Specifically, would I enjoy it as Snark Bait?

From what I gather on the comments about it, the central premise seems to be an Extraordinarily Empowered Girl seeks to make friends by beating 7 shades of shit out of them.

Well, that's probably not what it's meant to be but I presume that's how it looks to the Genre Savvy.

Basically, is it an anime that I can enjoy by mocking its attempts to be serious?

I have a tendency to enjoy anime for unusual reasons that tend to involve openly mocking its premise. For instance, I enjoy Haruhi Suzumiya as a Sadist Show and actually consider the titular character to be a Heroic Sociopath.

(Gazes at the many Fan Web Comics and fanart that does just that, most of which is in Japanese or Chinese. Then gazes at the large Memetic Mutation list in Nanohawiki)

Maybe? You'd be in good company at least. <<

edited 28th Jul '09 6:52:05 AM by Servbot

Difficult to say. It really depends on what you're into.

The anime itself doesn't take itself particularly seriously (which is kind of an absurd thing to say, as it's not, you know, a sentient being or anything), but there are always going to be people who make up for that...

It's kind of the polar opposite of schadenfreude, I'm afraid, if that's a big consideration. In fact, I occasionally think that the second season treats everybody with possibly too much sympathy.

But you might be interested in the genrebusting elements - it's best described as a Super Robot fanatic's love letter to the Magical Girl genre, writ large. So there's a limit on how serious it can possibly be, not to say that it isn't emotionally engaging on a number of levels.

I love the franchise to bits but, like everything else, it's not without its flaws.

Pretty difficult to beat in terms of exuberant, feelgood entertainment.

edited 28th Jul '09 10:16:45 AM by zeroplusalpha

[1]◊

Smokie: That's hilarious.

Anyway, I agree with zeroplusalpha that it's idealistic, bright, feel-good entertainment. Yes, there are tragic events, but everything gets a happy ending (at least in the first season).

Korg: It's actually rather hard for me to constantly snark about a show while watching it, because I inherently want to take the show seriously and am willing to stretch my own understanding of setting details in order to do so. But for shows that are sufficiently lulzworthy, I will do that. (Sailor Moon is an example.)

Broken link, Smokie.

@EI: Huh, it works fine for me.

If the text is still legible when I shrink it down to 100x100 pixels, I think it's going into my Avatar Bin, so you might see it when it rolls around on the avvy rotation.

Edit: Yep, pretty legible. I'm not tired of Rin yet, though.

edited 28th Jul '09 10:46:13 AM by Lull The Conqueror

I personally don't think there's much to snark about in Nanoha. The girls are cute, the battles are epic, half the cast are lesbians and all the Befriending actually makes sense in story.

Watch it anyway.

If you were absolutely determined to, you could probably find something to snark about in the first season, and only for about the first half of it or so.

It Gets Better from there onwards.

Yeah, it's reasonably resistant to being pried open with Fridge Logic. Though, obviously not immune (very few shows can be said to be immune).

The third season has some good snark material, but there's not much in the second or most of the first. And I don't believe the third series is available except through fansubs.

Ehhh...what would you snark about in StrikerS? I have a couple of moments, but yours are probably different to mine...

edited 28th Jul '09 7:29:32 PM by zeroplusalpha

Striker S is a severy case of Your Mileage May Vary. Some think it's complete crap, some think it's very good and some think that while it had it's problems, it still manages to deliver some kickass.

So it's like Code Geass R2.

You may snark about how Teana is a generic tsundere or how it's TRAINING TRAINING TRAINING. I dunno.

edited 28th Jul '09 7:36:02 PM by Smokie

The whole military part of it I found hard to take seriously with the ridiculous bright outfits.

Don't they wear mostly brown? The airforce has usually bright uniforms, anyway.

Ugh, the brown uniforms made it worse for me.

Brown = shitty-looking with purple hair.

I meant their Barrier Jackets, not their officer uniforms.

I'll admit I'm biased. Really, really biased. I feel like a total Martian amongst anime fans these days.

edited 28th Jul '09 7:41:34 PM by Charlatan

Gotta wear white so you can see your enemies blood on your clothes. And look like a Gundam.

edited 28th Jul '09 7:42:48 PM by Smokie

Very good point.

We all know that that second reason isn't important. Yeaaaaah.

It's a military comprised of Magical Girls armed with mecha-grade ordnance and just the about the most benign organisation (they never seem to use lethal force) of its kind in anime. There was always going to be a minimum amount of ridiculousness that one is expected to just ride out. For sure. But I've yet to come across a tsundere that wasn't generic. Seems to come with the territory. Surely this is some meme by now...

edited 28th Jul '09 8:36:18 PM by zeroplusalpha

I still have these WEGs: [1]◊ [2]◊

I love WEGs.

edited 28th Jul '09 8:16:17 PM by Smokie

I'm interested now.

So would it be safe to say that it's like TTGL, but with magical girl conventions and ideas?

Hmm, well I'm pretty damn sure I'd enjoy TTGL (preferably while drunk), so I guess Nanoha would be fun, too.

Still, there's three fucking series of this to watch? Dammit! One of the things I liked about Haruhi Suzumiya is that I didn't have to watch Over Nine Thousand episodes of it.

(I'm spoiled by British Brevity, I really am)

That's a fair description as any, I guess. Along with licks appropriated from Gao Gai Gar, Super Robot Wars, and of course Gundam...

Actually, the first two seasons are each the same length (13 episodes) as Haruhi, so it's not like you'll be watching Dragonball. StrikerS, which is the most divisive of the trilogy, has a 26 episode count; it's the weakest out of the three in terms of narrative structure, but is the one that embraces the Humongous Mecha aesthetic the most. But you're still not going to be stuck in a quagmire of stultifying fillers.

edited 29th Jul '09 6:53:13 AM by zeroplusalpha

Definitely Gao Gai Gar

A lot of stuff happens every episode so it's not like you'll think it's dragged out more than it should.

Also, I feel obligated to post this. [1]◊