Sure, this is perhaps a bit of a personal question, but I figured that I might as well abuse this blog for it.
Basically, I’m currently planning a holiday tto Germany somewhere in the upcoming summer, and I’ve been wondering:
– What are some of the must-visit places?
– What are some cheap places to stay?
– Perhaps we could meet up or something?
In any case, for everyone who is not German: apologies for wasting your time.
By far my least favourite part of keeping up this blog is the headache that is image management. I had at last found a good, stable and easy source to host all of the images I use, but now they suddenly changed their policy, causing them to block their images for some unregistered users.
If I understood things correctly, they stopped serving images that are uploaded on registered servers and viewed by unregistered visitors. Now, I’ve just registered this website at some form that I found on the Imageshack Website, but I have no idea when it’ll be reviewed (yes, apparently all registered members need to have their websites reviewed).
Personally I don’t have this problem and I’m able to see all the images just fine, so let me know if you see any changes.
Okay, so for the past weeks I’ve finally sat down and watched the 1977 version of Ie Naki Ko. I’m currently at episode 45, and a review will probably be up somewhere tomorrow. Still, while watching it, I noted that more and more things popped up that I wanted to talk about, yet either contained massive spoilers or wouldn’t fit in an actual review of it, especially when I started to compare it to the 1997 WMT version.
So yeah, if you haven’t watched either Ie Naki Ko 1997 or 1977, but plan to watch it at some point: this post will probably spoil the entire plot so you might want to close the window. It’s a bit of a post with a really small target audience, because I only know of one other person who watched both series, but I just have too much that I want to say about it.
Watching Ie Naki Ko 1977 amazed me at how much extra detail there was compared to the 1997 series, but at the same time it also gave me a new respect for the 1997 series. More on that below though, because the fact does remain that the 1997 version is miles away in terms of realism here. Ie Naki Ko 1977 showed us a great down to earth depiction of what France must have been like, around 140 years ago. Backgrounds are realistic, and yet vividly imaginative.
On top of that, Ie Naki Ko’s biggest problem, the comical bad guys are much better handled. Take for example the prologue, in which Remi’s foster father tries to sell him/her in order to get rid of his money problems. In the 1997 series, the creators came up with this one dimensional villain who could have walked out of a 1960s American cartoon. In the 1977 version, Vitalis instead just buys Remy directly.
The rest of the villains of the series are also quite interesting here. The guy who keeps the children slaves was a carbon copy of that same bad guy in the 1997 series. In the 1977 series however, we learn a bit more about him. Nothing is said explicitly, but it is made very clear that this is a guy who made many wrong turns in his life since he saw Vitalis for the last time.
And finally, the bad guys who try to kidnap Remi for his very wealthy mother: in the 1997 series, it was just the same slave guy. He just randomly decides “okay, I’m going to make some money here”, and from that point onward he consistently fails in just about everything he does due to a rushed plot. In the 1977 series however, they’re completely new characters who actually have been planning their actions for quite a bit and spending a great bit of money on it in order to pull it off successfully. Amongst the bad guy’s gang, there are a bunch of idiots, but I’m amazed at how often they actually managed to catch Remi back after he tried to escape them.
At the same time though, in terms of the storyline, the bad guys are the only parts at which I feel that the 1997 series screwed up completely. The rest of the changes it made, even when they were nowhere as good as the 1977 series, are changes that do have their own merits and that I can understand, either due to a lack of time or for reasons that have to do with its own storyline. Take for example Vitalis’ past: the 1977 really surprised me when it actually devoted half an episode to Vitalis’ past, just after he died. The 1997 series never said anything about this, and in that way they created two completely different characters: for all we know 1997 Vitalis could have been a random gypsy and that really reflected back in their actions: 1997 Vitalis was much milder than the rugged 1977 Vitalis.
Another detail at which the 1977 version put much more attention was are for example Zerbino: the 1977 gave him a ton of extra character by making him into a glutton, in which he stole food on a regular basis. It created a great deal of tension, plus it also forced some development on both Remi, Capi and Vitalis when they tried to deal with him. It also caused his death to make much more impact, because this time it really was his own flaws that caused both him and Dolce to get eaten by those wolves.
There are two final parts at which the 1977 was much better that I want to talk about. The first is Remi’s development. The way in which the 1997 started off with Remi, who was already much older than her 1977 counterpart. She already was a headstrong character instead of the innocent country kid that 1977 Remi started out as. This greatly limited her own development, because one of the things that is currently making the final third of the 1977 series so enjoyable to watch is Remi’s development, even though it’s far from the darkest part of the series.
