Manga/Anime You Read/Watch

[quote=lifebaka][quote=Searz] Care to give some examples of this? [/quote] It's primarily been in episodes 10, 11, and 12, honestly, so really only the last three episodes have suffered from this problem. Anyway, I just marathon'd the series up to current with a friend, since he hadn't started it yet, so this is pretty fresh in my mind right now. The "show, don't tell" rule of storytelling, simply, is that you don't need to tell the audience what you just showed them. Trust the audience to be smart and figure stuff out, rather than assuming that the audience is stupid and won't figure stuff out. [spoiler=Example from episode 1]In the first episode, when the Legion (or Corps, depending on translation) is returning, they bring out the arm of Moses and give it to Moses's mother. The scene has then delivered its entire impact. When the Legion commander explains that the arm was all they could recover, the series was just wasting time. That was obvious. When the Legion commander explains that they didn't accomplish anything, the series was also wasting time. It was clear that they'd gotten wiped out already, just from the facial expressions and obvious casualties to the Legion, and explaining that to the audience wasn't necessary.[/spoiler] [spoiler=Example from episode 4]This one wasn't as egregious as the first episode's. Still, just before the break, when they explain the three branches of the military, it really isn't necessary. It was already pretty clear what each does; the first episode adequately explained the Legion and simply showing the Garrison crest was enough for the audience to understand who they are and what they do. The third branch (the Gendarmerie in my translation) hasn't actually been explained yet, beyond that they work under the King, regardless of the story trying to tell us what they are.[/spoiler] Beyond these two, the first nine episodes didn't actually have much of this problem, though. Sure, a couple of times characters commented on how fast someone or something was moving when it wasn't necessary (because we can see them moving), but whatever. It was mainly episode 11 that really, really didn't fucking get it. [spoiler=Episode 11]Starting early, Armin didn't need to mention that the plan is a crapshoot. Yeah, we understand, it's not a guarantee. That's obvious. Similarly, after the first part of Pixis's speech, Armin doesn't need to harp on the same point again. We got it the first time you pointed out the massively obvious, anime. It's worse when the older guy he's talking to [i]takes him seriously when he states the massively obvious[/i]. Hell, he didn't even need to explain that bit about the Titans being attracted to groups of people; that was pretty obvious from events and dialogue in episode 8 already. That entire conversation that he has with those two "strategists" isn't necessary. Later, when Pixis recaps why the 250,000 citizens were sent to their deaths in episode 2, is also unnecessary. We watched episode 2, we got it then. Hell, anime, [i]you told us why it was happening then[/i]. A touch later, Eren talks about how he's not sure if he can lift the boulder [i]again[/i]. [b]AGAIN[/b]. Like we didn't get it the first two times. Or like it isn't obvious that there's a chance of failure, and maybe we don't need to be told to understand that. Oh, wait, no. I was clearly wrong. Because right after the break, one of the elite squad mentions the chance of failure again. While the elite squad is running with Eren to be closer to the boulder, everything they say to him about how people are dying for him and how so much is resting on his shoulders and how they aren't sure if he can even do what he needs to for this, that entire part of the episode is only going over in painful, excruciating detail things that are already blatantly obvious.[/spoiler] Yeah, episode 11 pissed me off to no end. For these and other reasons (fuck you, Daz, why haven't you died yet?). Episode 12 wasn't much better, honestly. If episode 13 doesn't pick up the pace, I'm just gonna' drop the anime. It's not worth my time. I could just read the manga, where I hope this stuff is much more bearable. Anyway, this is actually a problem I've noticed in a lot of anime. It might be a holdover from manga, where explaining the action is sometimes necessary just because it's hard to show motion. [quote=MrCuddowls] [spoiler]I'm not really prejudiced against it; I'm just saying that it would have been better if they didn't have the powerups and just stuck to normal humans vs titans. [/quote] This is a mecha series in a fantasy setting; it's necessary. [quote=Searz] I've read like one mecha series and seen none, so I'm not exactly knowledgeable on tropes in the genre. I see where you're grabbing those tropes from though. But Mikasa is entirely different to that robot you're comparing her to. She's a very cold and collected person, and that makes her moments of emotional outbursts all that more interesting(there will be more :3). [/quote] I haven't read/seen a lot of mecha series, so I'm unsure of exactly how far the emotionless girl trope goes, but Mikasa seems pretty spot on for it. No real person is ever actually emotionless, and the only truly emotionless characters in anime that I can think of have pretty particular reasons, outside of the narrative itself, for being that way. [spoiler=A brief aside about Eva]The reason that Rei is almost entirely devoid of emotion is, honestly, because Eva's a deconstruction of mecha tropes. Her entire purpose is to show that being emotionless is really fucked up. So that's why her being emotionless is kinda' fucked up. I know you've seen this anime, so I think that is what you're thinking about as the basis of the trope, but I believe the trope emotionless girl generally has a bit more emotion than Rei does.[/spoiler] So while I will freely admit that Mikasa does have emotion, her calm demeanor and general lack of caring about most things is close enough to "emotionless" that the trope still fits. And I'm not really knocking her as a character, she's fairly interesting and compelling. Most of my issues with her character are more about anime representations of women in general, rather than anything specific to her. [spoiler=Some other parallels I noticed]While I was rewatching the anime, I also noticed the reason why the manic girl trope isn't present. The manic girl trope is supposed to have her family killed in front of her eyes (oh, 80's tropes not understanding that these things [i]fuck people up[/i]), which is what happens to Mikasa, who is presumably the emotionless girl trope instead. Mixing the manic girl and emotionless girl tropes might explain Mikasa's emotional outbursts, actually, but then I worry that I'm over-analyzing things. Also, in a lot of shounen series a common trope is the cool and collected rival. It seems to me that Levi is a pretty obvious choice for this, from the way he's presented in episode 9. I'm curious as to whether this is developed later, or if I'm way off base on this.[/spoiler] So, yeah. Literary analyses of anime, here I come. I think I might have a problem.[/quote]

