The Anime Blog - We Go Beyond Anime!

1 | Camuss111

January 2nd, 2007 at 4:22 pm

Karas is an amazing movie. Your questions are well placed but not entirely thought out.

1)The Karas is Tokyo’s guardian crow, he/she protects the city and destroys all threats to Tokyo’s existence.

Karas is a spirit, the ones who fulfill this role are chosen byu the Yurine, an entity representing the will, or thoughts/wants of Tokyo’s people.

He is a spirit, the ability to turn ijnto a fighter jet must therefore be a spiritual power. When he (the main character) becomes Karas, he is given all the powers of the previous Karas and the accompanying spiritual makeup.

He turned into a fighter jet to combat the Mikura with scythes and one good eye. The Mikura was too fast for his bipedal form and, if you’d pay closer attention, you’d have noticed that the battle with the spider mikura is called a “mere distraction” Therefore he must rush, in a more speedy form to the hospital where his body is.

It’s spelled Eko, for starters. His plot is to assimilate, or control the city for himself. He tries to enforce his will through the Mikura, demons turned into machines.Nue and Karas, as well as Yurine and her syncophants are the only opposing forces in this particular precinct.

The Yurines (plural) are the physical manifestations of the will of the people. they represent what the people’s minds want for tokyo. the Karas is leashed to them for reasons of safety. As far as i can tell, the Karas are humans who have been disembodied.Yurine can see all of Tokyo and know when their previous bodies are in danger, therefore i believe it makes sense that it is loyalty for protection and also that the Yurines, after all, do control the power of the Karas.

In this case the doctor, O-something or another, i think it is omura, called for Yurine, we are never told how or why, and somehow asked to become the Karas, or maybe he just wanted to protect the city. Nevertheless the previous Karas died in the monumental first battle, and needed a replacement. So Yurine selected him and his body was left in the human world, unknown and undefended, the Mikura and Eko found this out through the corrupted police officials, probably related to the Mikura or possibly Mikura themselves. and the Small division, with the two officers we see in the movie, unwittingly caused this discovery.

Watch the movie again and next time reason it out before such silly questions. Not intending to be harsh or mean, but jeez come on, any anime fan could reason something as rudimentary as this out. You’re smarter than that…THINK!

Sincerely,
Camuss111

“When angels are cast out of heaven, they become devils. Don’t you agree? Spike.”

-Cowboy Bebop 05: Ballad of Fallen Angels

2 | Camuss111

January 2nd, 2007 at 4:37 pm

oh one more thing, Karas is a deep anime, if you don’t like to think or engage yourself in the experience, then why, on all 9 circles of hell, are you watching anime?

Japan is a deeply spiritual country and any anime movie commentary should take this into consideration. if you watch anime/Japanese movies hoping they would be like an American film (i.e. MI:3) then you will continually be disappointed and confused. Karas, of all the anime movies i have seen, skyrocketed to among my top 10 anime all time favorites including titles like these.

Ghost in the Shell
Akira
Spriggan
Cowboy Bebop:The Movie
FF7 Advent Children
Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust

You might want to watch Akira Kurosawa Movies, they help to open up the spiritual as well as honor bound, aspects that make up the country of Japan. feel free to e-mail me at my personal address Camuss111@hotmail.com.

Camuss111

“Kanedaaaaa!!!!” “Tetsuoooooooooo!!!!!”
-Akira

3 | Camuss111

January 2nd, 2007 at 5:04 pm

check out the Wikipedia page on Karas it will tell you a lot.

Camuss111

4 | zingor

January 2nd, 2007 at 10:15 pm

Wow. I haven’t seen this one but every movie will have it’s admirers and it’s critics. You happen to be an admirer - Rachel happens to be a critic. Granted, it is a harsh review, but no need to be so condescending just because your views are different.

BTW, she tends to prefer deeper anime (read the strawberry marshmallow review ^^).

