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Post by jonathan on May 24, 2010 19:04:33 GMT
mazuisubs.com/68The video is pretty bad, even by camrip standards (the guy needs to learn not to use fucking autofocus) but just about bearable. I will add that I did have all the important plot details spoiled long, long ago, so if you haven't you will likely enjoy it more than I did. However, I will still maintain that the story just doesn't accomplish or sufficiently explore what I felt it needed to, but I won't elaborate unless there's at least one person who'll actually be able (and willing) to engage. Also I'm rather surprised it was you who replied, Em, and not Tim, but then again I fear I may be heavily guilty of type-casting in my assumptions.
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Post by Emily on May 24, 2010 21:24:37 GMT
I think Tim got bored with Haruhi, whereas I still love it.
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Post by Emily on May 24, 2010 21:30:32 GMT
my download speed at the new house is averaging at 650kb/s WHOAH!
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Post by jonathan on May 24, 2010 22:25:38 GMT
In the countryside? Unheard of.
Then again that's well-seeded torrents for you.
[EDIT] I know you're probably not out in the actual sticks, I'm just making fun.
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Post by Emily on May 24, 2010 22:31:04 GMT
no I totally am in the sticks.
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Post by Emily on May 25, 2010 9:08:41 GMT
Okay so, it made sense up until people started getting stabbed. from that point on I was filled with a sense of 'hey what? have I missed something? was it all a dream? no it isn't because they're still harping on about it but I'm still not sure what happened...'
On the plus side it still had all the things I love about this series, lovely, non-lazy, non-corner cutting animation- attention to detail, the repetition of imagery et c etc.
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Post by stokerino on May 25, 2010 9:51:04 GMT
I think Tim got bored with Haruhi, whereas I still love it. Tim hasn't watched any new anime in months. In fact, Tim hasn't watched much old anime in months either. A bit of Code Geass and Cromartie High School is about all it has amounted to. Whether this is one of those temporary shifts where my interests phase out for a few years and then come back (e.g. football), or one of those more permanent ones where a previous obsession is largely left to die away (e.g. Star Wars), only time will tell.
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Post by jonathan on May 25, 2010 14:18:50 GMT
Eh? I thought the stabbing was one of the only really great points of the movie, since it was the first and only time there was any resistance, from anybody, to the idea of actually changing the world back.
[spoilers abound from this point on, oh how I wish this forum had proper spoiler tags]
The story basically had two purposes: To show that Kyon actually likes his life of getting dragged around by Haruhi; and to develop Yuki, showing that she's grown to have actual emotions and is hot as hell for Kyon and wants to get rid of all the bullshit in her life and just be with him. My problem is that the first is redundant, since that was established pretty firmly by the end of Melancholy (when he kissed Haruhi to bring the old world back), and the second just isn't developed enough. And it's all because there was no conflict.
There was no internal conflict within Kyon about whether he wanted to change the world back: it was never on the cards that he wouldn't. He was totally miserable every second that Haruhi wasn't around, and while he mused on the idea of leaving things as they were, he never for a moment considered it as one of his actual options. He may have stopped for several minutes before pressing Enter, and there was also that one sequence ending with him stamping his own head down (all of which I thought was excellent, visually) but it was all trying to make it seem like there was some sort of conflict when there really wasn't.
As for Yuki, she didn't exactly put up much resistance to the idea of Kyon putting things back, did she? On the contrary, she deliberately laid in place a means for him to do so and provided no opposition herself to him making use of it: the only obstacle was Asakura. That aspect was, itself, underdeveloped, since we already knew she was a crazy stabby bitch, but now she's apparently got some sort of yandere protective thing going on for Yuki. I want some exploration of that! It's the least we could have after Yuki herself being such a wet blanket throughout the entire story (I'm aware she made it that way on purpose, but WHY?) In the scene with the computer, I was expecting (HOPING) that she would, at the last second, come out of nowhere and mash some other random key, deleting the recovery program and fucking up EVERYTHING, and that from that point on shit would get real. But no, minutes upon minutes are spent building up tension... for no reason. One thing the film did very well was to build up tension, but it never actually DID anything with it. Asakura's stabby stabby was good but not good enough. Too little, too late.
