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Forum - View topicShelf Life - Color Theory
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Angel M Cazares
 Posts: 5428 Location: Iscandar |
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I mostly agree with Bamboo's review of Kids on the Slope. I agree that the ending feels rushed, but I will excuse the producers of the show because they needed to end it at episode 12. Why? Because Kids on the Slope is a very mature series (compared to modern otaku-centic anime), and the production committee knew beforehand that the series was not going to be a big seller to warrant a longer series or a second season.
Despite having to cram, if I remember correctly, 45 manga chapters into 12 25-minutes anime episodes, the production did the best they could to provide a well rounded story. I commend Shinichiro Watanabe and the rest of the staff for making a great adaptation. In my opinion this is how adaptations should be handled. I was fortunate to have received and watched my BD copy last week. Although to me Kids on the Slope gets a Very good rating, this series should be in anyone's collection. |
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Rahxephon91
 Posts: 1859 Location: Park Forest IL. |
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I mean I guess they did the best they could with the running time of the show.
But eh. That's my feeling about the show. The entire show feels packed tight and time flows so quickly that I never feel like we really get to see anyone's friendship go. We just see the "greatest hits" of their lives and never really just a normal day of the kids being well kids. I felt like we were just supposed to accept their friendship because yeah that's what this about. It just didn't develop naturally to me. On top of that the show after say the first 3 episodes gets into too much melodramatic love stuff. I thought it was going to be all about the trials and tribulations of this odd couple of friends instead it becomes back and forth "does he like me or does she like me stuff" that I'm not interested in. I mean all in all it was a decent show, but that's all I would call it. Worth a watch, but not a purchase. |
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varmintx
 Posts: 1203 Location: Covington, KY |
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Did your copy not have this problem, Bamboo?
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dtm42
Posts: 14084 Location: currently stalking my waifu |
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I would have put Kids on the Slope down to Rental Shelf, because the whole melodrama between the two boys got really old and sidetracked the show.
I agree with the ratings for the other two however. A lot of care was put into Hanasaku Iroha regarding animation and art, but it's too bad the same couldn't be said of the sloppy writing which was almost an afterthought compared to the technical aspects. And Colorful was an amazing movie with the sort of solid central friendship that Kids on the Slope wished it had had, though I agree the movie was a little too slow to get going and a bit too abrupt at the ending. Other than that, superb movie. I'm still kicking myself for not seeing the twist ahead of time, it was pretty obvious in retrospect. |
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walw6pK4Alo
 Posts: 9322 |
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There was also that one story development that needn't happen because it went absolutely nowhere on two wheels. Not enough jazz. |
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Mikeski
Posts: 608 Location: Minneapolis, MN |
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So, the opposite of "slice of life"? "...Frosting of life"? 
That sounds like a Hollywood story, not an anime one. |
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nightmaregenie
 Posts: 167 Location: Palmy, NZ - student central |
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I cannot agree with you more. As someone who has experienced depression before (and who has a partner currently suffering from it) it felt like the writer is being either very dismissive about, or just does not understand, the recovery process. It's a difficult long-term struggle even for those wanting to get out of depression. One cannot simply resolve it in a matter of days. Sure, the family scene around the table, and Makoto's forming/re-forming relationships with people are touching and exactly what he needs, but in reality it often takes months, even years, of counseling and personal endeavour for all the people involved to come to that point. Plus Makoto is made to conveniently spoiler[forget his past life and gets to learn about himself again through the viewpoint of a complete stranger.] No one in real life would be given that luxury. The film makes good points about what needs to happen to kick-start the emotional healing but its oversimplification might reinforce common misconceptions about mental illnesses (eg the causes of depression can be quickly and easily identified, people can just pick themselves up and be all right at the drop of a hat etc). For that reason I cannot say I like it. Last edited by nightmaregenie on Mon Apr 29, 2013 8:19 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Red Fox of Fire
 Posts: 345 |
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Ugh, I couldn't get past 4 episodes of Kids Running Down the Street. It was too much of a typical, frustrating teen drama trying to portray itself as something smart and original.
Hanasaku Iroha turned out just as bad for me. Bamboo really hit it accurate with Ohana, but I found just about every character in the series annoying to watch. Can't agree with all of them, I guess. |
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SpacemanHardy
Posts: 2509 |
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Bamboo kinda touched on the KotS dub but didn't really go into detail. Has someone else gotten a chance to hear it yet? If so, can you go into a bit more detail? I'm kinda interested to hear how Foster treated it.
