ToLoveRu is good
Well, I haven’t updated in quite some time (again). Reasons for this are multitudinous: I have once again returned to reading; I watched some movies; I watched well-written serial dramas; I met with my friends; and finally, I finished watching ToLoveRu (yes, I watched until the end of the 26th episode).
I'm sure you're all looking like this right now.
In case some are blinking, yes, you’ve got it right: I finished ToLoveRu. I even believe it was good (despite the bad encoding, and, consequently, subbing). The previous statement may incite some animal rage among some (it may already have ignited most, all right), but I’m not one to write without qualification.
Allow me to breach the field of ethics; while I’m not a philosopher, I do recognize that ethics is the field of philosophy that attempts to answer the question of anything being right or wrong, good or bad.
In this path, allow me to cite Immanuel Kant, as I assume he would have more gravity than I would ever have (especially after watching ToLoveRu).
Kant, in his opening lines for the Grounding of the Metaphysics of Morals, states that there is nothing that is good without qualification except that of a perfectly good will.
He is, of course, exactly right. (Much as I attempted to debunk that statement, that treatise of his is still read, analyzed, quoted, cited, and used in general despite being in existence for more than 200 years, and I cannot exempt myself from seeing the genius of his treatises.)
What some of us believe to be ‘absolute’ goods such as bravery, courage, intelligence, wit, and the like are only all the more hateful when blessed upon a very villainous and perfidious man. Hannibal Lecter, to many, is scarier than any thug in other movies because he possesses the intelligence that everyone wishes for; yet he uses this powerful intelligence for evil. (He is the most memorable villain, after all.)
Having established that, ToLoveRu is good. It is not good with regard to popular consensus; neither is it good with critical criteria. It is, however, good inasmuch as a fanservice anime can be good: it provides a plethora of compromising positions, a hesitant lead, and voluptuous vixens (note the ’s’) who would do anything just to be with the kindly but indecisive lead. It even has tentacles!
I’m sure in certain other qualifications ToLoveRu is also excellent. It may not cater to even just the tastes of the popular masses (I myself hated the latter episodes), but there are some qualifications that make it, as a series, good.
(This is merely a mental exercise, however. I myself notice the faults of the series. Since I’ve been watching serial dramas lately, I highly recommend watching Mad Men: it’s a very haunting series. When the protagonist muses about the idea of a tomorrow and I remained firmly seated with my eyes focused on the computer screen, I simply knew that the series I was watching was nothing short of excellent. It seems I’m not the only one with that opinion: Mad Men won Golden Globes AND Emmys the previous year, and was one of the first cable shows to win awards that it did.)
Tags: Immanuel Kant, reflection, ToLoveRu
October 30th, 2008 at 11:27 pm
So basically what you’re saying is your tastes are such shit and your time so worthless that you can enjoy 26 episodes of some of the worst anime on this planet?
Fucking hell, what happened to you?!
Get thee to an H&C.
October 31st, 2008 at 12:14 am
lolololikit
Well, the main reason I quit on this series was the joyous service was overwhelming; and it was somewhat overlapped with Kanokon’s service at the time of embark. Too much service is plain distracting…. needless to say I dropped both. I don’t know how totali managed.
Now if it was in pure sheer true and jiggling HD, I may have stuck with it. ^^ MAD MEN, eventually “we all go a little crazy sometimes….”
October 31st, 2008 at 12:20 am
lolikitsune:
No, just that I can enjoy stuff that’s ONLY meant to be enjoyed.
RyanA:
Really. Mad Men won all those awards because it’s GOOD.
October 31st, 2008 at 12:34 am
No matter how much crappy anime you watch, Lelouch is still dead.
October 31st, 2008 at 1:27 am
Nice try my friend, but no, ToLoveRu remains shit. Objectively shit.
October 31st, 2008 at 4:31 am
@Ryan A: thank you, thank you.
@Michael: it’s not meant to be enjoyed. It’s meant to make you buy the DVDs to dodge censors. And the DVDs are meant to disappoint while raking in the money of sexually deviant social outcasts.
