Thank you for finally bringing up a counterpoint to this mess I may have started.
Wait, I'm "noted" now?
whatistheexcel.com celebrates its 3rd anniversary! thank you!
Excel-2009: Let's face it. What show wouldn't be improved by Jeffrey Donovan's narration?
SHIKI is dead.
We're on TV Tropes, we're all noted reviewers here.
Hasn't this become the one of the most reviewed shows on the wiki?
For a Japanese 13 episode animated series to attain this kind of profile on a pop-culture superindex (of sorts) is something of an achievement, regardless of heavily divided opinion.
Play Again? Y/N
Also, I don't mean to brag, but I currently hold the record for most discussed review, and it happens to be about this show. What does that tell you about it?
whatistheexcel.com celebrates its 3rd anniversary! thank you!
Your review or the show?
Well your review was admirably level-headed, so I guess it lends itself to discussion without everybody descending into the tedium that plagues a lot of this kind of thing.
The show itself...
We're still talking about it, so...it effects strong reactions, it would seem.
But in general people seem implicitly recognise the futility in trying to convince anybody who doesn't like it to do otherwise: one can say one liked this and that other aspect, or not, but you can't (and shouldn't) preach to the inconvertible.
Play Again? Y/N
I don't get why people throw the word "serious" around about this show. At no time does the show "not take itself seriously". If it didn't, it wouldn't demand that the viewers buy the requisite strategy guide and keep up with it on more levels than necessary. I think I need to write a part two to my review addressing the malformed perceptions the fans have about the show, namely the pacing problems and how serious the anime actually is.
whatistheexcel.com celebrates its 3rd anniversary! thank you!
Yea, yea, the Anachronic Order is stupid, and therefore, every other aspect of the show is stupid too. Fine opinion, but complaining about it (and the fans) isn't exactly what I'd call "ripping the show apart". Really.
everyone except the intended target took it. Where are they and why are they not writing more counter reviews?I dunno, but if you want to troll, Tv Tropes isn't the best place for that. Try something like Animesuki, Gaia or wherever weeaboo's hang out.
@Excel
Aw, crp. I forgot that the auto-parody and real life facts that inspired the show were not in the Anime. Shame, they were awesome.
They are still in the Bonus CD trough. Go and listen to it.
WARNING: J-Pop an japnese lyrics included, only for weeabos and the strong.
By "any reaction I could have seen coming" do you mean "any reaction I couldn't have seen coming?"
SHIKI is dead.
Sure why not. Either way, I was surprised.
whatistheexcel.com celebrates its 3rd anniversary! thank you!
So, in other words, you Didnt See That Coming?
Play Again? Y/N
I'm beginning to think perhaps I should never attempt to justify why I like things and just go ahead like them, and ignore anybody who says otherwise. There always seems to be somebody who thinks that you shouldn't enjoy something for the same reasons they didn't enjoy it, or something. : |
I think it can be taken as a general article of faith that if someone feels strongly enough about something to put opinion in print (assuming they're not just being obtuse), it's not going to be easy to persuade them to adopt a contrary position.
But that shouldn't stop anyone from shouting their like of something from the rooftops; there's always freedom of assembly, after all.
Play Again? Y/N
Hence, Fan Dumb.
whatistheexcel.com celebrates its 3rd anniversary! thank you!
Even though I've enjoyed the arguments that have gone on and doubtless will, there's still a major fact that everyone has kinda ignored up to this point:
Both parties are trying to convince the other of impossible.
No, seriously. For all the people that love to show enough to defend it vocally aren't going to be convinced by anything but the most earth shattering argument ever written that somehow brings to light a gigantic inherent flaw that for some reason everyone and their dog failed to notice: anything less than that and it boils down to that fickle bitch: personal taste. The anachronic order may be a deal breaker for some, but at this point the vast majority either seems to like it or not care either way. Same thing with the philosophical trappings, the character designs, the pacing and whatever else.
