AnimeNfo

[Ken Hayashi (#52012)]

[Zhivago (#64731)]

[Thomas(akaTammo) (#57694)]

@Ken-san

LoL
Yet again we start from seemingly different corners ('disagreement') and we end up in perfect agreement... :-)

Sasuga Ken Hayashi! *bows*

@Zhivago:

Actually Akemi is one of the few characters I liked there.

[Zhivago (#64731)]

[2tao (#72979)]

Saikano is one of my favorite animes. I couldn't find the subs so I ended up downloading the dubbed version. It was great, even though it was dubbed. I loved the scene where

[charn (#40191)]

[Roy Mustang (#68169)]

I myself now finished this series, and I needed to post my feelings aswell.

I got moved on many parts in this anime, and I rated it really high, 8/10. Even if the animes animation looked some kind of strange, you get used to it. I myself on ep1 went like: "omg, this is strange". But later on you get to accept it.

I watched ep after ep, and suddenly, I where at ep13! The last ep in the series and yeah, I got scared. Scared you ask? Why did I get scared? There are many facts behind that, and the main where "what will happen? will they be allright? what about relatives? what about their life?!". Ehm, if you put some dramatical voice into those sentences you will understand how I felt..

Later on, after I watched it all out, I tought like: "what was that world, is he dead? why is it all white? what is that orb? how did it get suddenly so dark?". I mean, even if it was the real world, it went from white to sudden black.. Is'nt it strange? Maby litle to fast?

Right now I haven't watched the OVA, but I will tomorrow or later, and I will post about it aswell. While I am at it, do you know about more after the OVA? I guess not, but have to ask, since I see strange fotoge from www.saikano.net -> new chars?()

Btw when I rate anime, if it is drama I usually ask my self: "how did I react? where I moved by it?". Usually when I get moved I feel like the anime did it's work, and then I rate it out of how much it moved me. If it is a comedy, I see on how much I laughted. I am a simple man, maby not the writer type, so I can't allways "show" you how I feel by typing it.. and unfortunatly everyone sees me as a "anime nerd" back here at home, and that hurts sometimes since I can't share my feeling with my friends so I need to use the board here. (When the OVA posting time comes I will use this board, hope you do the same to! Keep the boards clean and structured people!)

Gosh how long I made this post, hehe. I am not used to type this much late night time, but please answer my tiny Q if you guys have time. Thanks!

Aww... I can't wait for the OVA. There are like 2 WHOLE episodes with information!!!

[Thomas(akaTammo) (#57694)]

IMO the ending goes like this:

[Roy Mustang (#68169)]

You got some points Thom. But I can't still say that it was not good, it affected me as the authors wanted it to affect most people.. yeah I know I am a weak soul person, and it sometimes sucks aswell..

[charn (#40191)]

[Roy Mustang (#68169)]

Yeah, you got many points actually. Damn charn, you made me feel dumb.. Next time I want to review I need to learn more about reviewing it self, hehe.. Don't got that much experience.

[cranston (#84421)]

Well, I feel the best thing about Saikano is... the ED
Sad, really. The most emotional part about the whole series is the ED. Oh yeah, I also loved the instrumental BGM pieces using the ED theme. Sayonara (electric guitar), Sayonara (music box), Sayonara (violin). And I usually hate the electric guitar.

@charn
I can't remember her name as well and I agree what she did wasn't sensible. However, it could be that she had a deathwish cum lust for revenge. That's why she joined the hunt for the downed pilot. I didn't find that part funny. I was apathetic to her fate.

One part I did find funny was when this soldier was playing around with what's-his-name-who-likes-Akemi's (and I only watched this 2 days ago) helmet got fragged by a mortar, had time to return the helmet, say I'm sorry, before he died. Funny is the wrong word. Ludicrous.

Something else which is ludicrous. That walking chibi toy factory. Where she get the raw materials to make all those bombs and missiles and stuff anyway? If Japan had the techno to make weapons out of thin air, I don't see how they could lose.

