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Before I even get started on this,...
I am one of those people that for the life of me cannot decide witch category an anime belongs to. This is evidenced by my repeated postings in the wrong forums. To avoid doing it again, I have decided to create this thread in the general manga discussion forum and hope that a Mod or Admin moves it if need be. Actually I do not even know if there is a manga for this show, as I have so far only encountered the anime. So if there is a shojo Anime section on this board I guess that is where this thread belongs.
Anyway Some time ago, I read a very short description of this anime over at fansub.tv I saw that the artwork looked fairly decent and I thought to myself ok this sounds rather weird so why don't I download the first ep and see if it can catch my interest.
This has over the last half year become my standard operating procedure; I read a description, if I find that I am in the mood for the kind of stuff I download the first episode and if I am not impressed I delete it and never look back again. At least that is how it is supposed to work in theory. With Simoun it was decidedly different.
Confused yet? well this is a rant after all so I am not working too hard to organize my thoughts. But just to help you out a little I will see if I can find the synopsis that started this whole thing. By the way if you are planing to watch this show and you absolutely do not want to be spoiled maybe you should not read this because I plan to go over a bunch of plot elements and characters, just thought you might like to know.
anyway, I found it:
I see that quite a few people have at least looked into this thread, but there have been no replies in almost half a year (maybe more, I don't remember when I originally posted this). could it be that my writing style is that bad that I scared away everyone before they even finished to read it? or is there just nothing to say about my thoughts? I did not think that this would be a popular thread per say, but I thought at least one or two would comment in this amount of time.
I am one of those people that for the life of me cannot decide witch category an anime belongs to. This is evidenced by my repeated postings in the wrong forums. To avoid doing it again, I have decided to create this thread in the general manga discussion forum and hope that a Mod or Admin moves it if need be. Actually I do not even know if there is a manga for this show, as I have so far only encountered the anime. So if there is a shojo Anime section on this board I guess that is where this thread belongs.
Anyway Some time ago, I read a very short description of this anime over at fansub.tv I saw that the artwork looked fairly decent and I thought to myself ok this sounds rather weird so why don't I download the first ep and see if it can catch my interest.
This has over the last half year become my standard operating procedure; I read a description, if I find that I am in the mood for the kind of stuff I download the first episode and if I am not impressed I delete it and never look back again. At least that is how it is supposed to work in theory. With Simoun it was decidedly different.
Confused yet? well this is a rant after all so I am not working too hard to organize my thoughts. But just to help you out a little I will see if I can find the synopsis that started this whole thing. By the way if you are planing to watch this show and you absolutely do not want to be spoiled maybe you should not read this because I plan to go over a bunch of plot elements and characters, just thought you might like to know.
anyway, I found it:
Warning, what follows is a very disoriented rant written in the heat of the moment. the writing is full of strong biases and misinterpretations based on shocking first impressions. Reading this post might give you the wrong ideas about this anime which, now that I have seen more of it, is actually a very well thought out captivating and artistic experience. of course it is also a little unsettling. If this does not scare you away then go ahead and click the spoiler tag. This is your last warning though, I can get rather long winded.
...Yes that was all they had for a description. I did not truncate this text in any way don't believe me? Go over to the website and check it out yourself http://anime.fansub.tv/series.php/797/Simoun/ can you really blame me for getting curious? I am not sure what i was expecting but i felt like trying something a bit more weird and unusual.
Well I sure got unusual, so much so that I only dare watch the episodes I download at night when I am sure no one is looking over my shoulders. I still get this queezy feeling when I am watching. Anyway let me tell you about my first impressions.
The first thing I noticed is that there is a lot of hand drawn scenery in this anime which gives it a rather refreshing feel, Just as I suspected from seeing a few screen shots The artwork is very "clean" especially when the focus is on our protagonists. A lot of white with touches of gold against a backdrop of the bluest skies gives you the feeling there is a slight association with heaven or angels even before the actual story begins. The opening song is a decently catchy tune, and though I did not notice it when I watched the first ep it has many very subtle cues, harmonies and well implemented instrumentation that should earn it respect in the eyes of any true music lover (like myself).
Moving on, after the opening song finished it did not take five minuted and I started to feel like this anime was not going to cut it for me. Sure I wanted something wierd but what I say was what looked like a lot of emotional yuri situations with a little "fighting" thrown in every now and then for a change. This "fighting" by the way consisted of the girls getting into their flying thingamagigies which they call Simouns and flying weird formations through the sky while drawing a line of sparkly blue light behind themselves. This light trace, which they call a "ri-majon" or "remergion" (depending on the translator), then proceeds to explode and destroy practically any enemy that happens to be unlucky enough to be on screen. Now add to this the fact that the few "male" characters in the show all sounded distinctly female half of them locked the part too. I started to think that I got myself into watching some messed up yuri-loli-trany-****** without the ****** component. I was not sure what to think about this and I went ahead and deleted the file after I finished watching the episode.
