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Post by Vincent Dolan on Oct 28, 2016 19:26:28 GMT
Drifters was pretty okay, though the Black King is making it easier with each episode to see why the manga readers think his identity is actually Jesus. I got a chuckle out of the scene where Olmeinu reveals how she can speak their language and all that followed. Should get a pretty sweet battle sequence next week, so that's something to look forward to.
On the other hand, Luger Code, which I waited for quite some time, was apparently just that one episode, which is kinda depressing; I'm now down to a measly four shows this season.
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Post by Vincent Dolan on Oct 30, 2016 1:57:09 GMT
Izetta was quite good; got a bit of a chuckle out of Izetta destroying a column in that ancient castle just to demonstrate a bit of what she can do. Also really liked seeing the two blush a bit when Izetta offered Fine a hand up, since it just really adds to the ship. Meanwhile, the Germanian emperor is thrilled at the development and wants Izetta's powers and we get another alternate name: Romulus Federation. Curious what could have caused that. Did Rome never fall in this world? Izetta, as the scientist dude who'd previously captured her surmised, launches a surprise attack to demonstrate her powers to the world and boy dos she accomplish that; interestingly, it appears the tanks exploding because of her lances is caused by friction creating sparks that rapidly cooks off the ammo. Later, scientist dude recruits the pilot captain Izetta shot down previously. It's cool that he survived, even if he's going to cause problems for Fine and Izetta in the future. Then we get to see a pretty detailed map of where the ley lines are and they apparently only extend under half of Eylstadt, so naturally the Germanian counterattack comes from the one place on their borders furthest from any of them. Newbie Jonas from a couple episodes back makes his return, which surprised me; I kinda figured him for a one-shot character. They actually come up with some pretty clever solutions for "faking" the witch's powers, including a rather surprising appearance of silenced air rifles. The fact they also managed to accomplish their goal of closing off one of their greatest weak points and deny Germania their route to Romulus at the same time was pretty sweet. Naturally, the whole ruse gets exposed via convenient eavesdropping. Luckily, it was Jonas doing the listening, but with the Germanian spy looking for Jonas, it bodes ill for the future.
On another note, as much as I'm enjoying Izetta, I can't wait for this season to end. I've only 4 shows this season, the fewest I've had in some time, whereas I've already got 11 lined up for next season and that's just out of the shows already revealed, so next season's looking like a return to form. As an added bonus, I checked AniChart earlier and found out that Gabriel Dropout, the manga I mentioned in the last thread, is going to be premiering next season, as well. Looks like this winter is going to be comedy season.
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Ifrit
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Post by Ifrit on Oct 30, 2016 3:50:59 GMT
Been watching the supposed first anime ever created: Astro Boy. While you can really see its age, it's still quite timeless. I'm personally amazed at how such an old anime can still keep me watching it. I feel like my DVD collection is missing episodes though
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Post by Adrian Jordan on Oct 30, 2016 4:48:02 GMT
Astro Boy is another one I always mean to look up.
I'm behind in almost everything. Got caught up on Izetta and Drifters, but this week has kind of sucked so not a lot of time to indulge.
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Ifrit
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Post by Ifrit on Oct 30, 2016 4:54:12 GMT
If you can look past the ancient animation and poorly done voices, it's concepts are still amazing. It's gotten mad feels out of me. At least 3 episodes per disc. Most are equivalent to filler. I can see this forum loving the character Atlas. I did anyway
This show deals with pretty deep concepts and utilizes a lot of aspects of psychoanalysis. It's surprisingly not obvious about it either
If you miss those aspects you might think I'm over selling it though
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Ifrit
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Post by Ifrit on Oct 30, 2016 5:05:52 GMT
I have an unconventional taste in anime I realize. Adrian, you are cool. You always seem interested in my contributions. I imagine we would be pretty good anime watching homies
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Post by Adrian Jordan on Oct 30, 2016 5:53:33 GMT
Would I still be cool if I admitted that yeah, I am cool, hahaha.