How am I supposed to believe that Yuki wanted this new world so badly if she provided so little resistance to having it destroyed? I could've believed simply leaving Kyon's memories unchanged because she loves him and wouldn't want to change him like that, but leaving a whole program in place to fix everything? Why? I've asked others this and they say that it's totally in her character to do so, but isn't it the whole point of this story that she's gone crazy and acted totally OUT of character? In fact, I'd say that doing something so rational makes no sense at all, given the context. Kyon says that the reason she reacted so badly to 15,000+ loops of summer was that she was programmed not to express emotions, which meant that she wasn't able to vent her sheer boredom and depression in a healthy way (or just fix the situation herself, since she was also ordered simply to observe). The result was the utterly psychotic response of stealing Haruhi's powers and using them to change the entire world. A psychotic person would not do something as rational as implementing a failsafe and leaving it in somebody else's hands. If she still had those faculties, it couldn't have been so bad after all, could it? Hell, I might've just about bought it if Yuki had actually tried to stop him changing things back ("I wasn't thinking straight when I did that! This is what I really want!") or if Asakura's interference had been brought in earlier and worked up alot more, but nope. Events just proceed on rails for 2 1/2 hours. For a story that is meant to be a turning point for two characters, things progress in far too much of a straight line.
There were good aspects. The ability to have fully animated background characters is, frankly, nothing at all to do with laziness, it's simply that Kyoani have pretty much literally infinite money. However, they do also have genuinely talented animators and directors, and are one of the only anime studios I know of that ever tries for actual acting in their animation (the bit where Kyon gives Yuki back the club application form, and she's so heartbroken she can't even take it back the first time was HNNNNNNNNNNNNNNGH), but the story just wasn't doing its job as far as I'm concerned.
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Post by Emily on May 25, 2010 16:11:15 GMT
I didn't object to the stabbing, I just got really confused from then on... did the world get put back to normal? In which case, who injected Yuki? who were the other people he heard talking before he blacked out? Kyon wakes up in hospital with everyone saying he fell down the stairs- did that even happen or is it a cover? What became of crazy stabby asakura? how come younger asahina is suddenyl there with grownup asahina?
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Post by jonathan on May 25, 2010 22:40:09 GMT
That was another Kyon, Yuki, and Mikuru from the future, duh! Notice how Kyon was saying how he'd have to go back to that time once again afterwards to fix everything?
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Post by Emily on May 26, 2010 18:17:17 GMT
yes but I just didn't get it... now i understand a bit more. I'll watch it again when a good version comes out, where I can see what's going on more often.
I REALLY want to read the books, maybe I can pick some up at expo.
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Post by jonathan on May 27, 2010 0:38:45 GMT
Official translations only go up to like the third book right now (Disappearance is book 4). It's not like you need to go to an expo for them, though, Amazon has them. Just make sure you're getting the novels and not the manga.
I was going to direct you to the Baka Tsuki fan translations (which I've heard are very good, comparable to the official ones if not better, and, of course, much further along), but apparently they received a C&D so are now much harder to find. :[
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Post by Emily on May 27, 2010 8:38:32 GMT
I'm going to the anime expo at the weekend anyway... might as well buy crap i want rather than crap I didn't want until I saw it...
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Post by stokerino on May 27, 2010 9:46:31 GMT
I don't think Yash and I will be going to the Expo, in the end. Neither of us can think of anything anime/etc. related that we'd want to buy, and after discovering yesterday just how much of her bonus (intended for wedding) that she frittered away on random crap instead, Yash is not in a spending mood anyway...
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Post by Emily on May 27, 2010 11:55:43 GMT
BAD YASH... fair enough, anyway... can it be that I have turned out to be the biggest anime nerd on a time/obsession level chart?
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Post by stokerino on May 27, 2010 13:55:13 GMT
I don't know quite how you'd measure 'obsession' level... You certainly have me beat for time, having started earlier than me in the first place.
To be honest, Yash probably has us both beat on both counts anyway.
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Post by jonathan on May 27, 2010 16:21:42 GMT
What is this expo you are all talking about anyway?
I will also point out that you will probably pay about four times as much at the expo as you would for the same stuff on Amazon.
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Post by Emily on May 27, 2010 19:48:15 GMT
I. Don't. Care.
Saturday, Excel center (down in the docklands)- want to go? I'll be there.
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Post by jonathan on May 27, 2010 20:15:16 GMT
˘\_(°3°)_/˘ I have no particular reason to go to an Expo... but I am near literally bored out of my skull right now and I would like to see you since you're coming all the way down to London! When are you going to arrive? How are you planning to pass your time there? Who are you coming with (I assume you're not coming down by yourself)? Do I need to buy tickets or anything? Oh lord, Bentley Jones is going to be there. I may just have to throw something at him (even if it's just an insult).
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Post by Emily on May 27, 2010 21:29:56 GMT
going on saturday, arriving around noon I expect. tickets costed £15 in advance not sure wht they are on the door. going with my friend Tea and Ally- and Sophie who is one of my students who wanted to go but can't be responsible for her own train journeys and is therefore being chaperoned to and from by us.
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