5 | Rachel

January 2nd, 2007 at 11:58 pm

6 | Camuss111

January 3rd, 2007 at 6:20 pm

Anime movies do tend to have much spiritualism in them, and i wasn’t trying to be patronizing, my critique were just seemingly obvious answers that can be found throughout the movie, oh and by the way i am a junior in college with majors/minors in animation, creative writing and Japanese culture.

Your opinion is well represented, i like the movie not only for its animation but the outstanding idea(s) behind it, you are welcome to your opinions but it was rated highly on almost every other otaku/anime review site i looked at, i was merely trying to answer your questions and help you not be so confused. You and those others are being too defensive, i’m quite a nice person, and i’m wondering why it was taken as patronizing or pretentious. it seems that you didn’t even try to refute any of the points i made, instead you took the message and completely reversed its meaning. Karas, whether good or bad, is just a movie, technically it’s not even that, its a OVA series as you well know.

I’m not apologizing for trying to answer your questions, i’m apologizing for the way you took my messages to be. I read some of the site, but not all, you may be right…i do not know you, but i think we all have somethings in common, we all love anime and what it represents, some are not spiritual and deeply meditative, but some definitely are, i tend to shun those that are not story driven or confusing, i watch animes that make sense or have a certain character to them. “Cowboy Bebop” is by far my all time favorite.

You have no right to take what was said, intentionally answering your questions and providing some helpful hints JUST IN CASE, as a patronizing or mean approach, it just seemed to be extremely easy to dissect for me, maybe my mind works differently than yours, however all i did was share the conclusions i had after watching the movie 3 times, i didn’t get it right away and like you, was extremely confused. Pretentious or not, Karas is among many anime magazines’ top 5 releases for 2006, and like it or not, it is a deeply emotive and spiritual movie. have an even more open mind next time you watch it. Thanks for the comments, love to talk some more, college is boring.

Camuss111

7 | Camuss111

January 3rd, 2007 at 6:46 pm

Zingor, read the above review, in the review itself she says she’s not particularly deep when it comes to anime, and then goes on to talk about the differences between laziness and pretention, art house, etc..

oh and i didn’t mean anime in general, i meant to type “anime movies” but forgot. that one’s my fault.sorry for the confusion.

Camuss111

8 | Camuss111

January 4th, 2007 at 4:59 pm

In the comment that spawned this whole abomination, I failed to mention that most of these insights were either stated in the movie itself, or just seemed to make the most sense. Remember these are the same producers who came up with SPEED RACER, and that definitively had no straight through story.

One of the things Karas lacks is character development, i agree with that but otherwise, i found the story easily (almost disappointingly so) understandable, i should also add that i love to engage my mind and reason things out, a movie to me is more than moving images, it is an exercise (scary word!) of the brain.

Maybe the commentator on Karas doesn’t like to do this with movies, i admit the movie wasn’t a groundbreaking thriller smash-all-competitors-rock me out of the solar system phenomenon, but then again, neither is some of the other trash out there. Karas is definitely better in both plot and overall appeal than many of the other anime movies i have seen (for example: Full Metal Alchemist:The movie) I’ve never been one for the big-eyed, frayed hair, Dragonball Z-esque clones and maybe that is the difference here, or maybe i just see things in a different light.

Camuss111

“The dark man has struck again, yes i know, i will finish the job.”
-Camuss to Byron

9 | zingor

January 5th, 2007 at 8:34 am

If you really want to know why she got so defensive, think about how you would feel if someone said this to you:

“Watch the movie again and next time reason it out before such silly questions. Not intending to be harsh or mean, but jeez come on, any anime fan could reason something as rudimentary as this out. You’re smarter than that…THINK!”

Even though you say you are not intending to be harsh, it surely comes across that way.

I should stop commenting here though, because I have not seen this one (although now I really want to ^^).

