I have no idea why I do this to myself.

[kaigou]

Oh, wait, I do, it's because I think we've entered something like year nine of correspondence, so it's probably safe to say that branchandroot's influence on me is beyond dire, at this point. Hence watching the first 30-or-so episodes of GetBackers. Right. I know. Like a decade behind everyone else, but I guess Em can wear down even the most stubborn of dogs.

Currently it's on pause, while I watch Fate/Zero and then realize that maybe watching Fate/Stay_Night might help, which I'll probably fast-forward through all but the fight scenes, and only that so I can watch the OVA. And even then, only that because OVAs (usually) have higher budgets and therefore better fight scenes. And then I'll get back to the other, or maybe by then I'll just break down and read the manga.

Comments

[branchandroot]

*hearts* Hey, I just dangle the bait. And, really, is the psuedo-physics not the funniest thing you've ever heard?

How is Stay Night? I wikipedia-ed it so I wouldn't be totally lost in Zero, but it sounded like the most interesting parts of the game storylines got cut.

[kaigou]

(grrr, Safari keeps logging me out of DW, and Safari's my default browser! wtf, over.)

I'm only on ep3 with F/SN, but I'll let you know. So far, fast-forward whenever it verges on harem (more than two girls on the screen). Stop when things start flashing, which seems to indicate fight scene.

ETA: read the wiki article & skip ep3, which is really nothing but one big info-dump. It's talking, and not even atmospheric quality-animation talking heads like Fate/Zero. Besides, skipping ep3 means you also skip the main character's jaw-dropping argument that girls shouldn't fight. Yeah, tell that to the spirit-chick with the big honking invisible sword who's protecting your ass. Moron.

I suspect I may end up snarking this show as much as fast-forwarding, if the lead guy really is as stupid as all the reviews imply (if not state outright).

ETA2: remember what I said in that post about transitional damsels, how these days authors (mangaka/animators) give the female characters a gun, but then take away their ammo? That's pretty much what they're doing with Saber, who's ostensibly the lead combat character. She's supposedly the strongest of the lot, but the male main character is so ineffectual, so ambivalent, and most importantly, so magically incompetent, that he can't supply her with enough energy to fight at full capability. So she's set up as the most powerful of all and cut off at the knees by virtue of a quick shift in the characterization of her human commander. Now, if she had full strength and her commander were ambivalent and/or reluctant to fight, that'd be one thing. That, I might enjoy watching (and it would remind me of Balsa, or would have the potential to do so, with a strong woman willing to fight), but here... I suspect we're in for seeing a lot of Saber being handicapped by (a) lack of fed energy and (b) that annoying insistence by the male lead that it's not "okay" for girls to fight. If I knew he'd get smacked pretty quickly and wise up, I might be less annoyed, but from what I've read, it takes most of the series before that happens, and reviewers seem to be of mixed reactions as to whether this really happens (he gets over the "girls shouldn't fight" and "I should protect [helpless] girls") with any certitude. Will keep you posted, but don't quote me on too much, because I'm fast-forwarding whenever I get annoyed.

[branchandroot]

*winces* Yeah, I'm thinking I might just stick with Zero.

[phoebe_zeitgeist]

Not quite a decade behind everybody else. I tried very hard, only a year or so ago. And that also was branchandroot's influence at work, amusingly enough.

I'm still sad that it didn't quite work for me, and half inclined to try again one of these days.

[kaigou]

The sub-text is so un-sub it's practically text. Or maybe it's textual only in a "let's just not say what we've got here, folks" way, kind of like really noisy sign language.

The animation though is really showing its age, and its formulaic style. I've gotten spoiled by the past few years' crop of HD, high-quality, CGI-blend work, and the more realistic -- or less anatomically grotesque -- anime styles. The massive shoulders out of proportion to head-size, the waists out of proportion to shoulders, and the exaggerated leg-lengths all bug me, now. It's a style I associate with Clamp (though not nearly as radically long overall as Clamp) and I never did like Clamp all that much, anyway. So it is hard, to watch GetBackers, and then go on to watch something like Fate/Zero or Fam or even crazy stylized ones like Mirai Nikki. Hell, even your average yokai-shonen like NuraMago has a fair number of backgrounds that have more than just bland empty wide open spaces with the characters isolated smack dab in the middle, in every shot.

I haven't started the manga, yet. I'm hoping it's better, or at least less-worse.

[phoebe_zeitgeist]

I'll be interested to hear your report on the manga. I have heard both that it's infinitely better and should not be judged by the anime and that it's utterly dire and a huge disappointment, to be avoided at all costs. Since I wasn't hooked by anything I'd found in the parts of the anime series I'd seen, I put off tracking it down and seeing for myself. I've wondered about it, though.

Now that you point it out to me, I'm realizing that you're right about the art/animation style being part of what I found offputting, even though I didn't identify it as an issue at the time. It made a difference that the parts I wasn't interested in as story didn't have visuals that offered me a pleasant aesthetic distraction while the episode's inevitable fight sequence took place: if I'd had things I wanted to look at those sequences might not have registered as, 'How long has it been since anything actually happened? Is anything relating to the overall plot going to happen any time soon, or are they going to strike poses and say things like "Fourth-level vine attack!" until the end of the episode?'

I'm assuming that this is a specific aesthetic and narrative genre, this thing with the huge staged fights that take up half of an aired episode (or merely feel that way), so it's possible that with exposure and learning I could find myself enjoying it. As someone coming to it without any relevant cultural background, though, I've found it strangely meaningless, both in GetBackers and in the other places I've occasionally run into it. And I feel strangely sorry for myself over my inability to get it, because between this and my inability to love what I've seen referred to as "adorkable" leads, I'm out of fannish luck with an awfully high percentage of the canons that seem to attract a lot of interest. But your observation about the art and animation styles gives me hope: maybe as the standards in animation and art get higher, I'll start finding sources that use some of these tropes a lot more accessible. It's cheering to think so, anyway.

[kaigou]

Well, I've got the manga now through volume, uhm, I don't know. Lots and lots of volumes. Will report back, and hopefully with more positive things to say than I could muster for Fate/Stay_Night. Sheesh.