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Kaleido Star -- Grrrrrrrr
12-14-2008, 04:45 AM
Okay, Peggy and I are about 12 episodes into the second season of Kaleido Star, and I find myself growing more and
more annoyed. As some folks here know, I have some theatre background -- three years'-plus of near-professional level backstage/crew/writer experience
with the Princeton Triangle Club, for those interested. And while I don't have any direct backstage experience with circuses, I do know a few things about
how they operate. And the combination of all this makes me want to scream when I watch what they've been doing on Kaleido Star in the second season. They're all freaking lunatics, and Sora is just
going "oh, okay" and doing what they tell her to do.
Am I missing something cultural here? (Or is it just massive ignorance on the writers' parts?) Because I simply cannot believe what I'm seeing. Half
the stunts these people pull should get them shut down for safety violations -- and Sora ought to beat the crap out of them for the other half. (Yes, I know,
not her personality. But I'm sooooo tempted to send Doug there to do the crap-beating for her.) The stuff they
get away with as if it were "normal" is frankly criminal, and my suspension of disbelief is pretty much shredded.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
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Eh. Yes, they are insane. So is Sora. *grin* What? The training for the Legendary Act in the first season wasn't clue enough? Actually, Sora is probably
the most insane and determined person in the series.
The writers had an actual circus... I'm not sure if it was a performer or director or just in general ... helping them out. Part of it is the animation
company going OH THIS IS COOL and now let's animate it beautifully. It is supposed to be, um, insane and just a bit beyond actual human limits although not
so far beyond that it verges into the complete fantastic/unrealistic.
I actually do like the second season a lot even if I was a bit tempted to beat Leon over the head several times. One of the things I thought the second season
did great was illustrate Sora's growth into an independent woman with her own goals and beliefs. So much of the first season was hero worship and blind
chasing of Layla. Layla at the end of the first season recognized Sora as a partner with great potential... but not an EQUAL partner. I feel like the second
season addresses this. It's painful to watch Sora flail around with no idea of what goal, what dream to pursue now that Layla is no longer there but IMO,
necessary for her character growth. Stick with it. I think episode 49-51 are just tear inducing and heart rending in the good way and all the more sweet for
the struggles she had before.
Edit: Oh. I just checked. Are you at ep. 38? If so, I agree. Those episodes are really painful and possibly the absolute low point of the series. And well,
Layla (who has her own, imo, not-so-glorious role to play in these episodes) and Kalos are both of the mysterious, aloof, figure-it-out-yourself type. They do
want the best for Sora; they just sort of fail in human interaction and management. I never know how to feel about them in these episodes. On the one hand,
they're well meaning and without them distancing themselves and their rather cold treatment, Sora might not have stood on her own feet and figured out what
exactly she wants. On the other hand, I can't get the sneaking suspicion out of my mind that they had no idea what was going on (actually, in Layla's
case, I'm positive she messed it up) and it's only because Sora herself is so awesome by nature that it worked out for the better.
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I needed to check Wikipedia but yeah, we just finished ep 39. The Paris Festival sub-arc. And yes, I wanted to kick Layla down several flights of stairs,
repeatedly.
I also wanted to shoot the management of the festival. No nets? No safety equipment at all? That most of all ruined my suspension of disbelief.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
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Deep Breaths
12-14-2008, 06:43 PM
Preach it Brother Bob!
I feel the same way about swordplay in most films (okay damn near every film.)
Don't let it get to you. Just think about the detailed, accurate representation of police procedures as displayed by Misters Riggs and Murtaugh in the
Lethal Weapon series. Or the fundamental understanding of physics as displayed by Star Wars, Star Trek, etc.
(Then again Police procedures were a seventies sub-genre of film.)
Cheers,
Shayne
(Who is feeling like a slinky today - pretty useless, but looks funny falling down stairs.)
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Quote:Don't let it get to you. Just think about the detailed, accurate representation of police procedures as displayed by Misters Riggs and Murtaugh in the Lethal Weapon series. Or the fundamental understanding of physics as displayed by Star Wars, Star Trek, etc.
Or the understanding of the British CCTV systems displayed on Torchwood (note1), or the accurate depiction of air-safety equipment and procedures in Die Hard II (note2), or the presentation of pretty much any computer security system in almost anything out of Hollywood or Tokyo... (note3)
Script writers know about writing, just like computer programmers know about computers and police officers know about law enforcement. They don't necessarily know anything about the rest of the world; it's just that, in the case of script writers, that ignorance shows in their work.
(note1: They're not connected to each other. Most of them aren't connected to anything other than a VCR.)
(note2: Nothing that the bad guys did on the ground could have had any effect on the safety equipment mounted on the aircraft.)
(note3: You can't override computer security by typing in "OVERRIDE", or any other one-line string for that matter. The best you can do with one line of input is get admin/su rights, and that's only if you were already entitled to them.)
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
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I am a software engineer. How do you think I felt when I saw the first episode of Golden Boy?
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Oh good gods, do not mention that name.
I and a friend literally -ran screaming- when that was shown at out local anime club.
LITERALLY fled the theatre, it was so horrible.
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.
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You saw something other than Gainax Bounce?!@?!?!?!?!?!?
Hear that thunder rolling till it seems to split the sky?
That's every ship in Grayson's Navy taking up the cry-
NO QUARTER!!!
-- "No Quarter", by Echo's Children
He probably got as far as the 'practicing' on the cardboard computer...
_____
DEATH is Certain. The hour, Uncertain...
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As another software engineer I managed to survive the computer practice part, if barely. The toilet bit, that's where I couldn't stand to watch
anymore.
--
French does have a certain je ne sais quoi, but I don't know what it is.
-- Jeffrey Goldberg, in nanae
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