Camuss111–BTW, not to change the subject, but do you think Evengelion is arthouse or lazy (the ending)? That’s another one that people read way too much into, I think. I understand the spiritualism therein, but I think that the ending was just a combination of laziness and loss of budget!

10 | Camuss111

January 11th, 2007 at 6:20 pm

well zingor, i tend to not be too proud and am actually quite humble. so if someone were to say that to me… i’d probably search for evidence to the contrary and

A) either prove myself right, by evidence
B) humbly accept what was said, and learn by it

i’m not too proud or stuck up to not see the truth in other’s words, the writing that makes the whole first thing seem harsh, is written so because i am blunt about things and at first i was beyond believement that the questions asked were so easily answered, it seemed to me that she focused more on the faults and did not pay enough attention to the things said during the movie, most of the questions she had were either answered on the DVD case, which i’m not sure she has, so in this i am at fault for becoming enthused: but then again the answers to other questions were found in the subtitles and other events throughout the movie. If i really wanted to be patronizing, mean, rude, crude, and harsh; my message would have started like this….

My constant gripe about anime reviewers, and yes movie reviewers in general, is that they are oh so whiny, they think they are so high and mighty, having a distinct insight into the way movies function and how they rate on a scale. I consistently find many things that they, in all their so called ‘expertise’ cannot see or turn a blind eye to, thus I am disappointed with this reviewer in many ways, the questions she asks are quite easy to figure out and sometimes in the actual lines in the movie. Futhermore, many of her questions are answered on the DVD case. This reviewer seemed to have payed more attention to what she didn’t like and less to the story unfolding, her questions, comments and insights are unprofessional, her critique of the movie lacks either experience or knowledge and it seems as if she went into this experience with a pre-determined mind to rate the movie badly, i own the movie and i find that the story and all else she says are confusing, are indeed not, if one pays attention and does not divide focuses, hard to sift out. this reviewer seems to not be in tune with the society that KARAS portrays, whether this be pure ignorance of social and spiritual emphasises in japanese culture or lack of mental contemplation, the reviewer does not give an accurate portrayal of the movie, if i were her i would rewatch the movie and use something called THINKING to answer her own flawed questions, also a culture like Japan cannot be easily read, the Japanese deplore directness; if she couldn’t find the story in KARAS then maybe she should refine her knowledge about the Japanese culture and relearn what she thinks she knows….

and soon and so forth. You can’t tell me that this is better than the actual one i posted. i spent a long time typing the message that started this whole thing, i put EFFORT into making it seem like something a friend or someone of a tightly knit group would say. instead of telling her what is stated above, i answered, as best i could, her questions and even explained where she might be able to gain more insights into the culture.I even tried to encourage her and say that she was smart enough and just hadn’t put the effort in, in this way i was probably sounding like a patronizing $%$$^#^#^#^$#^^er but to me it was an actual effort to not provoke, rather to reinforce and lend assistance, no one is above needing help, i was merely trying to aid what she seemed to lack, as my schooling and own studies related to it. a remedy if you will.

As stated previously somewhere, i am at college and i am taking two majors, one is animation (hand drawn and CG) and the other is Japanese Culture. the conclusions i drew from the review she gave was that she was probably a young kid,(around 17-21), anime-crazed with a lack of insights into the culture of Japan, like many other anime fans i have met. one of her statements actually made me LAUGH. she says something about knowing more than most Japanese people about their culture,but that’s not at all surprising, same thing here, i went to an art school for sophomore-Senior year and it just so happened that i was in a class with a transfer student from Osaka. We had many conversations about america and the west, but when it came to a discussion of his culture, it’s attributes and traditions, he was completely taken by surprise with the amount of knowledge i knew, most of which he himself had to think extremely hard to recollect in even a faint way.