As for the lack of training, by all accounts, Russian conscripts fought against the Germans without arms, much less training. They were expected to pick up their weapons from fallen comrades while rushing across the battlefield. I imagine that the same thing also happened to the Germans towards the end, when they were losing. So, given that Japan was clearly losing the war, I don't see why this is so hard to accept.

Backstory was clearly full of holes. Usually, you have to accept some crazy things in an anime but this one? There are so many unanswered questions regarding the general background. Like why they're fighting, who against, stuff like that. Why did they have to choose a little high school girl to be the ultimate weapon? Is it because you need a body that is still growing? How come the parents don't know? You'd think they would notice if she's been in surgery for a few days. Or maybe they used some kind of parasitic organism that can grow the metal parts out of thin air like the missiles.

As for the main characters, they're both immature adolescents and act like it. By Cadd, I hate Shuji.

[Thomas(akaTammo) (#57694)]

@Charn

[charn (#40191)]

[Thomas(akaTammo) (#57694)]

War is more interesting than romance in Saikano.

[xenn (#47866)]

[Thomas(akaTammo) (#57694)]

What I meant is that I was more interested in war in Saikano, than in the romance story. I wanted explanations on who's doing the fighting, how's it going etc. instead of what Chise's gonna do now, when Shuji has done this.

About war being ludicrous in Saikano - yeah, pretty much, still not so ridiculous as Special Forces in Elfen Lied. :-)

[Generic Individual (#60263)]

Actually... I kinda liked the way the show didn't go into any particular details about the war. I thought it helped give the show - from the perspective of the kids at the heart of it all - that sense that the 'whys', the 'wherefores' and the politics were totally above and beyond them and - ultimatley - unimportant.

All that matters was surviving the situation they were in.

Having said that - after a quick flick through this thread - I agree with pretty much every other thing you've said against this dodgily animated, emotionally simplistic farce of a tragedy.

A pox on it. Except the themetune.

[Roy Mustang (#68169)]

xenn, you got some points yeah. true true.

[nauXolo (#69311)]

Well, at the end I was truly horribly depressed. I thought... if it was able to make me so depressed, damn, its worth watching. However, I think it is probably because i was really engrossed by the whole peaceful happiness scene because it was just so sweet and Shu actually was alright, and Chise reminded me of this sick loved one I knew who was trying hard to live....

So I am kind of not sure what I think about this... I never really thought about the "reality issues" you guys pointed out. I was too wrapped up in the whole sick girl fighting to stay alive. When i saw all those metal parts I was like omg wtf !!!!! and the ending, i seriously just felt like Shu for a whole 10 minutes.

Anyway, after watching Another Love Story , the OVA, I thought that Saikano was a piece of crap. It reminded me that the first beginning love stories with Chise and Shu are reallyboring because its all quiet and stuff and nothing interesting happens. All the other death and sob stories didn't really impact me.

Anyway, I once thought this was an okay anime until i saw naother love story and thought once again about the beginning 9-10 episodes....

I did'nt get the ending. Aliens attacked at the end??? What were those things in the air lol that came down??

[cranston (#84421)]

[cranston (#84421)]

So, I was watching the last episode and here's my take on what happened. This post is full of major spoilers, folks. If you don't want to read this, stay out of this thread completely.

1. Robot Chise
When I first saw her and heard her speak, I was wondering to myself if they erased her memory? When her arm fell off I realised that she was no longer human and completely mechanical. Side note: Isn't there something really wrong with the idea of having carnal relations with a machine? Let's not think about that, huh...

2. Bombs from the sky
When Shuji started removing her clothes, anyone recall the bombs falling from the sky? This is opposed to the previous episodes where she launches missiles from her body or drops ordnance from her body. What conclusion can be drawn from this? That there is some kind of auxiliary weapons platform in the sky.

