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Nov. 25th, 2005 01:47 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
arccieAnyway, I wanted to just do a bit of an analysis of Argentosoma. I will try to keep from giving too many spoilers but some little things may slip through.
It's a pretty interesting series with a collection of interesting characters (and a couple of pretty boys), a fair amount of action, nice character interaction and plot development.
Overall Series
I only really had a couple of complaints with the series.
Slightly more than annoying was the number of flashbacks. Many of these were useful and provided character development. However, the flashbacks on the (semi-) main character's (Ryo Soma) dead lady love (Maki)get very annoying very quickly. This is especially so when there is the same flashback in over half the episodes which doesn't really add anything. Sure have flashbacks dhowing he's still thinking of his lost love, but PLEASE at least make it a different one. I am sure that this same flashback occurred more than once in a couple of episodes.
I also found myself very uneasy over the character comparison between Maki love and a 13 year old girl (Hattie). I know it's slightly hypocritical to be worried over the lovelife of an underage person when I'm so into the PoT fandom where almost everyone is underage...but it's really the situation. Hattie is not only 13, she is emotionally traumatised by the death of her parents and seems to have the emotional development of maybe an 8 year old (definitely not a 13 year old, I live with one of them and her and her friends have a much greater emotional maturity and they're not exceptionally developed or anything). I am also uneasy with the connection that's established between Hattie and Maki characters as Ryu Soma is supposedly in his mid 20's (yes, i know hypocritical once again since I enjoy loveless, but the emotional connection established between Ritsuka and Soubi is of a lot more innocent nature even with the connotations of master, punishment, etc than is developed for Ryu and Hattie. Though this may be me reading a bit too deeply into some moments).
The one other thing that caught my attention is that the end of the series felt a bit rushed. There was a good build up of interesting characters and plot points over the first 17 or 18 episodes. But everything was wrapped up in about 6 episodes. Not bad exactly just not as good as the beginning of the series.
Being pedantic I could also request they throw in more pretty boys, but that was just a side issue that has more to do with my preferences than the quality of the series.
=D
Character Dynamics
Ok there were many nice interesting character relationships, but I'm only going to pick out the few that interested me.
Ryu(Takuto)/Maki
Despite the fact that they were only together for the first episode there is more than enough flashbacks to develop the awareness of their relationship (it's like, alright enough already I got it after the first few times, there is no need to brutally hammer it into my skull).
Yet through this you can also see that there were more than a few problems with their relationship, even if Ryu is shown to love her more than anything. Actually, to me, he often screams obsessed stalker more than boyfriend/lover, but that may be my preference for a relationship where the enire universe doesn't revolve around the other individual.
Ryu/Hattie
Ok, as I mentioned above, this relationship caused me a fair deal of unease. Not that there was actually anything overtly sexual in their interactions most of the time.
In fact a lot of the time they seem pretty disdainful of each other. Ryu doesn't like Hattie's obsession with the alien and Hattie thinks Ryu is a mean liar (see vast difference in maturity)
I actually could have said it was a bit sibling rival like, but then they had to throw in the last episode where they randomly threw pairings together and had all the connotations of deeper feelings between Ryu and Hattie.
This is the actual point where I lost interest in the series. Still not bad to hold my attention for 24 episodes.
Ryu/Dan
The only 2 pretty boys that are consistently in all the episodes of the series…and oooh are there some nice moments for them.
e.g.
pilot 1:you get a chance to show off in front of your rival.
Dan: Lt Soma?
Pilot 1: *laughs* I was talking about the alien
Dan: *blushes* oh…of course
AND
Dan: I hope Ryu will be ok.
Pilot 1: Since when do you call him Ryu?
Dan: Lt Soma?
Pilot 1: You just called him by his first name.
Dan: oh
Pilot 2: *elbows him playfully* heh heh
Dan: *flushes* I think Ryo has a grudge…
…alright so it’s all quite subtle and stuff, but it’s soo fun, especially when you consider one of them is an antisocial jerk caught up in his need for revenge slowly realising there is more than his purpose to life…and of course they’re really the only 2 pretty boys in the series.
Dan/Sue
I am down right annoyed by this pairing as there is no indication for it anywhere through the series (unless you want to analyse this one incident where he gets annoyed with a guy for hitting on the 2 female pilots, but it could also be seen that he’s annoyed that the other guy ignores him ;) As I mentioned above, I ignored the last episode as I reckon it wrecked the entire nice gen-nish quality of the plot and randomly threw people together, though I was thoroughly amused by the dialogue for the marriage proposal for this pair at the end of the “extra” episode
Dan: Will you marry me?
Sue: uhh, sure. I don’t have anything better to do.
Dan: Don’t have anything better to do?
Sue: nope
Dan: Can’t you be a bit more serious? This is a marriage proposal…
(goes back to being thoroughly annoyed by the randomness…and the fact that they got rid of my slash couple)
Ryo/General Lawrence a.k.a creepy red haired dude
Right, there is no real indication for this sort of pairing in the actual show, it was merely speculation on my part and the fact that I had my little sister sitting next to me feeding me comments.
e.g.
Me: the red haired guys creepy
Sis: he’s soo gay
Me: I’d lean more towards creepy
Sis: So he’s a creepy gay guy
This was made oh so much worse by the tomato scene.
Creepy dude: You can be like the pilot of SARG2 *crushes tomato*
Ryu: uh
Creepy dude: *licks his hand*
Us watching the scene:
Sis: *imitates licking hand* I’m imagining this is your cock
Me: *stares at her in bewilderment*
I SWEAR it wasn’t me who corrupted her!!! She freaks me out at times…
Umm…that wasn’t at all helpful to anyone was it, but at least I got the rant off my chest.
Go Me!