Finally: revisiting old characters. I absolutely loved it when 1977 Remi actually travelled back to his foster mother, so that we could actually see what became of her and her husband. Especially that husband received a great amount of character development in the end, and I especially loved the way he changes in 1977 Remi’s percievement. It’s the point in which that maid that took care of Remi’s foster father told Remi that she too was an abandoned child too at which I really started to like the character Remi grew into.
In comparison, there are only a few areas at which the 1997 version really is better than the 1977 version. The first and most notable is the soundtrack. While the 1977 also had some pretty good music, the 1997 version’s is just that good. It had by far the best OP and ED out of any WMT series I’ve seen as well.
The second is that it’s a bit better at masking its coincidences, which were the biggest flaw of the 1977 series: somehow we have this kid who is the lost son of the single most famous family of London, travels with the former most famous opera singer of Italy, gets sold as a child due to his foser father getting into an accident, survives a harshly cold winter outside, gets his life ruined by a sudden giant hail storm and gets caught in a mining accident… I mean, dear God. Could you perhaps also get him to catch the plague or something to make this picture complete?
The 1997 series instead made sure that at least the main events flowed into each other: coincidences are used more for irony, and it’s really the characters who decide the plot there, instead of how the setting decided the plot in 1977. And that just shows how different your adaptations can get with different visions behind them.
Beyond that, though: In the past I have often called the 1997 series a cheap version of the 1977 series. By this, I’d like to take that back. It’s obviously not as good as the 1977 series, but my assumptions that it just blindly tried to follow the same story with some random and pointless changes were really wrong. I’m really surprised, but a surprising amount of thought went into its series composition.
So I was at the halfway point of the series, at Jolie Cour’s death. I watched the 1997 series two years ago, and I clearly remember him surviving that cold winter night. That was my first big surprise. Then however, they suddenly got to Paris, and Vitalis wasn’t dead yet! The more Vitalis went in order to search for a job, the more I began to wonder how the heck the Garofoli would make sense in this story. At that point, there was no reason for Remi to stay at such a bastard’s home. And indeed: Remi pays a visit to Garofoli (who actually also wasn’t dead yet, compared to 1997 in which he did kick the bucket), notices the horrors that went on there, Vitalis notices it too and takes Remi away. After that, to my surprise, the two plots of the series diverge completely. I really expected Garofoli to play a huge part in the original story, and yet he was a mere tiny side character!
And with that, I really have to admire what the 1997 series did there: it didn’t pull the mother of all middle-fingers by changing the gender of the lead character (something I don’t think I’ve ever seen before…) just out of random. It really knew what it wanted to be. Its biggest problem in the end was the television station that denied it the proper amount of episodes, leading to a rushed ending.
When you think about it, there is no way that 1977 Remi would have stayed at Garofoli. It’s impossible. He would have gone to the street and travelled alone with his experience. And in fact, the 1997 Remi could have done to, if her character wasn’t completely different. compared to the 1977 Remi, she was much more compassionate. Whereas the first half of the 1977 series focused mostly on Remi adapting to his new harsh life style and gaining experience, the 1997 version instead focused on Remi, helping out others. There was much less drama between Vitalis and Remi herself, but instead these episode kept stressing that Remi was the kind of strong girl who loved to help others.
And then she gets stuffed into Garofoli’s care, and the only thing that pretty much prevented her from just leaving is that she couldn’t get it over her heart to abandon all these small children and hand them to the mercy of Garofoli. In essence, the creators of the 1997 version picked one minor part of the original story, and based its entire second half around it, essentially becoming a really dark story about severe child abuse and slavery, a topic that most series only gloss over, if they discuss it at all.
Uhm, so yes, this has become rather tl;dr. In essence: Ie Naki Ko 1977 > Ie Naki Ko 1997, but both are worth watching if you like WMT-ish series and both series are different enough to watch both of them.
Today, Star Crossed is celebrating its first lustrum: it’s already been five years ago since I made my first posts here (very fanboyishly crappy posts, if I may confess). Like all previous years, I always do these anniversary posts with some statistics and amusing search terms:
General Statistics:
Up till now, I’ve made 3822 posts and regularly blogged 139 different television series.
The site has been received 5147999 unique visitors, which consist out of 2912603 first time visitors and 2235716 returning ones. This year alone the site got 863064 first time visitors and 891717 returning ones, and this was the first time since the creation of the site that the amount of returning visitors was larger than the amount of first time ones, so I really want to thank everyone for coming back here.
27075 comments have been posted (again, many thanks to everyone who posted one).