3. Spikes poking down from the cloud cover
When I first saw them I really didn't know what the heck those things were. I've read insane speculation about aliens in this thread but I decided to wait and see.

4. Missile hits on spike
When the enemy fighters attacked one of these spikes, Chise flinched in pain. Ah-hah! It's all clear to me now! Those things are a part of Chise. Therefore, there is one humongous structure over the entire town which IS Chise. I've already concluded that the little girl I see before me on the screen is NOT human. Therefore, she is merely an avatar of the Chise conciousness which has been merged with that thing up in the sky! I wonder what resources were needed to make that thing? Oh wait! Chise makes weapons out of thin air! She doesn't need resources! Illogical? Just accept it.

5. White out
Everything is covered in white dust. The world has ended? Maybe. How? Dunno. Nuclear winter would make everything dark, not white. All the water in the ocean's gone? They can't just dry up like that. A crack in the mantle and all the water's rushing down to extinguish the core? Maybe but it still don't explain the white dust and the absence of the sun. Where'd the sun go? How come there's still light?

6. Black out
Now it's blacking out. Only bit of colour is the Chise conciousness thing. Okay, I don't accept Chise being able to manifest a ghostly presence. So I can't really come up with an explanation for this. Maybe Shuji IS dead and this is some kinda weird afterlife.

7. Past memories brought to the present
All of a sudden, Shuji could see Chise and their town and all that other stuff. And he began to live in that world, to the extent that the imaginary Chise was solid enough to touch. Ah-hah! Conclusion: Either he's dead and this is some kinda weird afterlife; Or, he's still alive, taken up into the Chise structure, plugged into a cryo-pod or something and is dreaming until aliens find him. Maybe he'll never wake up.

So, what do you folks think about all the wild speculations and asinine conclusions I've drawn?

@charn
During the peaceful period, she was surviving on the pills. There wasn't any contradiction with the need to battle which only became a priority after the pills ran out.

[charn (#40191)]

I think you are right. It's an imaginary world because the town was wiped out by the tsunami and also the war. Chise transformed into a giant machine or something and blocked Shuji from these disasters. So everyone died except him. The sad thing, however, is that Shuji will also die soon because there is no food to eat and no place to sleep. But Shuji and Chise can communicate to each other because Chise became part of him. Shuji could feel Chise, as you can see that he was snapping Chise's imaginary head and said "A-ho !" (dumbass !)

[Arilou (#34809)]

[nauXolo (#69311)]

[Thomas(akaTammo) (#57694)]

IIRC, it went kinda different. Chise's town was the last town remaining, and enemy decided to strike there, because enemy had no place to return to. So they striked there, and that's how it went.

Anyway, here are my conclusions on Saikano, since Cranston so nicely pulled out his own:

1) Chise being turned to a weapon without even her family's knowledge convinced me that I should not look for social realism within this one

2) Chise fabricating weapons out of thin air, was just what I needed to know that technical stuff is only fiction, without science

3) sole fact that Japan which just got engaged in war, needs Chise to defend against enemy ordinary attack force, convinced me that plot devices roam unchecked (at that point Japan having her air forces reduced so greatly that Chise is their only option is simply unbelievable)

So, as You see, it took me only one episode to realize that either they will try to show us love during war, or portray a war and show us "I don't want to kill" attitude. The idea made me tremble with fear, because ever since Gantz the attitude "I don't want to kill" as Japanese see it grates on my nerves. In the end creators decided on a bit from both.

Problem is they never made it that much engrossing for me so that I could totally disregard idiocies that were constantly in the show's background.

@Cranston, Xenn

I take Xenn's side in this one, Cranston. Carpet bombing as a mean of demoralization sounds fine. BUT! Why not nuke if to demoralize? Why not chemical weapons?

SAM's being taken care of earlier... naah. That would be noticeable. It's the first time people there see the enemy planes. First time. They never were attacked earlier, it's stated by one of Shuji's pals.

