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| A nice picture I can look at when I rifle through the posts since the rest are... |
I guess the initial shock was pretty big for this anime. A couple of days later, I think I'm ready to tackle this abomination. The general consensus amongst almost every blog is that [C] is amazing; I think this is the first time that my opinion vastly differs from the norm.
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| Exactly how I feel. |
To start things off, I think it is best to link here. It's a nice compilation post of why [C] is awesome, complete with quotes from other blogs so I don't need to link as much. I took the time to read every [C] post again to make sure that I've covered all the baseless fangirling of this anime's economic teaching.
Pro tip about that link: If symbolism and themes need to be explained, then chances are that either they weren't done very well or you're forcing connections that don't really exist. It feels like I'm reading a high schooler's bullshit essay about all the themes and symbols about XYZ novel, which they had to read for English class. I could further dissect this post, but I think that would be a bit... cruel.
So, the first episode in itself isn't absolutely horrid, but it is far from being the best thing to happen in anime, which many people make it out to be. I think I can finally sum up what I disliked about this anime (or, at least, what I've seen from this first episode). It's pretty much the same reason as why I hated Higurashi; it strayed from its main genre (though, to a lesser extent than Higurashi). To reiterate, Higurashi was sold as a mystery story, which is fine, until it became filled with plotholes and got a "shounen" ending. If it was shounen-esque to begin with, then I wouldn't have had such a problem with it. Something like Higurashi with plotholes is like a flying boat with holes; its intended purpose as a boat is to float not fly, which it fails at. I see this same problem forming for [C].
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| Am I the only one that noticed that the 10k he withdrew wasn't part of the borrowed money? The 90k increase was probably him getting paid... It is even mentioned that he was only lent half a million... |
It is pitched as a story about economics, but has little to do with economics, which is what really what makes me hate it. I mentioned in my first [C] post that the show only had three real things that had anything to do with economics:
1) An extension of supply/demand, which the professor explains.
2) Mikuni gave a simple explanation of how money changes your perspective (although this is not really economical; it's more philosophical).
3) This point is a bit less obvious, but they do dabble on the topic. The idea of being lent the 500 million today is worth more to you than the same 500 million in the future. He understands this in the sense that he could stop working part-time and make that money back once he graduates. (This is the basic idea of getting a post-secondary education: pay a bit now to get better returns later when you graduate.)
I can elaborate more on this third point, but I think it'll turn out to be too long since I would need to explain basics of economics. This is an underlying concept that isn't explained at all, so I can't really say that they're teaching it. It exists in everyday life (like many other economic concepts) that you may have been aware (or unaware) of, and just didn't know the term for it.
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| How do you grow an inch on your neck...? |
To be considered an anime about economics, it would need more about economics other than just a professor talking about it in the background (so far). Even Spice and Wolf had more economics in it, and most of the economics in that was pretty bad (though that's a totally different can of worms). Granted that it is only the first episode, but with such a "bold" description being cycled around, you would assume there would be more about economics in the first episode.
Here is the quote from SCAMP that seems to be cycling around about why [C] is so amazing:
I’ve seen some people complain of the apparent Yu-Gi-Oh approach, which rather baffles me. So what, you want the boring old economics lectures like in Spice and Wolf, where you sat through the economics because you were a good viewer who realised you had to pay attention to this stuff to get through to the Horo X Lawrence scenes later on? Or do you want economics explained via the medium of demon girls summoning monsters with your bank balance used as life points? Sounds like a no-brainer to me.
This would be fine if they actually talked about economics. To me, this is the equivalent of Yu-Gi-Oh, editing its description to:
Yugi is pulled into a world where losing a shadow game means your soul will be trapped in the shadow realm for an eternity. He is armed with an ancient mysterious Egyptian puzzle and is tasked to save his grandfather. Unlocking the deep secrets mysteries within the puzzle will give him the key to saving his grandfather and himself.
Though this does explain about certain points of the plot that are delved in later, it has little effect on what the first season of Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters is actually about. This is what I think about [C]'s description. This way of explaining economics would be amazing if they actually do it, which I strongly doubt they will.
Now, after a long first point (which was my main reason), the second point is nice and simple: animation. I think my pictures show this (I actually noticed it when I did screen caps for the first post), but I guess I don't really care about this point personally. I'd just like to point it out for all the people that say the animation is amazing...then again, some people might actually like this...
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| This is the first screen cap that I tried to take of this anime. |
Now, after a long first point (which was my main reason), the second point is nice and simple: animation. I think my pictures show this (I actually noticed it when I did screen caps for the first post), but I guess I don't really care about this point personally. I'd just like to point it out for all the people that say the animation is amazing...then again, some people might actually like this...
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| Nice quality. |
My third point is an extension of this entire [C]-craze to begin with. I think this show was probably the most hyped-up show for this season, so it had some big shoes to fill. I think, in this case, the hype worked well for it. The hype was so large that people had assumed it was good, regardless of what was shown. Being about economics played in its favour, too. It is like the "deep mysteries" of the complex world that people don't understand. When an anime is based in a "new" world, people will ultimately flock to it, praising its innovation (too bad it's just proxy battle and not actually about economics). If throwing around economics terms makes the show about economics, then it is much like me saying Prince of Tennis taught me how to play tennis professionally.
I noticed that most people have an animosity against moe/fanservice/harem anime. With a main character summoning a very scantily clad woman and with the main antagonist summoning a loli girl, it is hard to believe there won't be some degree of fanservice. Yet, none of the blogs seemed to mention this obvious fact after calling out many other anime this season as generic or contributing to the death of anime from excessive fanservice. This anime is overlooked on this aspect.
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A long rant later, I guess the main problem is that this anime will probably have nothing to do with economics, although it was pitched otherwise. The fangirling of this anime is based on hype and a lack of knowledge about what economics is, really. This lack of economics, added onto the lack of mention for an important aspect of the anime (proxy battles) in the description, leads me to believe that they are just trying to bait you along with delusions of economics when it is nothing more than the generic XYZ fanservice proxy battle anime. By no means would I say this first episode is bad; I just think everyone is coming at it like it is a Holy Grail when it clearly isn't.
inb4: Nothing about economics even happens and the battling girls rely on learning new attacks to win instead of ingenuity .
Side note: I took the time to intensively go through Spice and Wolf's episode summaries/recaps/posts and learned more about its
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| come at me bro |
~Pearz