Top-10 Most Accessed Series of the Past Year:
10. Aoi Bungaku
9. Baccano!
8. Les Miserables – Shoujo Cosette
7. Darker than Black – Ryuusei no Gemini
6. Heartcatch Precure
5. Higurashi no Naku Koro ni
4. Durarara
3. Ergo Proxy
2. Armed Librarians – The Book of Bantorra
1. Full Metal Alchemist – Broptherhood
Top-10 Most Accessed Posts:
10. Full Metal Alchemist – The Blind Alchemist OVA
9. Top 25 Favourite OPs
8. Full Metal Alchemist – Brotherhood – 41
7. My Top 20 Favourite Anime
6. Autumn Season Preview
5. Summer Season Preview
4. Full Metal Alchemist – Brotherhood – 52
3. Darker than Black Review – 87/100
2. 2000-2009 – Decade Summary Part 1
1. Top 10 Anime (The old one)
Top-20 Google Keywords: (aside from the obvious ones as “psgels”, “star crossed” and variations of “top 10 anime”) (aka. the internet is weird)
20. heroic age review
19. tono to issho
18. full metal alchemist brotherhood 51
17. pandora hearts review
16. full metal alchemist brotherhood 41
15. angel beats review
14. casshern sins review
13. towards the terra
12. mouryou no hako
11. hen zemi
10. school days review
9. darker than black ova
8. clannad review
7. eden of the east review
6. xxxholic rou
5. that anime blog
4. blassreiter review
3. hakuouki – (Why? I only blogged three measly episodes…)
2. aoi bungaku
1. darker than black review
Amusing Search Terms (people are actually searching for these things?)
hi you are under arrest for watching anime since all anime are child pornography acccording to us immigrations – One reason why I’m glad not to live in the US…
how much is star crossed anime blog worth – Eh, believe me: not much.
training with hinako psgels – You really want me to review that thing? O.o
bleach manga writer commit suicide – Is this just wishful thinking or something?
anime like junjo romantica heterosexual partners – Eh… doesn’t that defeat the entire purpose of that series?
identical twin boy and girl – How is that even possible?
anime jesus milk alchemy -fullmetal – I honestly have no idea what this guy was hoping to find…
does 16+74=100?
what is 82.5% out of a 100
85 reversed is 58 – Just a sample of the completely moronic math questions that people actually dare to ask Google… and who somehow end up redirected to this site.
i went to saw a sea – You would have needed a pretty big saw in order to be able to do that…
leo leo leo leo goddammit – dammit, leo leo leo
laaa la la laaa la la laaa la la laaa la la la la laaa summer hit – Did you seriously think that typing that into google would give you the title of that song?
famous girl with a p in frontname and h in lastname – Again, Google is no crystal ball or anything…
how to stop congratulation you won – Get a decent spam blocker!
how old should i be to wathch ginga denseta weed – That really is a hardcore series, you shouldn’t watch it when you’re young.
iai am told by a medium that she sees me as a medium with strong powers but i dont know it what should i do – Eh, run away from her as fast as possible. And stop being so damn gullible.
please i want a message,dere dis girl i might she has been refusing my friendship so i want a messege dat will blow her mind. – This is one of the weirdest ways to search for pick-up lines I’ve ever seen…
why do christians think anime is evil for? – Probably the satanic messages.
why is it that everytime i have confrontations with my husband i’m always the one to blame? – Because you keep asking Google for it.
how to have anime legs – Why would you want that?
is there any anime that has stories in the episodes
how would katanagatari look if it was drawn – Pointless questions are pointless
85 differents asses, 85 differents flavours
“high things” things-things sexy anime
i got a potato put in my pussy (anime)
gay anime hard yaoi blog
anime metal penis – You people have dirty minds. And these aren’t even the most disturbing results that I ended up finding. Cannot unsee!
when a guy send his bodyguard to watch me what does it mean – It means that you’re in trouble.
why am i darker than what im supposed to be – Uh, because you spend too much time sunbathing?
+i rather be woman than black – …
oh, good lord! it’s unbelievable. it’s horrible. i can’t understand the reason for such cruelty – Me neither!
can kids under 18 buy hetalia – Oh lord… talk about overreacting.
how to start a dollars gang?
how to make dollars site durarara – You know you’re too much of a Durarara fan when you actively start searching for these things on Google.
how do i entertain my hyper dog in the morning
this dog is definitely on some kind of drug
anime were dogs get hit – These results all appeared at different times, but it would be amusing if they were made by the same person…
do you need to wear makeup as sebastian from kuroshitsuji – When you’re Sebastian, you don’t need any makeup to look good.
anime with mass suicide superpowers – “I will now use my superpowers to kill myself in a completely overblown fashion!”
people are so realistic – Don’t you agree?
how are you doing? i’m just bored about to watch an anime… sora no otoshimono.. anyways i hope we can be friends and all. ^^ – Did this kid seriously confuse Google with some kind of instant messenger?