My taste in anime is the same as my books and movies and music. Only two categories as far as I'm concerned: Good and not good. I've gone to watch shows that, on paper, suit me to a tee, only to hate it because the makers horrifically botched it or got too ham-handed. I've also watched shows that I previously would not have touched with a ten foot pole and loved them. I think it was Vincent who recommended ToraDora to me, and did so when I was still an action packed, blood and guts and ninjas and super-powers guy. Slice of life, RomCom High School love story, and I thought it was fantastic. I don't mind played out cliches and premises as long as they are done well. It is nice to see something different, even if it's just a different take on the same ol' same ol'. So I try to keep an open mind on suggestions, as so far my own initial impressions and book cover judging have been shown to fail me on a lot of occasions, hahaha.
Funny story that I just know Vincent and random are going to love since they are also great lovers of the show: in 6th or 7th grade a buddy of mine wanted to watch Fist of the North Star. My only anime acquisitions at the time were that and Akira. I was hesitant to loan it, as I could not afford at the time to replace it(long, looong before I ever owned a computer to torrent it, and there weren't really sites where you could do that anyway, DVD's didn't exist yet and we didn't have enough money for food so spending the $19.99 plus sales tax were out of the question) so he gave me a copy of the first VHS tape of Evangelion. I thought it looked terrible based on the cover and the description on the box didn't catch me at all. Mistake. Got bored and watched it, one of my favorite shows of any kind of all time. Long story short(now that I've already made you read the long story), I've learned that I cannot be trusted to know what I will like, hahaha.
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Post by randomnobody on Oct 30, 2016 6:06:03 GMT
YOU WA SHAAKKU!!! I mean, uh...Fist of the North Star/Hokuto no Ken was a good one, very 1980-something. I do kind of miss the shounen of those days...but not really? I'm ignoring the rest. I'd love to be able to get my hands on some of the old classics, too, like Astro Boy (apparently "Tetsuswan Atom" in Japan; didn't know that), Gegege no Kitarou (1968, 1971, 1988, 1996, and 2007 all...especially 2007, dat Nekomusume I mean uh...anime, right guys!?) and even Sazae-san and hell, why not Doraemon. But it's just hard to come by them. We missed out on Izetta today; she worked in the morning and we kind of took a nap well into the afternoon, then got out and did a bunch of errand-like things until late into the evening when she went home. Izetta tomorrow when she gets off work again. Not much else to report on, but how 'bout that Keijo?
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Post by Vincent Dolan on Oct 30, 2016 6:27:38 GMT
Evangelion? What's that? Isn't that that lesser Gundam? xD
Anyway, I'm not sure if it was Random or I who recommended ToraDora to you, though I do remember that I was the one to recommend you watch the final episode in its entirety, since the stinger at the end seriously changes how you feel about the end of the series. Of course, I only remembered to recommend it because I'd just finished re-watching the series, myself.
But that said, yeah, it's pretty important to keep a relatively open mind when approaching new anime. To provide an example of my own: back during the Spring 2014 season, I started the season with 10 shows to watch on my list, which is about the norm for me. By about the 5th week of the season, I was down to 2. By the 7th, I'd dropped even those and instead picked up No Game No Life, which I'd initially passed over for the pastel colors on the poster and the lackluster synopsis (at the time, it was "they're great gamers that use games like chess to solve problems" or something to that effect) because, to me, pastel colors on a poster typically mean it's aimed at young kids. I was exceptionally wrong and it's become one of my favorites, yet I only picked it up because Random and Adrian kept mentioning it week after week and, to be frank, I was kinda desperate for something to watch.
More recently, I initially didn't check out the comedy series Tanaka-kun wa Itsumade mo Kedaruge (Tanaka-kun is Always Listless) because it came across as "he's lazy, haha", which gets old pretty quick, but it turned out to be a pretty fun show that didn't ever really fall back on just making fun of Tanaka's laziness, except perhaps the extents to which he'll go to be lazy.