as americans and whatever other western societies we think that because we know much about our culture (ie social studies) that others will too. Not true. Many middle eastern and far eastern cultures, are actually hidden from their own social backgrounds in an attempt to enforce business schooling and preoccupation with work. Japan’s people have always worked hard, but few modern Japanese people actually know the roots of their culture and the factor work and duty played above all else. In some cases they actually turn a blind eye to past events and occurences, for example,
Tokugawa Ideyashu (latinized spelling) ruled Japan for many years, his clan, the Tokugawa Regime was actually descended from a large Yakuza gang. Ideyashu-san, himself, refused to acknowledge his family’s beginnings and in the end most records of the start with a Yakuza gang were destroyed, so that hampering his rule with these allegations was completely and utterly useless. this is just one thing i was taught by my professor, another is that most modern japanese films (even most of Kurosawa’s) take place during the Meiji restoration just before modernization took place, Samurai were then mostly Ronin and had little or no money, many samurai sold their services to gangs and rebels, others died, poor and penniless on the roads in Edo.

the reason i state this is because most Japanese people will only look this far back in their history, if you haven’t noticed by now, most anime is set in the future or alternate realities, even KARAS, the reason why is because they don’t like their cultural inhibitations, they want to be westernized, they want to BE LIKE US AMERICAN FOOLS.

Their culture before the Meiji restoration is a source of shame for many of them. Those who are descended from Samurai, the supreme warriors in Japan’s army, are often found in the lower classes of society, doing peasant’s work, weeding a barely profitible life, and dealing with their fallen ancestral pride. Some though have forgotten their ancestry, these people rise to whatever heights they can muster, fuck it, I’ve BEEN to Tokyo, i walked those damn streets, i saw the looks of fear and awe in the eyes beholding our large student group of western people, this whole bullshit with the Shinto shrines, buddhism and the supposed classical values is merely a facade, I’m gonna bet that the Japan she knows about is one where everything is very formal, nobody can stickup over the heads of others, the senses of justice, honor and duty are prevalent and the work ethic is extremely high. Where religion and tradition takes precedence over all, and the slightest rude word can bring down wrath. If i am right about this view that she may have, then she has it completely wrong. There are streets in Japan lined with buildings and clubs that people go to in order to westernize themselves, there are cowboy, COWBOY clubs where men and women (that’s not traditional!) go to play out their western dreams, they sing japanese adaptations of ‘Home on the Range’ johnny cash, and garth brooks, there are whole night parades devoted to Elvis Presley, and Jimmy Dean (not the sausage guy) Rock’n'roll memorabilia is sold in some fish markets! posters of european actors are strung out proudly above the city, when i was there, one man was impersonating Buddy Holly, he was even singing the ENGLISH lyrics to ‘Peggy Sue’. when we told him he said somethings wrong in the song, he glared at us and swore about westerners and their stupid writing,then he politely turned around and asked for our forgiveness.

traditional Japanese would have first apologized, begged us for forgiveness, and then, once alone, and only then swore at us. so you see now why it seemed so harsh a critique of her review; my knowledge and experience has taught me otherwise than what most westerners see. When i watched KARAS the first time i was confused only because i figured i could multitask (mainly drawing and watching the movie at the same time) the second time i saw it it made much more sense. knowing what i did and seeing the lack of western influences on the spiritual aspects of Japan,the story stood out easily, the ideas and questions in her review were laughable at best, and the lack of fundamental understanding of the culture portrayed seemed evident. One of the many reasons i loved the movie, was that they actually tried to make it Japanese in whole. They actually tied the culture to Spirits and demons and myths of Japanese folklore. indeed, The designs for Karas himself were based on samurai armor. Water goblins are called Kappa by most japanese, a kappa is a freaking vampire with a wholein its head, how do the water goblins in the film look? like robot Kappa.even the mikura are based on japanese demons (this is not so in Inuyasha) KARAS attempted to break the norm of most anime films and in doing so managed, at the same time, to make a spritually impacting movie.