[quote=MrCuddowls]Here's episode 12 for anyone who didn't download it yet: http://www.nyaa.eu/?page=view&tid=445315 EDIT: Searz you've watched Evangelion?[/quote]

[quote=Joxuu]Started watching Death note and Mahou Shoujo Madoku :3[/quote]

[quote=Ninja Trigger]So dark horse just published a set of comic books on avatar the last air bender, next one coming out in July, and they are cannon! the last one was by far the best the search part one it's not really a manga, but at least we learn a little more about Zuko's mother and a little more insight on why he was banned. I enjoyed it any avatar fans here?[/quote]

[quote=Searz]Just saw episode 12 of Shingeki. It was kinda meh. Some dialogue was extended, and they added a whole new couple of scenes where Jean, Conny and Annie where fighting. I'm pretty sure that was just to pad the episode out, so that they could push the next big event back. I seriously doubt anything good is gonna come out of the new additions. Most have been bad so far.. [quote=MrCuddowls] Searz you've watched Evangelion?[/quote] Nope.[/quote]

[quote=MrCuddowls]Joxuu I recommend you marathon Madoka Magica, it's short and the experience will have a much greater impact then to watch it whilst watching another anime. Death Note is an anime you want to watch in long strokes with short breaks. It's a long anime that is difficult to truly appreciate if you are going to simply slowpoke through it.[/quote]

[quote=Ninja Trigger]^^ agreed you need to watch death note in long stokes to get the most out of it[/quote]

[quote=YayaFTW]Okay, I've finished watching [url=http://myanimelist.net/anime/13125/Shinsekai_yori/]Shinsekai Yori[/url]. Yup, I like it. It's not great, It's above decent. I can safely say It's a [b]good[/b] anime. What I appreciated in this anime is that the plot/story is very interesting. It's not a silly shallow plot, It's deep. Like Ergo Proxy, the plot was the biggest factor behind the success of the anime. There was some art inconsistency through 3 or 4 episodes due to the huge leap in the time frame (I hope it's called time frame) where the main protagonists go from the age of 12-14 to the age of 26 in one single episode. Which was kinda hard to adapt to. Bittersweet ending. I'm sure it seems a happy ending for people who watched the anime before me, but if you think it through you'll notice the losses and sacrifices the main characters suffered in order to achieve the main goal. There was some yuri/yaoi scenes. I skipped them because I don't fancy that kind of stuff. I'd really want to comment on a lot of stuff but I don't really wanna spoil it for people (I know people are always tempted to open the spoiler even if i use the tags anyway). [color=yellow]TL;DR:[/color] Definitely worth watching. Strenghts: The story/plot, and the fact that the anime kept getting better and better with every episode, which was really great. The weaknesses were some art inconsistency here and there, and unnecessary yaoi/yuri scenes.[/quote]

