C - CONTROL Forum

@zaldar said:

Ye he does take his defeat here a little easily. I am not sure though that he took a dive if that is what you are implying with your freakanomics reference. One question though, why would the better sumo wrestlers want to prevent the worse ones from dropping out? What is the benefit to them? Hadn't thought of it in social network terms, but definitely did get a to big to fail feeling from here on out in this show. And yes anime (though somewhat behind literary science fiction) is light years ahead of mainstream American entertainment in dealing with issues.

I think the reference was due to the fact that it would be easy for Sennoza to pay off Kimimaro, due to their positions (Kimimaro having only a fraction of Sennoza's capital), just like Sumo wrestlers who have their required amount of wins won't mind taking a dive for someone who needs a win desperately - for a price of course. Similar situation, but sort of reversed.

Not a huge fan of this show. It seems to me like it tries to be really intellectual and draw inspiration from economics, but fails in the end. The capital should be the source of strenght here, yet they mix in some sort of physical battle as well which seems to trump everything? Also the powers of the Assets are seemingly random - some are really powerful while others are not. Though I suppose that is maybe explained later on, when they theorize on what an Asset actually is - if what they assume is true, then I guess it might makes sense that the strenght of an Asset varies from one person to another.

The ending was pretty disappointing as well - the show is way too ambitious for its length and thus never answers some questions. And I thought the final fight had some inconsistencies as well. Will be interesting to see what you'll think of it once you've seen the latter half of the series.

@zaldar said:

Oh yes I didn't mention the noodles...someone else said after this episode they couldn't help them selves from thinking about the size of the whole in the card *facedesk* anime does seem to attract such odd people sometimes. The strength of the various assests is explained if you think about it a little. The amount of capitol comes into play in the battles by the capitol being used to power the assests moves. So yes the more capital you have the more powerful you are. (but someone with less capitol can still beat you, just like in real bussiness if they have a better idea, more work ethic, ect). So I think the metaphors hold up pretty well. Ending was a bit dissapointing yes and it could have used another season. Ambition though is never bad, I much prefer something like this with unrealized potential than another k-on clone (especially when I could have done without the first one to begin with)

But how do you explain the fact that Msyu gets tired after using her moves, despite still having enough capital left to play around with? Also where do those "money swords" come into play - how is it that an Entres physical abilities can determine the outcome of an fight based on economic principles? Could just be that my accountant's brain is too inflexible to get all these analogies - but I found the fighting rather nonsensical most of the time.

Why did the weakening of Yen give Msyu an advantage instead of weakening her as well? The last battle seemed really weird in how they were just spouting their own ideals at each other and the previously established combat system was pretty much abandoned - at least it seemingly had no effect on who won the fight.

And shame on you for picking on Yui. K-ON! is really good and funny slice of life anime - like you said, there're several clones around that are just no good. Offhand I can think of only few enjoyable ones in last 5 years like SoreMachi, Hidamari Sketch, Minami-ke, Hyakko and Lucky Star - and K-ON! is definitely the best of them. It's almost up there with Azumanga Daioh as far as humour goes and remains to date the only 4koma I've read.

Isn't it more likely that you just don't care for the whole genre, rather than having anything against K-ON! in particular?

@zaldar said:

Oh yes I didn't mention the noodles...someone else said after this episode they couldn't help them selves from thinking about the size of the whole in the card *facedesk* anime does seem to attract such odd people sometimes. The strength of the various assests is explained if you think about it a little. The amount of capitol comes into play in the battles by the capitol being used to power the assests moves. So yes the more capital you have the more powerful you are. (but someone with less capitol can still beat you, just like in real bussiness if they have a better idea, more work ethic, ect). So I think the metaphors hold up pretty well. Ending was a bit dissapointing yes and it could have used another season. Ambition though is never bad, I much prefer something like this with unrealized potential than another k-on clone (especially when I could have done without the first one to begin with)

But how do you explain the fact that Msyu gets tired after using her moves, despite still having enough capital left to play around with? Also where do those "money swords" come into play - how is it that an Entres physical abilities can determine the outcome of an fight based on economic principles? Could just be that my accountant's brain is too inflexible to get all these analogies - but I found the fighting rather nonsensical most of the time.