if you must all know, i have been playing coy with you, i have tried to not be condescending, and i have tried to not hold myself on a pedestal. thus far i have treated you all as my equals, but how many of you, i wonder, are truly more than anime scholars, how many of you know the Edo period’s other name, how many of you know where their language came from, how many of you can honestly say you knew the stuff about modern Japan more than older and, in my opinion, better Japan. How many of you know who Zatoichi is or when he first came about, how many of you knew about the obssessive adoration of our rock’n'roll era, how many of you can say that you’ve seen it first hand, how many of you have watchedthe tokyo police capture a criminal and viciously beat him without any reservations, how many of you know that the emperor of Japan was almost never more than a puppet of his wife’s family, how many of you know the origin of the word Shogun, what an Ainu is, better yet, who among you know the name of the REAL last samurai, and finally how many of you can say they actually are interested enough in the culture and the country to do a double major in college of which one study is the CULTURE of both modern and ancient Japan.

there,i’ve had my tirade…now back to writing.

Evangelion was a manificent idea, i do however, think that the way it was carryed out lacked in crucial areas, you want to talk about character development, look at Shinji, his character was well develeped but it seemed that his father and aides, the two girls, i can’t remember their names, lacked much of what Shinji got. Rurouni Kenshin is another anime i really like alot, the reason why? not just the story or the concept, but the character development as well, even minor characters feel as if we know them in person. People read in to evangelion way too much, i agree. I think that as far as animes go, it was decent at best, it think the reason the ending was so far read into, and i was one of those who did for the longest time, was because it was so completely unexpected, Shinji killed all of the angels, and it should have ended like most other animes, ever after; the reasons behind the portent most took from the show, were mainly three things, as far as i can understand,

unfinished speculations
the fate of NERV
The aspects of doom

if you want explanations just ask me.

I think that the ending to Evangelion was more of a commercial attempt actually, the supposed ‘ending’ set the stage perfectly for a whole slew of movies and follow-up mangas, budget may have played a factor, but being an animation major i know that, for the most part, the money is paid to the artists, writers and so forth, before they are told what to do and how to do it. I really feel that Evangelion’s ending was a last ditch attempt to pull a profit from the show, their budget was low, they were having internal issues, their director was ill, and most of all the key frame artists demanded more time, but were not allowed it.

to answer your question simply, it was partially arthouse, but also a commercial endeavor, not laziness. The same could be said for KARAS, the story remains unfinished,…but wait! then number two comes along and grabs those who liked number one, bingo! more money. All is commercial in animation, if i ever end up directing or doing frames for a big name company, i will not fall away from my ideals as an artist, commercialism will not stop me as it has stopped so many others and, ultimately, drained their artistic notions and left only a void.i refuse to be party to this, i draw and create for myself nothing more true have i ever spoken or written.

Camuss111

“Japan is like an onion, you peel away one layer, and you find an almost exact but not perfect layer beneath.”
-Hal Wert, KCAI professor

11 | Camuss111

January 11th, 2007 at 6:41 pm

BTW i never labled you anything Rachel, i merely stated and indeed said that you are smarter than that. as for coming onto this site with all those so-called pompous and pretentious statements, i did no such thing, in fact i usually don’t even submit comments to these things, if you must know it was the questions you had that instigated me to answer. I felt sympathy and understanding for your confusion and i didn’t want you to miss these key points stated in the movie or on the package. i felt sorry, and i use the term lightly, for you being confused. I offered only ways to help you, if you read the very first comment i made, there is little other than answers to your questions. I could tell that you knew more than you were showing, i could tell you were smarter than these questions made you seem. of course retaliation and anger is understandable, but sometimes we retaliate and fight the wrong things.

