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My impressions are not too differentiating.

When away from Japan, I was cheezy even with juvenile "Aiki".

For logical game theory geeks, "Liar game" is enjoyable.

For a gothic experience, "Death Note" is fun. Though there are other classics on that, including original "Hunger Games".

by das monde on Sun Mar 8th, 2015 at 11:16:42 PM EST
[ Parent ]
I saw the anime version of Death Note (it's not a movie but a TV series), which has a pretty dazzling animation and complex story, compared to which the few clips of the live-action version seemed sub-par. Thus, although I read positive reviews of the latter, I was disinclined to check it out. As for the anime version, although overall I rate it quite highly, by the end I had three major problems with it:
  1. Although the morality of executing murder convicts features prominently, the authors completely omitted the question of judicial error (as if none of the thousands executed by the anti-hero were falsely charged and convicted).
  2. [SPOILER] It's bold to kill off the hero, but I found the substitute hero less interesting. (Kind of unavoidable when you manage to create such a captivating hero.)
  3. There was a streak of misogyny throughout, especially the detective woman who was in effect punished by the authors for being a career woman, and the pop star female main character who was so brainless it hurt. (This misogyny also re-surfaced early in the authors' next work, Bakuman.)

As for Battle Royale, I fear my reaction would be similar as in the case of Outrage: the gore wouldn't appeal to me and would take away from the social critique.

*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.
by DoDo on Mon Mar 9th, 2015 at 03:31:16 PM EST
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The animated series would be enough indeed. The misogyny is more than obvious in the second half (or the sequel film).
by das monde on Tue Mar 10th, 2015 at 12:44:42 AM EST
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BTW, have you seen the movie version of 20th Century Boys? If yes, is it any good?

*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.
by DoDo on Mon Mar 9th, 2015 at 03:35:40 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Watching it now. Ma...
by das monde on Sun Mar 15th, 2015 at 06:03:17 AM EST
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