Why did the weakening of Yen give Msyu an advantage instead of weakening her as well? The last battle seemed really weird in how they were just spouting their own ideals at each other and the previously established combat system was pretty much abandoned - at least it seemingly had no effect on who won the fight.

And shame on you for picking on Yui. K-ON! is really good and funny slice of life anime - like you said, there're several clones around that are just no good. Offhand I can think of only few enjoyable ones in last 5 years like SoreMachi, Hidamari Sketch, Minami-ke, Hyakko and Lucky Star - and K-ON! is definitely the best of them. It's almost up there with Azumanga Daioh as far as humour goes and remains to date the only 4koma I've read.

Isn't it more likely that you just don't care for the whole genre, rather than having anything against K-ON! in particular?

@rxanadu said:

Now about "slice of life" shows akin to K-ON: I haven't really seen my share of those shows, so I don't even know where to start. I stopped watching "Honey and Clover" halfway through the third episode; I'm surprised I got through two of the three "Nodame Cantabile" series without destroying my brain; I watched some of "Good Bye, Mr. Despair" (the one with the suicidal teacher in a kimono-type robe) and kinda liked that. Maybe one day, I'll find myself knee-deep in the second season of K-ON and not even care.

We really have differing tastes. Hachimitsu to Clover and Nodame Cantabile are some of my favourite series ever - but I don't really consider them slice of life. They're both really funny, but both have actual substance to them. H&C is about art college students, their relationships and trials as they go toward adulthood, while Nodame is about Shinichi who is a genius when it comes to music and his desire to become a conductor and Nodame who is pretty much a crazy person, but with a ton of talent with the piano, and their relationship. They're both filled with drama, tragedy and strong emotions - which are the antithesis of slice of life.

A proper slice of life is a series that doesn't really have any real story - each episode is just a snapshot of the lives of the characters. It's without any deeper meaning. There may be some progression, like say, entering a high school at the beginning and ending with graduation - but the high school is just the setting in which everything happens. I like the genre a lot because it's sort of a relief to watch it. There's no sinister plot going on. Any drama that happens gets resolved quickly and episodes end with a happy note. Episodes are full of comedy and slapstick, interesting and hilarious characters and all sorts of whacky happenings. Watching them just makes you feel happy - they work perfectly as a palate cleanser after some heavy and serious anime, or just to brighten up the day.

A good way to get started in the wonderful world of slice of life might be Kazemakase Tsukikage Ran - at first glance it looks like a humourous samurai story set in feudal japan, but once you start watching it, it soon becomes apparent that's it's very slice of lifeish. Despite the setting, it manages to be quite a relaxing watch.

@zaldar:

I quite liked Texhnolyze as well, when I saw it the first time - rewatching it later, not so much. It's weird how my preferences have changed over time. I started off with the more serious and plot heavy stuff and rarely touched anything else. There was a time when I was watching nothing but these depressing series like Saikano, KGNE and Rurouni Kenshin prequel - I loved them and back then, I couldn't even make myself watch the Kenshin TV series because of those facial expressions. Oh how I hated those silly faces he made.

But I guess I eventually ran out of stuff to watch and beggars can't be choosers - so I started broadening my view a bit by bit. And here we now are. You'd be hard pressed to name a series I haven't watched - unless it's shoujo, shounen-ai, CG or one of the crappy modern ones. Anime is sort of an acquired taste - getting used to the humor, the exaggerated facial expressions and chibi characters is part of the hurdle. I still watch pretty much anything, as long as it's good - but good animes are a rarity these days. I mostly end up rewatching oldies. But I guess in my "old" age, I prefer to be in a good mood and as such I gravitate toward the lighthearted series.

Though I think there might be somethings that you can't acquire a taste for. I've never understood why people liked GitS. It's pretty much the only anime ever that I couldn't finish because I was so bored and I kept falling asleep, despite being an avid scifi fan. Never could figure out why it didn't grab me, since I found the setting pretty fascinating.