Comments on: Looking at Anime in More Ways than One

By: DickMcVengeance

DickMcVengeance — Sat, 03 Feb 2007 22:52:09 +0000

I completely understand how you feel with Mushishi. I actually stopped watching the series for a while simply because I wasn’t in the mood. Same goes for Jigoku Shoujo. I just didn’t have time to sit down and ponder the meanings behind the episode.

Little side rant here, but even though Jigoku Shoujo and Mushishi had an extremely similar feel, I felt that Mushishi was a lot better than Jigoku. I think it’s because Jigoku just was TOO repetitive compared to Mushishi, in that there was no great change in situation or events. People just went through the same situations.

By: TheBigN

TheBigN — Sat, 03 Feb 2007 18:57:30 +0000

Mindsets might explain why I’m one of the few people I know that like shows like YKK that don’t usually fit people’s mindsets, nor has people really wanting to change theirs to watch it.

Your point about Black Lagoon is interesting. Sometimes there are shows that work well no matter what mindset you are in, or works at least for multiple mindsets, which makes them all the more special.

By: dm

dm — Sat, 03 Feb 2007 16:53:03 +0000

Have you looked at the DVD versions of [i]Tweeny Witches[/i]? They combine two of the nine-minute episodes and wrap them with an OP (or two, actually — a pan across a story-mural telling the story of the history of the witch world, followed by a narrated intro, followed by a standard OP) and an ED followed, not by a preview, but by an epilogue in a different style which gives you a glimpse into another part of that world.

At any event, it’s a more complete experience and fills in some of those gaps. But it’s not a series to put on as background noise for vegging out — it demands engagement. I haven’t finished the series yet, so I’m not sure if it really rewards that engagement with much more than being an E ride.

Some shows really want to be marathoned, and sometimes those shows get a bum rap because of inconsistent fansub releases (with intermittent DVD releases not being much better). In a marathon, you’re already in the mood, you’re already in the proper mind-set. A poorly-paced episode can feed off the energy left over from a previous roller-coaster ride. I wonder if [i]Futakoi Alternative[/i] might be one of those? Maybe I’ll marathon it sometime to see.