Shigurui

[Andrew Cunningham]

Anime version of an infamously violent samurai manga.
It has a certain amount of freakshow appeal, and occasionally managed to be ponderously intense, but the pacing was really, really leaden. Entering a flashback in the middle of a flashback was a bad idea as well - I feel like the story never really settled on a hook.
The result was more boring than anything else.
And it's almost entirely in black and white, which seemed like they were trying to tone down the violence...this is basically not the kind of project that can work on TV any more, even Wowow.

[DKL]

Hmmm... I've been wanting to see this (never read the manga, but since it's a Madhouse project... well...) as I was assuming that this was from the same dude that did Texhnolyze (but, uhh... translation seems all over the place, so I can't tell for sure)...

Uhh... Hiroshi Hamasaki... who I think was doing storyboards with Kawajiri over in Highlander: The Search for Vengeance

(unless the dude in Vengenance is a completely different person altogether... all I know is that some sequences felt like they were lifted out of Texhnolyze *specifically the flashback with Marcus and Moya in it*... ah... the troubles of being an English-speaking fan)

...

Wonder if anyone will sub this?

Also, it seems to go under the name "Shigurui" everywhere else (well, ANN)

[DKL]

OH wow...

I saw the summer promotional video and this thing looks BEAUTIFUL...

(and, judging by the style... yeah, it's definitely Hamasaki; liked the detailed individual reactions of those samurai dudes)

Anyway, given that I enjoyed the stylized, yet slow approach in Texhnolyze (where there's almost like NO dialogue int he first episode), there's a good chance that I'll like this...

...

Just hope that someone subs it soon...

[Andrew Cunningham]

Originally Posted by DKL

(and, judging by the style... yeah, it's definitely Hamasaki; liked the detailed individual reactions of those samurai dudes)

That does explain why there's no color in it, and some of the more bizarre stylistic choices.
There's a lot of strengths to it, but it felt like it still hasn't arrived at the beginning of the story. I wonder if this was really the right director to adapt this particular manga.
I didn't hate it, and I may well give it a second chance - depending on the number of other new anime that I decide to follow. I've already got four shows I'm barely keeping up with, and Doctor Who appears to have given way to John From Cincinnati and Burn Notice...

[DKL]

Well, it's really up to you to decide; you have the original subject matter on hand, so you can base an opinion in that context.

If I ever get to see this, I'm most likely just gonna put it against Texhnolyze.

(or just look at it as an individual piece of work)

But yeah, all things considering, Texhnolyze had an extremely bizzare and unconventional style of storytelling (but then, maybe whoever was putting the production together thought that the manga [for Shigurui] was bizzare in its own way too, hence the decision to stake Hamasaki on this project); from what I could remember, most of the exposition [in Texhnolyze] was done through shots of various parts of the world in order to "explain" it and the interpretation of how that world functioned was left to the viewer.

It didn't feel careless though since there was more than enough detail (in both the design and the art) that allowed the viewer to infer what was going on, but it DEFINITELTY took its time.

(coupled together with extremely cryptic dialogue... yeah... I can sort of see how that would come across as boring... but, I was fond of it since it felt successfully mysterious)

But yes... I'm VERY interested in this show (and... yeah, the trailer was really glorious... with the awesome music and stuff).

[Andrew Cunningham]

I like mysterious, but you need to give me a little basis to ground the show and make the mystery intriguing instead of off-putting.

I'd actually not read the Shigurui manga, but I just read the first three chapters and might well pick it up soon.
The place where they ended the episode was a strange choice - the end of the third chapter ended up hooking me a lot better than the proceeding events, and I can't help but feel if the director had moved things along a little less ponderously he might have had a more effective first episode.
Likewise, the vague attempts at toning down the freakshow gore made a few bits hard to follow that were quite strikingly grusome in the manga.

[roastedpekingduck]

I could stand the gore in Texhnolyze, but I just couldn't get through the first episode of Shigurui. I could see that the series was going to have top-notch production values, from the artsy OP, to the tense music, and great animation...but if the gore is this intense throughout the series, I'm not going to last. Call me weak, but I just had to stop during the finger breaking part. One thing I can't stand is seeing fingers being broken, and the other thing that really disgusts me are eye injuries, though I was able to withstand the eye injury in Texhnolyze after a lot of grimacing.

[Andrew Cunningham]

And here I was complaining that the violence was severely toned down from the manga...

[DKL]

Well, I dunno... I find it strangely appropriate to depict the violence like that... but yeah, it's pretty brutal... much due in part to the fact of how realistic it's portrayed, I imagine.

I mean, it's graphic, but it's not overly-exaggerated or super-glorified; it's pretty raw... or something like that... giving enough time to convey the grimmace and stuff.

(adds to the realisim and atmosphere and stuff)

But yeah, it's a pretty neat story and I like how they use visuals to tell it; little things like those adviser dudes bowing at that shogun-brother guy's feet painted a pretty big picture:

"We don't like this BS, but we have to go along with it since he's the boss."

And on the guy's face, it's all: "I wanna see people get fucked up really badly, so I don't give a rat's ass what you punk-bitches think."

I'm definitely on board for this; it's those little details that really make it awesome.

I hope they bring this to the US though; I'd love to own this on DVD.

[roastedpekingduck]

Originally Posted by Andrew Cunningham

And here I was complaining that the violence was severely toned down from the manga...

I didn't care much for the intestine part or sword injuries, but the finger breaking just made me turn off Shigurui.

I personally thought a bit of the violence was unrealistic. Pulling out your intestines is quite hard to do, because there is a sticky membrane that holds it in place. It would take a ton of strength to just pull it out. Then again, I rarely have seen realistic gore in anime.

The show mainly just made me feel REALLY uncomfortable and disconcerted, and it just didn't appear like something that I was going to watch and enjoy instead of suffer through.