I’m not trying to change your opinion and i never was. KARAS is a great movie to me and many others, if you didn’t like it, your loss. either way i’m beyond the point of my compassion and i only answer these blogs and others if i feel i need to. you need to be more objective before such a fiery message of doom (ha ha) is submitted, also one other thing…you don’t know me either, i’m no average joe when it comes to culture, especially Japan’s, read the comment (rather long one too) i posted for zingor, you will see just how much i held back. i’ve apologized for somethings but others remain, personally, you make a great argument,much more concise than my overly long posts, and i’d like to get to know you and the others better. I hope that this comment is taken in a calmer light, and note that the stuff above is directed towards zingor, if he hadn’t asked what i would do it wouldn’t be the same. Therefore i apologize in advance for any other offenses you might find in the above message.

Camuss111

12 | David

January 11th, 2007 at 9:28 pm

Camuss111 - I just wanted to say thank you for taking the time to read the site and for putting such effort into your comments.

I didn’t like Karas - the visuals were good but the story was not enjoyable for me. I think the story suffered because of the way it was edited. To me, Karas felt like it was all ’style over substance’.

But I can understand where you’re coming from. Just remember - every anime has it’s lovers/haters. This seems to be especially true for Karas - check out the reviews on Netflix!

Anyway, we don’t want to scare you away and we look forward to your comments in the future!

13 | zingor

January 12th, 2007 at 9:17 am

First of all, I am a SHE ^^. Second, don’t assume what other people know or don’t know. We are all in our late 20’s, have college degrees, and some of us know a fair deal about the culture. I personally have never been to Japan. I would like to go but I am more interested in seeing Greece, for example. I have had a fair deal of cultural anthropology and I probably know more than the average joe. Rachel has many Japanese friends and is involved in Japanese language meetings and other such things. She knows more than you’d assume as well.
My point–don’t assume we are your average stupid otaku.
BTW, if you don’t mind me asking, how old are you?

It IS patronizing to call someone else’s questions “silly” even if, as you say, the answers are on the movie jacket. I wouldn’t expect someone who doesn’t know you to be inspired by that. I say this not to be defensive, rude etc, but with the intention that you will maybe learn that emotions are sometimes hard to get across in writing. Perhaps you should think a little more about how what you think you are conveying will actually sound to someone else.

As per your last comment, I am making an effort to be civil. I say all these things because I too, tend to be blunt and honest and it is taken badly a lot of the time.

Also, I second Dave–don’t let us scare you away. Your comments ARE appreciated. We can always agree to disagree.

I really wish I could comment about this movie. I wonder if my library has it? I will be looking when I get out of work tonight!

As for Evangelion, I happen to think almost 100% opposite of what you think XD.
One, I have a hard time seeing it as a commercial attempt because the ending sucks so bad I think it had the opposite effect. A lot of people that were way into it (Americans anyway), were blown away with the suckiness of the ending. I agree with you though in that it probably did help spur the movie sales because people were like “wtf just happened?” and needed more of an explanation.
Two, I think that Asuka had much more character development than Shinji. Of course, Rei ends up being a completely different character than you think she is at first so I’d say her development was pretty fair. On the other hand, Shinji is a whiny brat the whole time and his character development was more of a degression than anything.
Three, I think it had to at least be partially a budget thing because look at all the reused animation in the last two episodes. The new animation is about 5 mins long and the rest of it is like 2 minutes for each cel while someone talked over it.

Haha! As for becoming commercial, I think we’ve all said that at one point. I imagine that there isn’t a politician out there who hasn’t started out saying that XD. I’d like to have faith in you though because some DO make it through the fray and manage to maintain their own artistic ideals. Good luck in your endeavors as an artist.

14 | Camuss111

January 12th, 2007 at 4:59 pm

well then, we are all on equal footing, you’re absolutely right i came into this thinking it was mostly your average joe otakus, if this offended any of you at all i apologize in the most sincere way.

it’s just that’s what most of these blogs are, the ones i’ve been told to visit are mostly things like, “i love inuyahsa, he’s so amazing,” or “i want to marry Edward Alric” its actually a pleasant surprise to find a group out there unlike those.

I know exactly what you are saying about the way of writing things with emotions, my comments from now on will take this more into consideration. i’m properly abashed.