[quote=Searz][quote=lifebaka] [spoiler=Example from episode 1]In the first episode, when the Legion (or Corps, depending on translation) is returning, they bring out the arm of Moses and give it to Moses's mother. The scene has then delivered its entire impact. When the Legion commander explains that the arm was all they could recover, the series was just wasting time. That was obvious. When the Legion commander explains that they didn't accomplish anything, the series was also wasting time. It was clear that they'd gotten wiped out already, just from the facial expressions and obvious casualties to the Legion, and explaining that to the audience wasn't necessary.[/spoiler][/quote] I dunno. I wasn't impressed or anything with the scene in the manga, but they did do it slightly worse in the anime. Some parts of what he was saying where not obvious from the mere look at them. And showing that people were suffering enough to voice their discontent (even one of higher rank) does show some doubt in the regime. [quote][spoiler=Episode 11]Starting early, Armin didn't need to mention that the plan is a crapshoot. Yeah, we understand, it's not a guarantee. That's obvious. Similarly, after the first part of Pixis's speech, Armin doesn't need to harp on the same point again. We got it the first time you pointed out the massively obvious, anime. It's worse when the older guy he's talking to [i]takes him seriously when he states the massively obvious[/i]. Hell, he didn't even need to explain that bit about the Titans being attracted to groups of people; that was pretty obvious from events and dialogue in episode 8 already. That entire conversation that he has with those two "strategists" isn't necessary. A touch later, Eren talks about how he's not sure if he can lift the boulder [i]again[/i]. [b]AGAIN[/b]. Like we didn't get it the first two times. Or like it isn't obvious that there's a chance of failure, and maybe we don't need to be told to understand that. Oh, wait, no. I was clearly wrong. Because right after the break, one of the elite squad mentions the chance of failure again. While the elite squad is running with Eren to be closer to the boulder, everything they say to him about how people are dying for him and how so much is resting on his shoulders and how they aren't sure if he can even do what he needs to for this, that entire part of the episode is only going over in painful, excruciating detail things that are already blatantly obvious.[/spoiler][/quote] They changed a ton of important dialogue around in episode 11. And quite a bit of it was extended, or simply added where there was none. I'm pretty sure Eren never once mentions anything about being uncertain of whether he can plug the hole in the manga. The conversation on the wall was changed [i]completely[/i] from what it was in the manga. It was [b]literally[/b] just one page in the manga where they asked him how he was feeling and said that they were counting on him. And the girl didn't even say anything. The bitch kept her mouth shut, she knew her place. (kidding ofc :P) They did have an explanation of the plan in the manga too though. And Armin did mention the uncertainty of the main point in the plan. But he's talking with people that probably don't know the situation as well as he does and he's struggling with uncertainty. He's just a kid, he's bound to be uncertain about sending people to their deaths, especially since he has no previous experience in doing so(unlike, say, Pixis). Also, it was fairly short at ~1.5 pages. [quote][spoiler=Episode 11]Later, when Pixis recaps why the 250,000 citizens were sent to their deaths in episode 2, is also unnecessary. We watched episode 2, we got it then. Hell, anime, [i]you told us why it was happening then[/i].[/spoiler][/quote] Actually, I think you might have misunderstood Pixis' speech. (which is very understandable, seeing how much they fucked it up in the anime) The scouting mission in episode 2 was in fact a real scouting mission, one which happened while they still had control over all three walls (or rather: the areas within). The mission he talked about where they were just sending out people to die was when they had lost one of the three walls. They did that because they were running out of food and would suffer starvation unless the population was... magically reduced. There's this whole scene about it that just doesn't happen in the anime.. [quote]I could just read the manga, where I hope this stuff is much more bearable.[/quote] You probably should, seeing as I disliked ep11 too, but liked that part of the manga. Read it from the start. The story doesn't play out chronologically (like it does in the anime) and the pacing is very different in a lot of places. [quote]I haven't read/seen a lot of mecha series, so I'm unsure of exactly how far the emotionless girl trope goes, but Mikasa seems pretty spot on for it. No real person is ever actually emotionless, and the only truly emotionless characters in anime that I can think of have pretty particular reasons, outside of the narrative itself, for being that way.[/quote] Well, I don't have a lot to compare with, so I can't say much. I do think she's a well-characterized individual though, like most are in Shingeki. [quote]I know you've seen [Evangelion], so I think that is what you're thinking about as the basis of the trope, but I believe the trope emotionless girl generally has a bit more emotion than Rei does.[/quote] I've actually never seen it :P [quote]Most of my issues with [Mikasa's] character are more about anime representations of women in general, rather than anything specific to her.[/quote] I personally hate how they changed her looks around for the anime. It seems a lot of people are annoyed by this too. I'd say that she's more tomboyish in the manga, while she's just a plain cookie-cutter anime beauty in the anime. [quote][spoiler=Some other parallels I noticed]Also, in a lot of shounen series a common trope is the cool and collected rival. It seems to me that Levi is a pretty obvious choice for this, from the way he's presented in episode 9. I'm curious as to whether this is developed later, or if I'm way off base on this.[/spoiler][/quote] Well, he's very cool and collected, but he's never seen as a rival.[/quote]

[quote=lifebaka][quote=Searz] Actually, I think you might have misunderstood Pixis' speech. (which is very understandable, seeing how much they fucked it up in the anime) The scouting mission in episode 2 was in fact a real scouting mission, one which happened while they still had control over all three walls (or rather: the areas within). The mission he talked about where they were just sending out people to die was when they had lost one of the three walls. They did that because they were running out of food and would suffer starvation unless the population was... magically reduced. There's this whole scene about it that just doesn't happen in the anime.. [/quote] There wasn't a scouting mission in episode 2. I think I got my early episodes confused, which happens when I'm writing a long post at 2 AM; the culling happened in episode 3, didn't it? Then again, which episode the event took place in isn't actually relevant to my point.[/quote]