But you know the saying: Curiosity killed the cat! it seemed that something did manage to catch my interest. As usual it was something about the lead character, or maybe it was the idea that i would have to amass a small library's worth of a new vocabulary just to understand what they are all speaking about in this anmie, I don,t know but eventually I went back and downloaded the next episode and started to watch the show.
Now why did I even say all these things? What is my point? I don't know! I just felt like I needed to start telling people what I thought about this show, I needed an outlet, so to speak.
Back on topic, I slowly started to get acquainted with the protagonists of the show, the girls or "simula" or "sibila" of "Call Tempest" or maybe it could be "Choir Tempest" (refer to the synopsis if you are confused) you never know. This took a me quite a while since right in the first half of the first episode three of the simula die during a "routine mission" where they just happen to encounter the full assault force of the enemy. then three more of them decide to leave. So over the course of the next five or so episodes New members keep transferring into call tempest until they are once again at full strength; 12 simula, 6 simoun. As each of the new members are introduced it turns out that al of them have some sort of problem, or have an obsession with Nevirille, one of the main characters in the show. You see Nevirille lost her pair in the first episode when they attempted to preform a complicated remergion and failed catastrophically. Since then she has gone essentially brain dead (maybe i am being to harsh here) and pretty much isolated herself from everyone. Like i said before it seems like every newcomer to the call wants to be paired with her the notable exceptions being Limone (a cute-as-a-button prodigy who is probably the youngest simula ever, and is constantly eating for the first few episodes.) and Dominura who deserves a paragraph to herself.
Simula Dominura brings a whole new level of messed up to the show in the form of creepy. For starters She is drawn and colored to look evil. For one thing ass opposed to all the other "good guys" so far she is drawn with a lot of dark and matte colors also she constantly has this look in her eyes that remind you of some witch you are sure you saw sometime around Halloween's. One look at her and I was sure: "This one will turn out to be evil" Further more, all the most of the simula looked like they could be under 15 years of age with one (Paraeitto or Paraeid) looking about 17-20. Dominura on the other hand could easily be anywhere between 24-35 and when you take into consideration that her hair is colored the same as the uniforms of the "bad guys" and that the "bad guys" always look like adults, It really gets you thinking. So much for the evil theory, next is the disturbing fact where she suddenly decides that Limone will be her pair. You would not think to much of this until you hear that these "pairs" start the"engines" of their Simoun by making out with each other and then kissing a spherical enclosure which they call the "Gem". To me something just seemed very creepy and wrong about a 30 year old deciding that she will pair up with what cold be a 8-10 year old in this fashion .
So by now I am convinced she was sent from the devil. Anyway as the story continues Dominura ends up saving call tempest from being permanently disbanded. And just when I begin to think that she might have a good side to her it turns out that she arranged for Call tempest to be transfered to a small and rusty suspicious looking ship. where she is essentially in command. She goes on to make seemingly unreasonable, harsh and downright evil command decisions, up to the point where I found myself wishing that she would fall of a railing and plummet to her death. And then, coming entirely out of left field, she suffers a mental breakdown and begins to show a human side. Then within the time of three episodes she rehabilitates and turns into what looks like a good guy. ...
I kinda have to stop there because that is as far as I have seen. Anyway, I was trying to convey what a confusing character Dominura is (and it seems I failed miserably) I find it infinitely annoying and yet somewhat exciting that i cannot decide if I like her or hate her. One thing is for sure She is one reason why I keep on watching the show and I would not have thought I would ever say this.
I guess I ran out of steam just about now, I don't know why I thought it was necessary to post a long summary of the show as a rant, so don't even ask me. All I was doing was letting out what i had inside of me, it does not even matter if no one reads this. I just felt that I Need to shear my thoughts with someone somewhere. And since I can be a very bashful person I decided to do it in a medium where i can stay entirely anonymous. So here is my rant. Let me know what you think.
If you even read this whole thing, you deserve a prize of some sort, like a plaque or a medal or something.
Well I sure got unusual, so much so that I only dare watch the episodes I download at night when I am sure no one is looking over my shoulders. I still get this queezy feeling when I am watching. Anyway let me tell you about my first impressions.
The first thing I noticed is that there is a lot of hand drawn scenery in this anime which gives it a rather refreshing feel, Just as I suspected from seeing a few screen shots The artwork is very "clean" especially when the focus is on our protagonists. A lot of white with touches of gold against a backdrop of the bluest skies gives you the feeling there is a slight association with heaven or angels even before the actual story begins. The opening song is a decently catchy tune, and though I did not notice it when I watched the first ep it has many very subtle cues, harmonies and well implemented instrumentation that should earn it respect in the eyes of any true music lover (like myself).