I needed to get as much info as i possibly could, about who i am dealing with here and finally, i don’t know if the last comment spurred this or not, someone has answered me.

my apologies for the typo in my message, i researched your past posts zingor and found your gender out pretty easily, however as i write these messages my fingers sometimes can’t keep up with my mind and they miss a step. I’m terribly sorry about that, you have every right to nag me for it the rest of my days, especially since i took the time to research, and still messed up. once again sorry.

i’m actually having a great time doing this, your comments won’t scare me away, i’ve supposedly got more guts than my grandfather in WW2. Not fearless, but this is the best thing since coming to college.

what does XD mean BTW?

well thanks for the faith in my ambitions, its quite a drag being at art school with very little support, once i get a scanner maybe i can make a page with drawings on it for you all to look at, of course, first i need a scanner.

Evangelion…Evangelion, personally i didn’t like it as much as i could’ve, but when it came out it was a fad among my friends and we all know how that goes. i watched it and watched it and the ending never made any sense to me, i actually bought the final disc so i could slow-mo through the last episode just in case i missed something.

the commercial idea just came to me one night, i figured that if all the things that had plagued the studio plagued me or my studio, then i would leave the audience on that last breath without a finish, a couple years later then, i would suddenly have a finished film or follow up series, provided i got the funding,to bring back those fans and of course, make more money.

i hated Shinji, he was a cry baby, just like you said. i really wanted him to turn out like Shiro amada in ms 08th team or something decent, alas, i was disappointed. sorely.

however, on that note, i think his character was more developed by those around him, i felt that, though, as you say, Asuka had much more development for her character, whenever we learned something about her or Rei, it seemed news about Shinji life and role was on the way. This could just be my take on it, but i think that the whole slew of characters in Evangelion were there to mostly develop Shinji and the aspects in which he was so entwined. I liked the ending from an artistic point of view, but as a fan of completed series, the ending left way too much darkness for the fans to find light in. it lacked greatly (hindsight is 20/20)

i’m 23. I don’t know what to say about Rachel but it seems to me that she made as many assumptions as i did in her reply, i don’t have many japanese friends so in that she has me trumped. however as i’ve stated before, i know more about Japanese culture than average people too. The message directed towards you zingor, (and the shameful tirade in the middle) was an attempt to clue (mostly Rachel) you in to what i do know. yesterday when i typed that message the long tyrade was supposed to be short, but i read rachel’s immediate comment after my first post, and i guess i lost my objectivity (and possibly sanity) for a short time. once again my fault.

i’d like to compare notes with Rachel sometime on the culture, i hope she replies soon.

as for everyone else, i’m glad i am not being cajoled and forced away. as i said earlier, i don’t do these things much, and i prefer face-to-face more, but these conversations are actually quite fun…plus they give me something to do with my free time.

maybe i should write how things should sound in the messages….

like this “I want you to think about what you just said. Then tell me what it means.”
(line said calmly)

well? would that work better? would it be too confusing?

reused animation is indeed cheap, the budget thing may be the whole cause, i could be wrong, i just happen to think that, as in a chess game, the producers and parent companies look ahead into the future, i’m not sure if the manga came first or the show, so i can’t chalk the ending up to the writer just yet. the reused animation does make sense for your theory, regardless.

I’m not so sure about politicians, in a way they are like some Japanese people. they have a Christian wedding and then go out and practice shinto, then they dress up all nicely and go slaughter people (i’m combining past and modern here…samurai and Weddings) if all the politicians in the world were more open then maybe it would be better. as for them saying they will become commercial, poo on them.

i still like Karas and i really dissent with Rachel’s critique, mostly because of the questions, and what she said made it bad, the story. Karas isn’t a phenomenal movie, i like it , but in all objectivity i believe she wasn’t fair in the review, not just to the movie, but also to the writers and the staff. it just baffles me, though, that someone with her backing in the culture couldn’t at least find the story. and as she mentions, and i believe Dave does too, the story is disappointing in its simplicity, it seems so straightforward (if you can find it) and only twists near the end.

