Opinion goes here
Jul. 21st, 2009 10:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
soc_puppetSo I finished watching Princess Tutu today! (Finally 9_9a) My responses are as follows.
The short version: It was great! I liked it! Except it also bummed me out, which meant I had to run away from talking about it for a few hours and get my brain back ^^a
The version that has more details:
These here are some opinions:
I like magical girl stories. I love fairy tales, especially alternate interpretations of them. Ballet... Okay, I have a few issues with ballet, but they're more social/psychological than aesthetic or story-related.
These things considered, it almost seems like Princess Tutu was made for me; that I should have loved it. And I did! I was really quite fond of it.
I just. Rather prefer more blatantly happy endings.
Was it a bad ending? No. Was it a bad story/anime? Certainly not! It just... didn't do as much for me as I would have liked.
I'm not entirely sure what it was, but probably the thing that got to me the most was the Ahiru-stays-a-duck-forever-at-the-end part. And probably also Mytho-and-Rue-flying-off-forever, and the-town-goes-back-to-normal and stuff.
Augh, I'm not explaining this very well. The thing is, I like a little magic in my life. And while the ending definitely did fix the 'broken' story, it also removed central figures from Ahiru and Fakir's lives - one of whom they'd all but come to identify themselves by.
And while I could write fanfics that "fix" my own problems with it (have, in fact, written out a tiny OT4-ish script in my head where Rue, Fakir, and Mytho arrange for Ahiru to be able to be a human girl again), I really don't want to hand-wave every time I write a post-series fic, nor do I particularly want to write/read any 'floating timeline' fics.
I don't know what it is! I want to like it more than I do, I just. Don't.
Some more character-specific reactions:
...Okay, I don't have a lot of these. Or rather, they aren't too comprehensive? Bah, something.
Rue I got to sympathize with a lot more towards the end of the second half of the series. I'd rather liked her from the start - and gotten more than a few shippy vibes for her and Ahiru, though I suspect I'm rather lonesome on my f'list/circle for that :P.
Mytho I liked better once he actually started getting a personality XD I did keep wondering if they would find a way to leach the "poison" from his heart, or if they hoped the other pieces would just dilute it enough. Got my answer by the end. ...Can't say I cared for "evil"/dark Mytho in the slightest, though :|
Fakir I basically couldn't stand for the first half of the series. I was warming up to him a bit by the start of the second, and finally got won 'round by the end. I do feel cheated that he never got to have a non-tragic identity, though.
Ahiru, well, how could I not love her? Though again, it bothered me that she was set up to be tragic the entire time. I suppose it goes back to the theme that watchers were beat 'round the head with: Those who accept fate receive happiness; those who defy fate receive glory. And while I respect and admire Ahiru for the choices she made, even the ones she didn't want to make, I still think it sucks to end up with nothing but crumbs.
Edel-san (whose name I could well be misspelling, but am too lazy to look up at the moment) I was quite fond of. I liked her as a plot device, and I liked how she began to develop her own sorta-feelings as the story progressed. It speaks of a common theme in writing: how characters you never expected can begin to take on a life of their own.
Uzura, on the other hand... Well, my main thought was, "Is this how people whose primary exposure to Chibi-Usa was the anime [rather than the manga] feel?" She drove me up a wall. But, I suppose I was happy a little bit of Edel-san got to, er, live on.
Pike and Lilie were... okay, look. The pink-head I was fine with. The blonde? Yeeeeaaaah, no. The schadenfreude-with-a-smile attitude was more than a little grating on her. I reeeally don't think I'd ever want a friend like that. The pink-head, well, she could've listened to Ahiru better - much better - but at least she didn't constantly want to see her fail.
Drosselmeyer (and another spelling disclaimer here), uh. Well, the schadenfreude worked better on him, for one thing. I think it's probably again a from-an-author-standpoint kind of thing. You put your characters through hell so you can tell a story. Probably the only thing that really grated me about him was that little meta bit at the end. Otherwise, while he's not someone I'd want to invite over for lunch, he works in context.
Autor and the book guys came in about the time I was starting to find the drama a little much, which really didn't endear them to me. Autor gets points for actually having feelings somewhere in there, but he's still a douche. The book guys... I can't help but worry about all the stories whose endings they have removed. Are they stuck in limbo forever? I sympathize with their need to protect their world and the people they loved, but I don't like that they felt they had to punish people who were part of stories to do so. That's just exclusionary, which is bad form in any world, IMO.
Final thoughts: While I liked it fine, I'm pretty sure this could be one of those stories I like better with multiple viewings. And if I ever get over the way the last two episodes made me want to cry my eyes out (makes for very difficult subtitle reading, BTW), I may do that. It'll just. Probably take a while.
Next up: Video games and/or Madlax (and/or Fruits Basket).
---
In other news, uh. There's a potential new treatment for trichotillomania in the works?