So probably rate it overall 7.5/10
Good but not great.
(Hope I didn’t manage to discourage people who were considering watching it)
It's a pretty interesting series with a collection of interesting characters (and a couple of pretty boys), a fair amount of action, nice character interaction and plot development.
Overall Series
I only really had a couple of complaints with the series.
Slightly more than annoying was the number of flashbacks. Many of these were useful and provided character development. However, the flashbacks on the (semi-) main character's (Ryo Soma) dead lady love (Maki)get very annoying very quickly. This is especially so when there is the same flashback in over half the episodes which doesn't really add anything. Sure have flashbacks dhowing he's still thinking of his lost love, but PLEASE at least make it a different one. I am sure that this same flashback occurred more than once in a couple of episodes.
I also found myself very uneasy over the character comparison between Maki love and a 13 year old girl (Hattie). I know it's slightly hypocritical to be worried over the lovelife of an underage person when I'm so into the PoT fandom where almost everyone is underage...but it's really the situation. Hattie is not only 13, she is emotionally traumatised by the death of her parents and seems to have the emotional development of maybe an 8 year old (definitely not a 13 year old, I live with one of them and her and her friends have a much greater emotional maturity and they're not exceptionally developed or anything). I am also uneasy with the connection that's established between Hattie and Maki characters as Ryu Soma is supposedly in his mid 20's (yes, i know hypocritical once again since I enjoy loveless, but the emotional connection established between Ritsuka and Soubi is of a lot more innocent nature even with the connotations of master, punishment, etc than is developed for Ryu and Hattie. Though this may be me reading a bit too deeply into some moments).
The one other thing that caught my attention is that the end of the series felt a bit rushed. There was a good build up of interesting characters and plot points over the first 17 or 18 episodes. But everything was wrapped up in about 6 episodes. Not bad exactly just not as good as the beginning of the series.
Being pedantic I could also request they throw in more pretty boys, but that was just a side issue that has more to do with my preferences than the quality of the series.
=D
Character Dynamics
Ok there were many nice interesting character relationships, but I'm only going to pick out the few that interested me.
Ryu(Takuto)/Maki
Despite the fact that they were only together for the first episode there is more than enough flashbacks to develop the awareness of their relationship (it's like, alright enough already I got it after the first few times, there is no need to brutally hammer it into my skull).
Yet through this you can also see that there were more than a few problems with their relationship, even if Ryu is shown to love her more than anything. Actually, to me, he often screams obsessed stalker more than boyfriend/lover, but that may be my preference for a relationship where the enire universe doesn't revolve around the other individual.
Ryu/Hattie
Ok, as I mentioned above, this relationship caused me a fair deal of unease. Not that there was actually anything overtly sexual in their interactions most of the time.
In fact a lot of the time they seem pretty disdainful of each other. Ryu doesn't like Hattie's obsession with the alien and Hattie thinks Ryu is a mean liar (see vast difference in maturity)
I actually could have said it was a bit sibling rival like, but then they had to throw in the last episode where they randomly threw pairings together and had all the connotations of deeper feelings between Ryu and Hattie.
This is the actual point where I lost interest in the series. Still not bad to hold my attention for 24 episodes.
Ryu/Dan
The only 2 pretty boys that are consistently in all the episodes of the series…and oooh are there some nice moments for them.
e.g.
pilot 1:you get a chance to show off in front of your rival.
Dan: Lt Soma?
Pilot 1: *laughs* I was talking about the alien
Dan: *blushes* oh…of course
AND
Dan: I hope Ryu will be ok.
Pilot 1: Since when do you call him Ryu?
Dan: Lt Soma?
Pilot 1: You just called him by his first name.
Dan: oh
Pilot 2: *elbows him playfully* heh heh
Dan: *flushes* I think Ryo has a grudge…
…alright so it’s all quite subtle and stuff, but it’s soo fun, especially when you consider one of them is an antisocial jerk caught up in his need for revenge slowly realising there is more than his purpose to life…and of course they’re really the only 2 pretty boys in the series.
Dan/Sue
I am down right annoyed by this pairing as there is no indication for it anywhere through the series (unless you want to analyse this one incident where he gets annoyed with a guy for hitting on the 2 female pilots, but it could also be seen that he’s annoyed that the other guy ignores him ;) As I mentioned above, I ignored the last episode as I reckon it wrecked the entire nice gen-nish quality of the plot and randomly threw people together, though I was thoroughly amused by the dialogue for the marriage proposal for this pair at the end of the “extra” episode
Dan: Will you marry me?
Sue: uhh, sure. I don’t have anything better to do.
Dan: Don’t have anything better to do?
Sue: nope
Dan: Can’t you be a bit more serious? This is a marriage proposal…
(goes back to being thoroughly annoyed by the randomness…and the fact that they got rid of my slash couple)
Ryo/General Lawrence a.k.a creepy red haired dude
Right, there is no real indication for this sort of pairing in the actual show, it was merely speculation on my part and the fact that I had my little sister sitting next to me feeding me comments.
e.g.
Me: the red haired guys creepy
Sis: he’s soo gay
Me: I’d lean more towards creepy
Sis: So he’s a creepy gay guy
This was made oh so much worse by the tomato scene.
Creepy dude: You can be like the pilot of SARG2 *crushes tomato*
Ryu: uh
Creepy dude: *licks his hand*
Us watching the scene:
Sis: *imitates licking hand* I’m imagining this is your cock
Me: *stares at her in bewilderment*
I SWEAR it wasn’t me who corrupted her!!! She freaks me out at times…
Umm…that wasn’t at all helpful to anyone was it, but at least I got the rant off my chest.
Go Me!
So probably rate it overall 7.5/10
Good but not great.
(Hope I didn’t manage to discourage people who were considering watching it)