Moving on, after the opening song finished it did not take five minuted and I started to feel like this anime was not going to cut it for me. Sure I wanted something wierd but what I say was what looked like a lot of emotional yuri situations with a little "fighting" thrown in every now and then for a change. This "fighting" by the way consisted of the girls getting into their flying thingamagigies which they call Simouns and flying weird formations through the sky while drawing a line of sparkly blue light behind themselves. This light trace, which they call a "ri-majon" or "remergion" (depending on the translator), then proceeds to explode and destroy practically any enemy that happens to be unlucky enough to be on screen. Now add to this the fact that the few "male" characters in the show all sounded distinctly female half of them locked the part too. I started to think that I got myself into watching some messed up yuri-loli-trany-****** without the ****** component. I was not sure what to think about this and I went ahead and deleted the file after I finished watching the episode.
But you know the saying: Curiosity killed the cat! it seemed that something did manage to catch my interest. As usual it was something about the lead character, or maybe it was the idea that i would have to amass a small library's worth of a new vocabulary just to understand what they are all speaking about in this anmie, I don,t know but eventually I went back and downloaded the next episode and started to watch the show.
Now why did I even say all these things? What is my point? I don't know! I just felt like I needed to start telling people what I thought about this show, I needed an outlet, so to speak.
Back on topic, I slowly started to get acquainted with the protagonists of the show, the girls or "simula" or "sibila" of "Call Tempest" or maybe it could be "Choir Tempest" (refer to the synopsis if you are confused) you never know. This took a me quite a while since right in the first half of the first episode three of the simula die during a "routine mission" where they just happen to encounter the full assault force of the enemy. then three more of them decide to leave. So over the course of the next five or so episodes New members keep transferring into call tempest until they are once again at full strength; 12 simula, 6 simoun. As each of the new members are introduced it turns out that al of them have some sort of problem, or have an obsession with Nevirille, one of the main characters in the show. You see Nevirille lost her pair in the first episode when they attempted to preform a complicated remergion and failed catastrophically. Since then she has gone essentially brain dead (maybe i am being to harsh here) and pretty much isolated herself from everyone. Like i said before it seems like every newcomer to the call wants to be paired with her the notable exceptions being Limone (a cute-as-a-button prodigy who is probably the youngest simula ever, and is constantly eating for the first few episodes.) and Dominura who deserves a paragraph to herself.
Simula Dominura brings a whole new level of messed up to the show in the form of creepy. For starters She is drawn and colored to look evil. For one thing ass opposed to all the other "good guys" so far she is drawn with a lot of dark and matte colors also she constantly has this look in her eyes that remind you of some witch you are sure you saw sometime around Halloween's. One look at her and I was sure: "This one will turn out to be evil" Further more, all the most of the simula looked like they could be under 15 years of age with one (Paraeitto or Paraeid) looking about 17-20. Dominura on the other hand could easily be anywhere between 24-35 and when you take into consideration that her hair is colored the same as the uniforms of the "bad guys" and that the "bad guys" always look like adults, It really gets you thinking. So much for the evil theory, next is the disturbing fact where she suddenly decides that Limone will be her pair. You would not think to much of this until you hear that these "pairs" start the"engines" of their Simoun by making out with each other and then kissing a spherical enclosure which they call the "Gem". To me something just seemed very creepy and wrong about a 30 year old deciding that she will pair up with what cold be a 8-10 year old in this fashion .
So by now I am convinced she was sent from the devil. Anyway as the story continues Dominura ends up saving call tempest from being permanently disbanded. And just when I begin to think that she might have a good side to her it turns out that she arranged for Call tempest to be transfered to a small and rusty suspicious looking ship. where she is essentially in command. She goes on to make seemingly unreasonable, harsh and downright evil command decisions, up to the point where I found myself wishing that she would fall of a railing and plummet to her death. And then, coming entirely out of left field, she suffers a mental breakdown and begins to show a human side. Then within the time of three episodes she rehabilitates and turns into what looks like a good guy. ...
I kinda have to stop there because that is as far as I have seen. Anyway, I was trying to convey what a confusing character Dominura is (and it seems I failed miserably) I find it infinitely annoying and yet somewhat exciting that i cannot decide if I like her or hate her. One thing is for sure She is one reason why I keep on watching the show and I would not have thought I would ever say this.
I guess I ran out of steam just about now, I don't know why I thought it was necessary to post a long summary of the show as a rant, so don't even ask me. All I was doing was letting out what i had inside of me, it does not even matter if no one reads this. I just felt that I Need to shear my thoughts with someone somewhere. And since I can be a very bashful person I decided to do it in a medium where i can stay entirely anonymous. So here is my rant. Let me know what you think.
If you even read this whole thing, you deserve a prize of some sort, like a plaque or a medal or something.
I see that quite a few people have at least looked into this thread, but there have been no replies in almost half a year (maybe more, I don't remember when I originally posted this). could it be that my writing style is that bad that I scared away everyone before they even finished to read it? or is there just nothing to say about my thoughts? I did not think that this would be a popular thread per say, but I thought at least one or two would comment in this amount of time.
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