The short version: It was great! I liked it! Except it also bummed me out, which meant I had to run away from talking about it for a few hours and get my brain back ^^a
The version that has more details:
These here are some opinions:
I like magical girl stories. I love fairy tales, especially alternate interpretations of them. Ballet... Okay, I have a few issues with ballet, but they're more social/psychological than aesthetic or story-related.
These things considered, it almost seems like Princess Tutu was made for me; that I should have loved it. And I did! I was really quite fond of it.
I just. Rather prefer more blatantly happy endings.
Was it a bad ending? No. Was it a bad story/anime? Certainly not! It just... didn't do as much for me as I would have liked.
I'm not entirely sure what it was, but probably the thing that got to me the most was the Ahiru-stays-a-duck-forever-at-the-end part. And probably also Mytho-and-Rue-flying-off-forever, and the-town-goes-back-to-normal and stuff.
Augh, I'm not explaining this very well. The thing is, I like a little magic in my life. And while the ending definitely did fix the 'broken' story, it also removed central figures from Ahiru and Fakir's lives - one of whom they'd all but come to identify themselves by.
And while I could write fanfics that "fix" my own problems with it (have, in fact, written out a tiny OT4-ish script in my head where Rue, Fakir, and Mytho arrange for Ahiru to be able to be a human girl again), I really don't want to hand-wave every time I write a post-series fic, nor do I particularly want to write/read any 'floating timeline' fics.
I don't know what it is! I want to like it more than I do, I just. Don't.
Some more character-specific reactions:
...Okay, I don't have a lot of these. Or rather, they aren't too comprehensive? Bah, something.
Rue I got to sympathize with a lot more towards the end of the second half of the series. I'd rather liked her from the start - and gotten more than a few shippy vibes for her and Ahiru, though I suspect I'm rather lonesome on my f'list/circle for that :P.
Mytho I liked better once he actually started getting a personality XD I did keep wondering if they would find a way to leach the "poison" from his heart, or if they hoped the other pieces would just dilute it enough. Got my answer by the end. ...Can't say I cared for "evil"/dark Mytho in the slightest, though :|
Fakir I basically couldn't stand for the first half of the series. I was warming up to him a bit by the start of the second, and finally got won 'round by the end. I do feel cheated that he never got to have a non-tragic identity, though.
Ahiru, well, how could I not love her? Though again, it bothered me that she was set up to be tragic the entire time. I suppose it goes back to the theme that watchers were beat 'round the head with: Those who accept fate receive happiness; those who defy fate receive glory. And while I respect and admire Ahiru for the choices she made, even the ones she didn't want to make, I still think it sucks to end up with nothing but crumbs.
Edel-san (whose name I could well be misspelling, but am too lazy to look up at the moment) I was quite fond of. I liked her as a plot device, and I liked how she began to develop her own sorta-feelings as the story progressed. It speaks of a common theme in writing: how characters you never expected can begin to take on a life of their own.
Uzura, on the other hand... Well, my main thought was, "Is this how people whose primary exposure to Chibi-Usa was the anime [rather than the manga] feel?" She drove me up a wall. But, I suppose I was happy a little bit of Edel-san got to, er, live on.
Pike and Lilie were... okay, look. The pink-head I was fine with. The blonde? Yeeeeaaaah, no. The schadenfreude-with-a-smile attitude was more than a little grating on her. I reeeally don't think I'd ever want a friend like that. The pink-head, well, she could've listened to Ahiru better - much better - but at least she didn't constantly want to see her fail.
Drosselmeyer (and another spelling disclaimer here), uh. Well, the schadenfreude worked better on him, for one thing. I think it's probably again a from-an-author-standpoint kind of thing. You put your characters through hell so you can tell a story. Probably the only thing that really grated me about him was that little meta bit at the end. Otherwise, while he's not someone I'd want to invite over for lunch, he works in context.
Autor and the book guys came in about the time I was starting to find the drama a little much, which really didn't endear them to me. Autor gets points for actually having feelings somewhere in there, but he's still a douche. The book guys... I can't help but worry about all the stories whose endings they have removed. Are they stuck in limbo forever? I sympathize with their need to protect their world and the people they loved, but I don't like that they felt they had to punish people who were part of stories to do so. That's just exclusionary, which is bad form in any world, IMO.
Final thoughts: While I liked it fine, I'm pretty sure this could be one of those stories I like better with multiple viewings. And if I ever get over the way the last two episodes made me want to cry my eyes out (makes for very difficult subtitle reading, BTW), I may do that. It'll just. Probably take a while.
Next up: Video games and/or Madlax (and/or Fruits Basket).
---
In other news, uh. There's a potential new treatment for trichotillomania in the works?
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-07-22 04:25 am (UTC)The trich cure sounds really interesting! What that lady in the article says about finding a certain texture of hair is exactly what I do orz.
no subject
Date: 2009-07-25 03:47 am (UTC)Ahahaha, I like eyelashes for just that reason, I think ^^a They're just so stiff! It. May or may not have lead to my fascination with the shed whiskers of my pets :X