuckery wouldn't have mattered. The author was really struggling to come up with a way for the story to end how it ended, I guess...
-4: Madhouse did a wonderful job. Seriously. Aside from the bizarre short diner scene at the end of one of the earlier episodes and some foot rubbing business, it was as close as I'll ever to get to seeing a perfect adaptation... BUT, right at the end, Madhouse ****** up by having Mikami *somehow* do something very gory with a pen and Light go on some kind of marathon in an attempt to make him into more of a sympathetic character. WHY!? By doing so, they removed the last twist of the story and made Ryuk seem like a nice guy... when he was supposed to look like evil personified. The people in charge of the Death Note anime MUST have been Light fangirls, and they probably also stroked themselves whilst reading LightxL porn.
-5: I did not like the episode where Matsuda played the part of Solid Snake, or the episodes around it. At all. I highlighted the second half of the story as being a negative, but I only ever considering dropping Death Note when Matsuda got his own little comedy episode. At the time, Light had become one with his inner woman, and Death Note just wasn't interesting me. I'm so glad the series returned to being epic shortly afterwards!
