It's probably not your cup of tea Ginger. It's more a work like 1984, in that the point of the story is to look at the world and themes, while the characters are secondary.

I havent watched Anime in quite some time... I dont know if I grew out of it or what?

Basically the ones that ended up being fight after fight after fight... got boring after a while

Id have to say the only Anime Ive watched recently and liked was Death Note, that was a different kind of battle but still a battle I suppose.

@Ginger: Because it reminds me that hope is still worth it.

That's it in one sentance. I can elabourate if you want.

@Emi: Kino's Journey is a pretty interesting story that isn't fight, after fight, after fight.

No need to be unpleasant just because his tastes differ from yours.

edited 14th Mar '12 1:52:16 PM by Drenius

@ginger: Did I stutter, hambone?

And... exactly the sort of sentence I didn't want to hear...

I'm not trying to be mean, I'm serious... but is this SUCH a hard thing to do?

edited 14th Mar '12 1:51:09 PM by gingerninja666

^Probably not, but his post certainly isn't helpful, so maybe you should ignore it.

...Look, Ginger. It's one of my favorite series; not in my top three, but probably my top six or seven. If you can find the BD versions, the animation's quite interesting and well-done; sadly, the TV version was done on SHAFT's usual shoestring budget, so it's not as impressive. Uh... you don't like the characters, and you want entertainment over meaning... I think that's all I can say, really. <.<; There's really not much else to say, since in my opinion most of what recommends the series is its characters and its connections to Japanese spiritual thought.

^Okay, how is that pretentious?

edited 14th Mar '12 1:51:35 PM by RedSavant

nomuru. STOP!

I sorta liked Scrapped Princess too... but that got kinda fighty at the end....

Anime? I prefer Cuttlefish discussion.

http://www.ponibooru.org/post/view/149227

Now this is my Fosters headcanon.

Okay. Stop. My issue isn't Entertainment over meaning. It's that Meaning shouldn't overshadow entertainment.

I'm SO tired of people (my classmates in particular) looking down on me beause of that

Applejack pretty much screwed herself over through lack of planning. She should have guessed the Gala would have catering, so she should have contacted them to see if she could have gotten in on that instead of setting up an unsanctioned booth in the garden.

Rarity was being a stupid amount of over-romantic. I don't think could have possibly found a stallion to fit her criteria. Having her expectations blow up in her face was inevitable (and it did so spectacularly, thanks to Blueblood).

Pinkie simply misunderstood what type of party it was. If she had let it go after she found out, she would have been okay (bored, but okay). Since she pressed her luck, well... actually, she got lucky and her actions affected her friends instead of her. I guess she did humiliate herself, but she publicly embarrasses herself on a regular basis.

Twi and Dashie both went to as social event to be social. With specific ponies, sure, but they weren't really doing anything wrong. I guess up until Dashie knocked that stallion into the air to show off, but she made up for that by catching the statue that could have seriously hurt somepony else. What continues to irk me is that that nopony thought to help her out after she caught it.

Fluttershy also had fairly unrealistic expectations. Sure, she had the animals instantly fall in love with her right away when she got her cutie mark, but I think she took that for granted at the Gala. She was wandering around like a brute and then when the obviously skittish creatures ran away, she decided her reaction should be to be more of a brute. The backfiring is her own fault.

And that, Nomuru is how you do a real Ginger breakdown.

Well, Ginger, the thing is that I feel the same way (neither should overshadow the other), but I don't feel meaning should be sacrificed for entertainment if it's a choice between the two. I'll watch a popcorn blockbuster and I'll enjoy it, but will it stick with me? Will I remember the characters' names? Probably not. Whereas I'm going to use Madoka in my term paper for Gender in Japanese Culture.

Of course, neither does that mean I'm ever going to watch a plodding navelfest like Evangelion.

edited 14th Mar '12 1:59:28 PM by RedSavant

hehehehehehehehe wow, epic flashback from that Ginger

you sound EXACTLY like me in my senior year English class, me and the teacher used to get into that same argument every week.

And I agree with you, having meaning and being cerebral isn't wrong in and of itself, but if you want something entertaining, you want to be entertained not have to spend time analyzing everything. Which is yet another reason why FIM is such a great show, you can just watch it without really looking to deep, and be perfectly entertained, but the world is so consistent and so expertly built that there is so much more you can examine and read into it if you want.

I'm with you on that one, Ginger. In spite of my feelings that games(andm ovies, and all media) can have deep meanings, the meaning takes a backseat to the entertainment value at all times. If you can't enjoy it, the meaning isn't going to stick. Plus, it isn't effective if it's in the forefront anyways.

The animations is amazing and the music is wonderful. The fights are cool and the ending is awesome. Happy ginger?

@Ginger: I likethings that affect me. I don't care how. And Madoka really, really, really affected me.

@Red My thing is... the meaning is the ONLY thing people can talk about when they reccomend this series to me. In my eyes that's meaning at the expense of entertainment, which just stuns me

edited 14th Mar '12 2:01:18 PM by gingerninja666

@Death Cloud: Someone should TOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOTALLY make a pony named Herpy Dooves. LOL XD

I don't know about Ginger's happiness, but I know I'm not. Madoka always seemed like it was too self-indulgent on Urobuchi's part. That and the huge fanbase who take a high-handed approach to anyone who doesn't care for it.

edited 14th Mar '12 2:02:48 PM by Drenius

I think the major issue I'm having with this topic is that I immediately conflate 'entertainment' with 'sensationalist entertainment', which I realize is absolutely inaccurate. I guess I don't see meaning and entertainment as a binary; I tend to enjoy almost everything I watch, and they entertain me, but it's the things that have deeper meaning that stick with me, and those works are much rarer. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I find entertainment value to be almost omnipresent and thus worth less, relatively speaking, than deeper meaning. To me, at least.

@Ginger: Like I said, I enjoyed it quite a lot, in part because of the meaning. That's not to say it's not enjoyable without, though.

edited 14th Mar '12 2:03:43 PM by RedSavant

@Ginger: Yeah, it might sound pretentious, but Madoka is just a series that's designed to make you think about the implications of what is taking place. There's nothing wrong with a popcorn "just watch it for fun" show, and there should always be a balance between entertainment and meaning, but that's just not what Madoka is. The point of the series is to take a genre and pick apart all the implications that come to light if you examine the premise too closely. It was created to prompt that sort of analysis, and I enjoyed it very much because of that. That said, I definitely agree that the characterization leaves a lot to be desired due to how squashed everything was.

I don't think entertainment should ever be discarded in favor meaning, but some works lean more to either end of the spectrum, and Madoka happens to lean a bit more on the "meaning" end. Doesn't mean it isn't entertaining, though, just that the meaning is more interesting to discuss.

@Sereg: Sayaka was my favorite character until episode ten.

Anyway, to get this back on topic before it all comes crashing down, I cracked and stopped by McDonald's for a Happy Meal. Fluttershy has been obtained.

edited 14th Mar '12 2:05:15 PM by JapaneseTeeth

I can see your point Ginger. It's not like it's Anvilicious about the theme, the story is subtle and well done and all technical aspects of the anime are excellent as I said. I do like some characters but I admit they aren't as well developed as they should be. There are reasons to watch the show that isn't about the message but it just doesn't sound like your thing.

@ginger: That's not really meaning at the expense of entertainment. They still made it all the way through, so it must have been entertaining. If the meaning is what they talk about, that simply means that it's a very powerful amidst the entertainment. It may even be the entertainment factor itself. It can come from a lot of places.