If Guff was still around he would’ve no doubt force fed the series to me long ago, since he loves this kind of stuff, but ah well. *sadface*

0rions last blog post..Code Geass - Trainwrecking with Style

Karuras last blog post..Final Thoughts: Shion no Ou

@Absolutely_Steve: the trouble with making a show so visually unusual is that it diverts attention away from everything else - in some ways it makes the production less accessible, which isn’t really a good thing. I personally found it to be a refreshing change but it really is like Marmite - you either like it or you don’t.

@coburn: I think Warp’s redemption was so poweful as a plot device I agree that resurrecting everyone else didn’t feel quite right. I mean, he beat the plant and saved his planet, saved himself and got the girl…already a happy ending!

@Ez: after the death, destruction and everything else, it really was quite something to see the final scene as a blissful moment of togetherness for Kaiba and Neiro. Like Kemo I guess, you can strip away all the inventiveness and find a good old sweet romance at the heart of it all.

That aside, I loved it to bits! =D

Ezs last blog post..Tetsuwan Birdy Decode - 4

And back on that point I can see where you’re coming from with the destruction prone Kaiba going toward it being more acceptable than the crazy rambling of Popo. Even so I still think they could have executed it much better than they did so it still leaves me a bit sour on the whole thing. Maybe had they cut down on the pointless action I would have liked it more since, while it gave us some great visuals, one of the things I liked about Kaiba was that it didn’t have to follow the usual course of “action = good” to be entertaining.

@ABSteve Re. the pseudo-instrumentality:
When it first cropped up with Popo I also thought it was fairly weak and did indeed come out of nowhere. But when it was the crazy raving uber-powered Kaiba threatening it I thought it worked. I mean, he’s an invincible demi-god. He can survive anything, and he can destroy everyone if he doesn’t want to be redeemed. I thought that his sudden wilfully destructive attitude was in some ways prepared by the depressing scenes with the fake-Warp who showed that bad path mentality.

It was a bit fast for a final episode, which had me thinking that the desired affect was to move from ‘beat the baddie’ into ‘destruction = bad reaction’ as quickly and unnervingly as possible. to really hammer home that this guy used to kill 13 people before breakfast every day. My problem with the ending was really with the dead guys all getting up. I was OK with the wildly dramatised threat of annihilation - but sudden resurrections was a bit much.

coburns last blog post..Concluding Kaiba

“…at least didn’t go all Instrumentality on us.”

Just dangerously close. That was one of the few things that I didn’t like about Kaiba. The entire forced evolution via being devoured by the Kaiba plant thing did not sit well with me. Not because it was bad so much as it seemed like a silly thing for the series to jump to suddenly. Looking back I can see where the general idea might be able to develop from, but much like you said the ending seemed rushed and due to that I don’t think it worked nearly as well as it could have if it had a bit more time to introduce a few more reasons why that path was being contemplated.

Other than the rushing of the last couple episodes however Kaiba was certainly an excellent, thought-provoking anime. It’s going to be tough to top it when it comes to being the best anime of ‘08, but the fall season looks to be packing a punch and a half so we’ll see.

My confusion over the plot was so great that I watched the finale not even knowing I had accidentally skipped eps 10 and 11. I realized it halfway through. Yet I still enjoyed it. It’s just so damn good to look at.

One day (when the backlog is taken care of–HA!) I will give it the viewing it deserves.