Of course, this is also true of the people that don't like the show. For them, no counterargument unless it's the same kind of earth shattering "AHA" moment in regards to "Oh man, all of a sudden this is awesome and I love it!" Because the show is also flawed, like everything else ever made ever. The problems that have been brought up beyond "ZOMG it sux" have legitimacy, and they aren't going to go away despite of all the good points.
I'm not suggesting that we have a hippy peace circle over this or anything. But I think that this like just about every other show that's ever been the least bit popular just needs both sides to chill out. No one is forcing you to watch it, no one is forcing you to not watch it. And no, saying that people are bugging you to watch it isn't a convincing argument as to why you should watch something even if (especially if) you don't like it enough to continue. So really, it's all just rather pointless. And the rest, I doubt, will be silence.
Dost Thou Desire the Power ... Glove? It's so bad.
Exactly, is an infinite circle.
Ummmm...isn't that...kind of a tautology?
I'm just curious as to what a finite circle would look like.
And now some wiseacre maths major is going to call me out on this.
Play Again? Y/N
In seriousness, I'm fully aware that taking logic to a fanbase fight is one of the most dangerous things one can do. This is a show that has equal parts best elements and worst elements, with praise and criticism surrounding each. The ongoing debate suggests that they cannot peacefully co-exist. Yet somehow they do. As a result, this debate will probably go on forever, which is, as I've said, probably exactly what the creators want.
I have another argument that I'll have posted later this week. Stay tuned.
whatistheexcel.com celebrates its 3rd anniversary! thank you!
Also they started it.
whatistheexcel.com celebrates its 3rd anniversary! thank you!
Would you believe despite my previous comment that I'm still looking forward to whatever else comes out of this?
Dost Thou Desire the Power ... Glove? It's so bad.
Yeah, sure. I certainly am.
whatistheexcel.com celebrates its 3rd anniversary! thank you!
@zeroplusalpha
It is actually more than 13 episode, about 28 for both seasons.
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It's pretty good - just ignore the Fan Dumb.
Ok, so you've seen the two or three nega-reviews below this (or are going to have seen, whatever). Maybe you're wondering, if these noted critics think it so bad, why does it have so many fans? And the simple answer is, because it's good.
It's not good to everybody though, obviously, otherwise the people below wouldn't have negareviewed it. I'm not going to suggest that they just didn't get it, or that True Art Is Incomprehensible. I agree though with many others that Fan Dumb has absolutely ruined people's expectations - it's not the second coming of Christ, it's just a pretty good anime. So ignore the Fan Dumb. I came into it hearing, basically, "This anime is nice", and that was about it - the rest hooks itself.
Everybody's complaining about the Anachronic Order. They say that it's horribly confusing. That's the point. And if you don't like it that way, just watch it in Chronological order (everybody is right about that bloody homemade movie though).
But the true reason to watch Haruhi, in my opinion, is the Genre Busting. Is this a shoujo romance, a shonen action show, a mystery thing, or some slice-of-life? It's all and neither. It's a story, a story that treats viewers like people, not morons; a story that is only meaningless if you only take it at face value. A story about a baseball game? Well, it must only about a baseball game! Never mind Character Development in the actions and reactions of people, what they ask, what they think. Subverted Tropes abound, the animation is pretty damn high quality, and one of the most Deadpan Snarker narrators ever to grace the tiny tiny screen (I don't think I even remember an anime with a single consistent narrator).
So if you're looking for the same thing you've seen before a thousand bloody times in whatever bloody genres you've already seen and know off by heart, go ahead. Look elsewhere. But if you're looking for a unique story that's not afraid to be serious or just to be hilarious whenever appropriate, if you're looking for something that isn't just shoe-horned into the thousand genres of anime, if you're looking for a story that treats you like you know how to use your brain, try the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. Just don't expect the single greatest work of fiction ever, and you should be fine.