star crossed anime – psgels vegetarian – I am not a vegetarian. I like meat.
i see you keep a bee – Keeping a single bee takes up a lot of work.
if a gemini calls you crazy and goes cold for no reason – I seriously have no idea what that means.
how to write an email to yu aida – The author of Gunslinger Girl? Eh, find out his email address and send him a message?
is italy in hetalia gay – Take a guess…
fucking spoons! how do they work? – Yes, who are the bastards who designed these things?
i want to be a pretty cure – Good for you.
making money blog transmute alchemy – Do you seriously think that that’ll work?
if you are 5 or 82, there is something you can do…. – I don’t want to know that “something” you’re referring to…
is it wrong to watch yuri anime – Yes. Lesbians are evil and should be banned from television!
asdffgmj – How did you end up here?
9/11bombers still alive – Yes, they crashed two airplanes into the Twin Towers and walked away from the rubble without a scratch.
code geass is true story? – Whahahahahha! Good one.
Every year, about a month before the fall season, I hold this poll in which you can force me to blog one of the upcoming autumn seasons. In this contest, you can either force me to blog an awesome-looking series, or a series that I normally would never consider covering. I’m a bit earlier than usual this year (blame impatience).
Either way, during the previous years I asked you to simply drop a comment with the series you voted for. Unfortunately, because last time people cheated I had to find a different way to do it. I didn’t want to post a simple poll (I really want this contest to be between my readers, instead of people who visit random sites and click on random polls), so I settled with an online survey, which can be found here:
http://www.kwiksurveys.com/online-survey.php?surveyID=KBDEML_aef4ec97
Here are some concrete rules:
– To make a valid vote, visit the above link and leave the titles of your selection. You can select up to two series from the upcoming Autumn season.
– The anime with the most amount of votes in the end will be blogged for at least 12 or 13 episodes.
– Here and here are lists with the shows that are scheduled to air.
– This year I also decided to drop the “No direct sequels”-rule, so you can also nominate series as Index II and Sora no Otoshimono II.
– I haven’t tested this out yet, but at the online survey you should be able to modify your answer after having voted.
– I accept any series with an airdate between September 20th and November 11th.
– The poll will end at September 30, 23:59 GMT. All votes that arrive after that will be ignored.
You can find the results here:
http://www.kwiksurveys.com/results-overview.php?surveyID=KBDEML_aef4ec97&mode=4
Counted together, it makes for this list:
Bakuman : 83
Psychic Detective Yakumo : 82
Togainu no Chi : 57
Kami Nomi zo Shiru Sekai : 53
Toaru Majutsu no Index II : 44
Star Driver Kagayaki no Takuto: 41
Kuragehime : 37
Panty & Stocking With Garterbelt : 25
Iron Man : 24
Tegami Bacchi Reverse: 16
Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru: 13
Otome Youkai Zakuro : 12
Ore no Imouto ga Konnani Kawaii Wake ga Nai : 11
Sora no Otoshimono Forte : 10
Arakawa Under the Bridge 2: 7
Shinryaku! Ika Musume: 7
Yosuga no Sora: 6
Hakuouki 2: 4
MM!: 4
Motto To Love Ru: 2
Super Robot Wars OG: The Inspector: 2
Tantei Opera Milky Holmes: 2
Fortune Arterial: 1
Hyakka Ryouran Samurai Girls: 1
Pokemon Best Wishes: 1
nb: the series in italics are invalid (why Kannagi?)
I’m about to go on a short vacation to Exeter (UK). During that time, I can probably get my hand on some internet connection, but the blog will mostly be dead. You can still use the forums, of course.
I’ll be back next Saturday.
So, for the people who haven’t noticed yet, since about a week the forums are back. You can find them at psgels.co.cc. I know that the first time I tried putting forms to this site it rather failed, but I’ve learned a lot from it and hopefully set it up so that it won’t die out after a few weeks. It’s already looking pretty good with a lot of activity, you can also find the latest updates on the side-bar at the right.
To be honest, at the start of the Aniblog tournament I didn’t think that I’d be able to get so far. I’m really surprised at how many people turned out to support htis blog. Even the ones who never comment but simply read this blog occasionally: thanks. I’d also like to thank Scamp, RP and mefloraine.
Now, since I’m not got at these “thank you”-posts, I’ll just stop here.
Silly puns aside, we’ve reached the semi-finals. Yay!
Today’s opponent is without a doubt the strongest I’ve had to face so far. Heck, they already existed before I even knew what an anime blog was. As usual, you can find the link to the tourney here:
http://aniblogtourney.wordpress.com/2010/07/06/semi-finals/
And also, don’t forget to check out Sea Slugs Anime Blog, if you haven’t already done so. 😉