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Animerican14
 Posts: 963 Location: Saint Louis, MO |
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There were a couple clips that GWOtaku posted on Youtube (you should just be able to find it by searching "kids on the slope dub"). From those clips, the actors seemed fine, with me personally feeling that I only need some more lines out of Andrew Love as Sentaro to warm up to him a bit better. And as far as I've heard (and expected to begin with), it is a rather faithful dub script-wise, probably close to word-for-word with the subs, which is pretty much like all of Foster's/Sentai's output on all the non-HOTDs and non-Ghost Stories of the world. Heck, the project translator (whoever that may be) kept in Kaoru/Chris Patton calling Ritsuko/Rebeccah Stevens "Ri-chan." |
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Animegomaniac
Posts: 4089 |
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I would have been a lot better with the series if that was what happened from the start or how it was set-up, but, no, that was the end result of all the romantic entanglements. Yup, the Japanese are so polite and assuming to their sempais, it's amazing they procreate at all. Wait, wasn't the series about jazz? Ok, I'll bite on that part as well. *Ahem*. Jazz being portrayed as a sensation in Japan in this show, so much so it's the cultural equivalent of, mmm, the rest of the world's "rock and roll" music? In 1966? Was I the only one wondering why they didn't just cut out the intermediate style and form a rock band? "They like jazz." Yeah, that's what they heard. That's all they heard. So, in the end, I found the show quaint but utterly devoid of meaning to me, while thinking "just imagine if they heard the Beatles or Elvis instead of Evans and Coltrane." |
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dtm42
Posts: 14084 Location: currently stalking my waifu |
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I would have preferred Kids on the Slope to be about two homosexual boys in sixties Japan who bond over a shared love of music and together have to deal with the social stigma of being gay in such a conservative society. That would have been an amazing show and one that I - a heterosexual male - would have enjoyed.
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zawa113
 Posts: 7358 |
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I can't wait to get my copy of Colorful! It's sitting in TRSI's epic warehouse with my copy of Rose of Versailles just waiting on freakin' Atomcat to come in. Manga doesn't seem to come out quite as early to them as DVDs do. Hopefully it'll all get here soon, but odds are it won't be here by unofficial geek holiday Free Comic Book Day, but I'm oh so close to three epic things in one box! Wish there had been some comment on the Colorful dub, I'm curious how it is.
I keep being on and off sold on Kids on the Slope, the whole Bebop this is pretty damn big, but comments on here mean I need to check it out for myself first. Also, awesome collection, but the fact that all the Australia stuff has to have a rating in a big noticeable box on the side would drive me insane! It's just right there in the middle of FMA! At least it's off to the side for Claymore, but damn those are big annoying boxes! Last edited by zawa113 on Mon Apr 29, 2013 10:35 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Animerican14
Posts: 963 Location: Saint Louis, MO |
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Well, if it was set up that way, I think it would be closer to something like "Sex on the Beach" than "Kids on the Slope." 
Wait, what the hell does politeness and procreation have anything to do with it? Huh? Not only does that seem random, that's rather insulting.
I think there's some mistaken and stubbornly-held-onto perception that it was all supposed to be super focused on Jazz. Jazz has more than anything been a motif and metaphor in this show: playing jazz is a pastime that's served as a consistent way of bonding throughout the years of the characters' relationships with each other, and just as jazz involves improvisation and "swing," life is also something to kind of play by ear and its relationships swing back and forth between different moods.
Well, they did hear, or at least were plenty well aware of the other more popular music like The Beatles and Elvis. Hell, Seiji was the embodiment of the fascination with that brand of music culture, and, at least up until the BIG DAY, Seiji seemed to have more of the whole popularity thing going for him with his music. Also keep in mind that 1960s Japanese pop culture was not the same as American/European pop culture.... it was certainly more conservative at that time period when compared to '60s America/England. Thus, Jazz was probably a more recent cultural acquisition for the Japanese, and so it made sense that there'd be some unhidden respectful recognition of it on display in this era and thus in this show. And finally, try to give the show a little more credit.... while Jazz is certainly more of a focus than British or American pop, the show certainly had enough sense to NOT make it seem as if it was mega-popular sensation spreading through Japan as you seem to be construing. The only mass excitement about Jazz at the show was at the festival and, to a lesser extent, the little kids that didn't "know any better."
Considering the whole nostalgic vibe I'm getting from the show, and how it delicately explores or at least already touches on interesting (for me) issues in nuanced and pleasant (for me) ways in its alotted 12 episode runtime, I don't think this would be the show to shoehorn that issue into. (Besides, you can already conceivably see some homoerotic subtext if you're willing to peer into the show deep enough.  ) Not to mention, it'd be very odd and sudden to have a show deliberately explore homoerotic love in the '60s between two Japanese "ordinary" youths in a serious way when there are barely-if-any series (animated or otherwise, Japanese or otherwise) seriously exploring homoerotic relationships between youths in current society.
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varmintx
Posts: 1203 Location: Covington, KY |
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