It surely isn’t the greatest story-driven movie ever, but read her words…

Karas. Blows
Sucked the way it did

she makes it sound awful, like those american films we all know that have much hype and then they fall on their backs and can’t get up.(LIAR,LIAR)

as you said before this, grantedly, is a harsh review. I don’t think she spent the effort to figure those things out, as i’ve already said, most of the answers were in or around (packaging) the movie. i might just have a higher standard that i hold reviewers to. after all, the goal is to be fair about what was seen or watched, i wonder how many times (and if she downloaded it, what quality) she watched it. her review was mostly (nicely quoted) ” i couldn’t figure this out, or i couldn’t understand this, did she do any research past what she knew, did she visit the other sites (ie Wikipedia’s article) to clear up anything? it doesn’t seem so, being an artist and more importantly a animation major, research plays a major part in all i do, i just don’t draw a horse and call it a horse, i study the animal inside out, backwards and forwards, ’till i can draw it upside down with my left (non-dominant) hand. (that is the actual test i put myself through after drawing research)

and maybe this would be good for a reviewer to do too. (not the test i use)

my main qualm in the first message was that she didn’t think or possibly didn’t care enough, to reason things out, in all honesty, i feel that she really didn’t pay attention to the movie, as dave said, he didn’t like the story, but by god he found it, didn’t he? Her critique only caught my notice because of the questions, when i finally posted that thing that day, i had been looking up Karas and another recently watched movie to check out reviews and gain insights, as i’ve already said, the message that spawned this whole thing, was mostly logical or otherwise told ideas about the story, i wanted to help her out, especially since i didn’t know her at all. I never labeled her anything, i didn’t mudsling. i never said “hehe you’re stupid.” or the like thereof, i could’ve done worse, much worse, but i didn’t because i really did care. think about the writing in her critique.. without knowing her or knowing about this blog, would any of you have truly seen other than i did, she was confused, wanted answers, and was supposedly very disappointed, so i came to help out, it really has nothing to do with the movie or her slander of it, i really don’t and didn’t care what her opinion was. it was almost completely the questions asked that drew me in, did i ever once say,

Karas is much better than you think, either you didn’t pay attention at all, you didn’t use your brain to reason these things out, or you lack insight into the culture.

nope, instead i took a friendlier approach than my normal, stoic self would have done in person.
i never slandered her, and i never said she was wrong, i stated my opinions, conclusions, and findings in a gentler way than i originally wanted to. i hope you can all appreciate this and see my response to her critique as “the good samaritan” way of thinking, i never dreamed that her response would be so fiery.

in the end, as a reviewer, i question her objectivity in the movie’s critique, she has a responsibility to be fair and honest and objective so that others can take what she says seriously, i can understand that this is not a professional line of work for her, but she should have, at least in my opinion, been more professional in her written critique. it seems like something an angry person would write on a stall door or something in the toilet. from all of this, i take my stand.

Camuss111

15 | zingor

January 13th, 2007 at 12:06 pm

XD is an emoticon. Look at it sideways and it is supposed to be face that is laughing hard. Sorry, I tend to use that one a lot I think.

I am glad you are enjoying yourself here. You should write whatever you want to write and if things get confusing or sound harsh, I will not get inflamed about it as per your past apologies. I do expect from now on though, that we at least try not to be rude to each other.

Rachel too is blunt. Thus the Karas blows remark. I would not expect her to be objective in her reviews. Reviews after all, are opinions and everyone has their own. Just try not to be offended when you disagree.
I don’t think it would be very entertaining to read a review that was purely objective. It would end up merely being a description. You can read the back of the DVD case for those.

BTW, I checked and my library has Karas. I am going to get it in an hour or so.

16 | Rachel

January 13th, 2007 at 3:13 pm