@Baka-Raptor: wow, you think it’s escapism? A daring theory…
@Hige: h-hey! You’re not supposed to agree with trolls, even when they’re right about something!
October 31st, 2008 at 9:17 am
Yup. That facial expression is right on the money. Kant didn’t do anything to change it either.
October 31st, 2008 at 9:42 am
You can come up with qualifications to justify just about anything is good. I prefer to live in a world where some things are good and some things are shit. And in that world, ToLoveRu is shit.
October 31st, 2008 at 8:14 pm
Baka-Raptor:
Y U DO DIS ;_;
Hige:
That’s why I said it was a mental exercise. Because I know it’s shit. :/
lolikitsune:
Baka-Raptor is right! D:
Y U DO DIS B-R
jp:
Well, I thought I made a sensible argument.
Sorrow-kun:
Point taken.
October 31st, 2008 at 10:22 pm
The anime is only somewhat watchable if you’ve never read that manga at all.
But hey, if anything to get you off railing about Lelouch not being dead yet, it’s good enough in my book.
October 31st, 2008 at 10:24 pm
One word:
Mikan
October 31st, 2008 at 11:16 pm
Mike, change this blog’s name to “Derailed by (the Golden) Darkness.”
Then you can join me in being admins of a new class of aniblog, as explained in my recent press release!
November 1st, 2008 at 12:26 am
Kurogane:
I have never read the manga, so I did find it watchable.
LELOUCH IS DEAD ;A;
Kaze:
Mikan totally rocks. SaiMOE people suck because they tossed Mikan out.
lolikit:
NO. JUST NO.
Despite the fact that I did appreciate ToLoveRu’s infinitesimal perks, I don’t have vitriol enough to be like you.
November 1st, 2008 at 3:28 am
CLENCH THOSE TEETH, Michael. Stop brooding over Lelouch’s death. All you wanted was for C2 to be loved, right? And now you can do that yourself, if you move to Japan and geass a million people into signing the petition to allow 2D marriages…
November 1st, 2008 at 6:40 am
lolikit:
I was kidding.
But I’ll sign those petititions. lol
November 1st, 2008 at 7:18 am
Shit.
November 1st, 2008 at 12:53 pm
I’m sick of cocktease animu. Go away, and take those girls with you.
…Except for Mikan. She stays with me.
November 1st, 2008 at 3:26 pm
No.
November 2nd, 2008 at 9:22 am
I so totally agree. ToLoveRu is good. Also the fanservice. You gotta love em.
November 4th, 2008 at 1:34 am
I so totally agree. ToLoveRu is good. Also the toilet seat cover. You gotta help me choose which one to buy.
November 4th, 2008 at 5:48 am
fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck
why would anyone write an entry like this
>>It is not good with regard to popular consensus
Uhhh, it seems to be doing pretty well in Japan. And as we all know, Japan is all that matters.
November 7th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
Nice try. But no. I hope this entry was a joke.
November 9th, 2008 at 10:33 pm
[...] Giants was, of course, a very bad novel in terms of technical quality. It had little style; it was simply a man talking about his own life as a preacher: in short, it was an inspirational novel. Dale Oldham was a prominent preacher during his time, and all he wrote about was his life as Jesus’s servant. As literature, it was horrendous; for my purposes, however, it was just what I needed. I needed something to remind me what bad books were, and it totally gave me that: the novel was saccharine and pleasant, and those two adjectives aren’t something that could be found in most classics. In the end, this novel was good just as ToLoveRu is good. [...]
November 16th, 2008 at 1:36 pm
wat
December 21st, 2008 at 6:53 pm
Yey! I read all your posts! Happy Winter Solstice Free bird!
Tell baka-raptor I’m a fan of his! Haha.
December 21st, 2008 at 6:56 pm
Really. I’m a fan of his posts. Haha. Bold amber, screaming letters. Ridiculous but ridiculous. Hahaha