Sword Art Online... WTF Happened?

[Ugicywapih]

I was thinking more along the lines of the old and respected shounen titles, like Hokuto no Ken or Dragonball Z.

You cannot be serious. Elfen Lied is to guro what... I dunno, what SAO is to actual swordsmanship. And it's by far too stupid and pretentious to be actually disturbing.

To each their own, shounens are often a gateway genre, but they play right into a whole bunch of stereotypes about anime, often ones, that keep people who don't watch it away. I've actually seen some oldschool shounens before I've started watching and it just didn't click for me - I got into anime with Bleach, admittedly (which is a shounen classic, but really not that old), though it ended up jumping the shark pretty early on and I've picked up other titles mostly out of curiosity - I think the first one I've actually enjoyed in its entirety was Black Lagoon or Cowboy Bebop (I've loved both, but I'm not sure which one I've seen first).

the anime that really got me into it was The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya

My condolences.

I find your lack of faith (in the Creator God, Haruhi Suzumiya) disturbing. *force choke*

Elfen Lied being a choice example and quite possibly the most violent and horrifying thing I've ever seen

You cannot be serious. Elfen Lied is to guro what... I dunno, what SAO is to actual swordsmanship. And it's by far too stupid and pretentious to be actually disturbing.

I'll agree Elfen Lied wasn't really much of a shocker, but I've kinda liked it myself, all things considered, not sure why you'd consider it stupid. Besides, after watching Rin: Daughters of Mnemosyne, I'd say guro can be disturbing despite being pretty damn stupid, you just need to dial shit up to eleven.

 

[Lightspeaker]

the anime that really got me into it was The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya

My condolences.

Don't be so damn patronising.

Elfen Lied being a choice example and quite possibly the most violent and horrifying thing I've ever seen

You cannot be serious. Elfen Lied is to guro what... I dunno, what SAO is to actual swordsmanship. And it's by far too stupid and pretentious to be actually disturbing.

Did you somehow miss the part where it fairly graphically showed a young girl being sexually abused by her step-father or something?

And that thing is rated 15.

 

[Fat Hippo]

the anime that really got me into it was The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya

My condolences.

Don't be so damn patronising.

Elfen Lied being a choice example and quite possibly the most violent and horrifying thing I've ever seen

You cannot be serious. Elfen Lied is to guro what... I dunno, what SAO is to actual swordsmanship. And it's by far too stupid and pretentious to be actually disturbing.

Did you somehow miss the part where it fairly graphically showed a young girl being sexually abused by her step-father or something?

And that thing is rated 15.

For me, it was just far too over the top and absurd to have much emotional impact. It starts off with fountains and blood and doesn't really have anywhere left to go from there. I mean aside from chopping off all the limbs of a kid, but at that point, who's counting how many limbs have been severed? The characters were all far too dumb and never very believable. In terms of its target audience, I'd say it was rather older teenagers (16 and up) who like violent anime, rather than primarily adults.

Of course, if you found it disturbing, that's perfectly legitimate. I mean, the things being shown ARE extremely fucked up, but I had become far too detached from what I was watching to be emotionally impacted, which is interesting, because I tend to be fairly squeamish about these things. I didn't see it until I was about 21, not sure how I would have reacted to it at 15.

At least the intro was great. So great that I though a better show was going to be followed by it. So great that they built it into the actual show itself. I almost felt like it was wasted on Elfen Lied.

 

[Elfgore]

Jesus Christ, every SAO thread... People! SAO is not objectively bad no matter how much you think it is. No one has ever elected you to decide what anime is objectively terrible. Your post reek of elitism. So how about we stop insulting people who have the audacity to like it? Mkay?

If you didn't like the first season, you will not like the second season. The first arc is weak as hell, the second is downright boring, and the last one is amazing. But five or six episodes can't save an entire season. Just watch Mother Rosario and call it a day.

 

[Lightspeaker]

I mean, the things being shown ARE extremely fucked up, but I had become far too detached from what I was watching to be emotionally impacted, which is interesting, because I tend to be fairly squeamish about these things. I didn't see it until I was about 21, not sure how I would have reacted to it at 15.

For me I'm the exact opposite. I've got a pretty strong stomach about most things which is helpful as a biologist who has spent most of the past few years working with people who operate on eyes. But Elfen Lied creeped me the hell out.

Not the violence itself necessarily, but the psychological stuff.

Jesus Christ, every SAO thread... People! SAO is not objectively bad no matter how much you think it is. No one has ever elected you to decide what anime is objectively terrible. Your post reek of elitism. So how about we stop insulting people who have the audacity to like it? Mkay?

I've got this rather amusing image in my head of someone coming in claiming to be the President of Anime and trying to argue that its objectively awful. X-D


Captcha: "complex number" I very, very nearly wrote a+bi for that one. My maths geekiness creeping out there.