@Cranston, Charn

This time I take Cranston's side Charn. Sorry, but that girl who's boyfriend was one of the first victim of the war was one of the very few interesting characters in all Saikano. She was the only one that acted in a normal way, and who's doings were convincing. She lost her boyfriend, and when she grieved it was all right, but later she wanted to live, not to grieve, and when she did she did not want to be constantly watched by others, and ostracized. When she found herself another boyfriend people looked at it askance, didn't they?

And as for why the deathwish:
guilt for not treating her first boyfriend right
guilt for dating another one, because part of her also felt she should keep hisfaith, after all he was dead
anguish
pain
the constant fell of being judged by others for simple wanting to live
revenge - if not the enemy that wouldn't have happened, she would have her boyfriend and none of it would happen

Those are reason enough to decide to go and kill a human. As You can see, she had troubles doing it anyway.

@Cranston

As for Your conclusions - very fine examples You gave us. :-)

I liked them. All, from point 1, to point 7.

They make sense, and they summ up with what I saw back then.

I can also give my own hypothesis. Shuji is dying, because Chise tried to kept him alive but she NEARLY succeeded. And when he is dying, Chise talks to him, which in agony is twisted by his mind and thus the visions. Those all visions are visions from his memories and imagination.

Another option: he's unconsciouss and Chise words to him are making him dream. It's a common effect, that our mind uses what we hear or smell to enhance our dreams. He hears Chise, and dreams all this up.

[cranston (#84421)]

[Saikano (#92316)]

Hi, I love Saikano its the first anime that made me cry

About the end..
I was thinking at episode 13 al the time that there will somthing happend that there will be an happy end like Chise will be normaal and the war schould stop to bad it didn't happend that way

Dont you pll never wonder what that is??




I think that Saikano ended with not showing as some parts.
And i think thats a spaceship (like the way Saikano manga versie ended)
Before the tsunamie hitted Shuji, Chise moved one of those things in front of Shuji and took him into the space ship (Thats why it was alle white and later alle black)
If you dont believe me look at this sreenshot.

http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/2508/saikano01222223e8bp.jpg

http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/7392/225ub.jpg

http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/7385/339fl.jpg (Poor Chise i hate to see this screenshot )


Read manga or play the game and you will see the true behind the end....

Lol we need Saikano Another love song 3

[Ken Hayashi (#52012)]

Franc, I'm answer your question here.

I didn't like Saikano as much as I had thought/hoped I would.

To me, Saikano was over-hyped. It's nothing more than a rather well-made tear-jerker. Sure, I felt a little for Chise and Akemi too, but Shuji was rather irritating. I hardly felt a connection to any of ythe characters, apart from Chise (a little) and Akemi (a little more, and she's but a secondary character).

The character interaction between Chise and Shuji made their relationship look rather pedophilic, being that Shuji looked much older than he was while Chise looked kinda loli.

I believe if you looked through this thread, you'll come across some of my earlier posts on Saikano.

To come to the series' defence, I have to say that, judged objectively, it's not such a bad production. The music is nice, quality is quite alright. The story too, is quite well done. But it didn't live up to the hype surrounding it. Everyone was going "Oh, this is great. This is wonderful." I fail to see why.

[Franc (#97677)]

I just finished reading this whole thread.

We can look at all the flaws we see in this anime AS a anime, but i agree with those of you who said that the idea of the anime was to show Pain, suffering, and love.

The diffrent aspects that would probably present themselves when Mixed with war individually. With hindsight, war in mass could and will lead to the end of this world. All it takes are a couple of nukes, and all the people who have loved ones that are in war will vanish...

[Franc (#97677)]

I just finished reading this whole thread.

We can look at all the flaws we see in this anime AS a anime, but i agree with those of you who said that the idea of the anime was to show Pain, suffering, and love.

The diffrent aspects that would probably present themselves when Mixed with war individually. With hindsight, war in mass could and will lead to the end of this world. All it takes are a couple of nukes, and all the people who have loved ones that are in war will vanish...

[dIzz0 (#66102)]

I really cant write more, since I am at work but now I recalled something,

I just remebered when Shuuji hangs over Akemi and shedz a tear, And she says she love him, reall sad moment,
but the most depressing was when she said she couldnt see, I am a man, but damn I really cried, almost doing it now while Im writing.

[cranston (#84421)]

[Ken Hayashi (#52012)]

[SupraGuy (#92823)]

Just watched this, so I suppose that I have some thoughts.

1. Overthinking the premise of ANY work of fiction is a certain gateway to disliking it. As such the choice of Chise as a platform to buil an "ultimate weapon" is something that I chose to accept. (Before reading this I had posted ideas about it in the "ridiculous ideas" thread.) It's simply not feasable/logical for her to be picked for this role. I chose to accept that there were unexplained reasons why it had to be her, and got on with watching.

2. The story is a narrative from the viewpoint of a couple of high school kids, really. They probably DON'T know the details of the war.

3. Regarding the lack of training for the military, that's pretty common -- for the losing side -- in a drawn out war. The Japanese in particular were throwing pilots into planes towards the end of WWII with little more than a few hours of groundschool. Soldiers were put on the front lines with a rifle and a pamphlet on its use. I saw that as a sign of a desparate losing battle, not a slip on the part of the storytellers. A bit of artistic license is also permissable, IMO.

4. Of course I felt sorry for Akeme. I liked Akeme more than Chise as well. This also has to do with my current state of mind about girls with "issues" as well. Strangely the fact that I didn't really LIKE either of the main characters didn't change my interest in the story. I still wanted them to be happy with each other, I guess. It's also easier to identify with Akeme's plight than Chise's. I think we've all loved someone and not told them, but very few of us (I hope) have been turned into ultimate weapons.

5. I totally agree that the character design was poor. In the beginning parts, both Shuji going to the observation point, and when they were on the hill, I took the blushes to be excertion. Then they didn't go away. At all. I agree that Shuji didn't look like a high schooler much either, but perhaps Hollywood casting 20 somethings as teenagers has dulled me to that. Maybe that was supposed to reflect how everyone is starving? Dunno, but that part I didn't like.

6. Girl vs. Pilot. I didn't get the feeling that the military had anything to do with her going to look. She had her mental episode, got a gun and went on a revenge spree. She thoguht that she had a chance to get some revenge and took it. She didn't know anything about guns, but she knew that it could be used to kill. She killed the enemy and got killed in return. I think in her case, that was pretty much what she wanted.

Overall, the writing critic in me says the story is well done. It starts from an improbable situation, but the characterisations are consistent, and in the end we get a story about the end of the world from the point of view of tragic lovers who were there to see it.

[KuroTsuki (#119449)]

tell u the truth, it was sad and all, but yes, it does miss something. the ending was not very good. a random idea in my perspective.

[cranston (#84421)]

[AO (#120184)]

[Xhilaraxion (#127184)]

[Last Exile (#35342)]

Listen people.

Take my advice and read the manga. It is equally as funny and sexy as it is touching and tragic. The anime was an emofest. The manga is the true version.

If you want the real Saikano, read the manga.

[Jip (#123474)]

I just finished this one, the ending was very strange imo, strange but good.
Only mistake i made, was when i watched all the episodes in a row

Once i felt really sad, it was when

[Last Exile (#35342)]

The power of Saikano is that you know from the very beginning there won't be a happy ending, that salvation won't come. Yet somehow, the two and their love endure, particularly in the manga version. While its cold yet plausible outcome is chilling, the fact that they do end up together is somewhat heartwarming. I think that is a good counter and was something quite touching to draw from the series.

[Unkind (#136213)]

Some of the saddest stuff i have ever seen, started extremely slow but was well worth it. I can't really say much about it except that it's something you don't watch then forget. It has a good message, represented in like the saddest way possible.