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Post by Vincent Dolan on Oct 30, 2016 12:48:04 GMT
Finally got to watch the new IBO; my laptop's been kinda finicky lately, so it took almost an hour to download.
Anyway, good episode. It spent a fair amount just on the character interactions, specifically among the Earth branch, who we haven't really seen much of. Chad, former helmsman of the Isaribi and now head of the Earth branch, has to get dressed up for a ceremony and his friends help ease his nerves before Radice, who's basically a Teiwaz spy, comes in to ruin the mood; they note after he leaves that he's been listening to their suggestions more before joking that it's probably because he's just given up on them because of how dumb they are. Radice, eavesdropping outside, says that's exactly it. Aston, the former Brewers member from season 1, is getting a fair bit of attention and it seems Takaki's younger sister, the one he's working for Tekkadan (and CGS before them) to put through school, may have a bit of a crush on him. Interestingly, I couldn't remember Aston's full name, so I looked him up and, as of season 2, it's Aston Altland, meaning he was essentially adopted by Akihiro Altland, which is kinda sweet seeing as Aston's former organization (though, not by choice, mind) is responsible for the death of Akihiro's younger brother.
Back on Mars, the main branch is preparing for the trip to deliver the newest MS frames (the Shidens) to the Earth branch, a bit behind schedule thanks to the Dawn Horizon Corps (the pirates) and we see Atra has basically become Tekkadan's full time cook when she hands Orga a late meal while trying to get him to let her heat it up for him; amusingly, Mika comes in a moment later and asks him why he doesn't heat his food up. He then wonders if Orga's lost weight before dropping a few of his dates/plums onto Orga's tray. We even get a bit of interaction between Julietta and Gali-Char. Hearing him speak more than a single sentence brings to light how strange his voice sounds now and it makes me wonder if it's just his helmet muffling his voice or something more serious. Then the plot really kicks in at the ceremony for the Arbrau Defense Force with an assassination attempt on Makanai involving a bomb disguised as a vase of flowers; Chad, upon hearing the flowers were a very recent change, quickly puts two and two together and tackles Makanai before it goes off. Both survive, but neither regains consciousness before the end of the episode and things start taking a downward spiral.
As it turns out, Radice is partially responsible for the bombing and his accomplice, Galan Mossa, is implied to be in the pocket of the Arianrhod fleet. SAU, another of Earth's economic blocks, is looking at a potential war with Arbrau and looking to Gjallarhorn for arbitration. Aston, meanwhile, is showing some fierce loyalty to Takaki, saying he'll do anything to ensure his and Fuka's happiness, even if that only amounts to killing or dying in their place. Back on Mars, they're now rushing with their delivery plans, sending both Akihiro and Mika along to help things on Earth; Kudelia shows up to tag along, partially out of concern for Makanai, and we get a return of her completely practical traveling outfits in the form of jeans, boots, and a red jacket with her hair in a braid. Considering the typical clothing worn by the ojou-sama of a Gundam series, this is still really surprising to me, even after all last season.
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Ifrit
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Post by Ifrit on Oct 30, 2016 15:47:10 GMT
Lesser gundam Hahahaha. The word you're looking for is improved!
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Ifrit
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Post by Ifrit on Oct 30, 2016 15:51:54 GMT
Would I still be cool if I admitted that yeah, I am cool, hahaha. My taste in anime is the same as my books and movies and music. Only two categories as far as I'm concerned: Good and not good. I've gone to watch shows that, on paper, suit me to a tee, only to hate it because the makers horrifically botched it or got too ham-handed. I've also watched shows that I previously would not have touched with a ten foot pole and loved them. I think it was Vincent who recommended ToraDora to me, and did so when I was still an action packed, blood and guts and ninjas and super-powers guy. Slice of life, RomCom High School love story, and I thought it was fantastic. I don't mind played out cliches and premises as long as they are done well. It is nice to see something different, even if it's just a different take on the same ol' same ol'. So I try to keep an open mind on suggestions, as so far my own initial impressions and book cover judging have been shown to fail me on a lot of occasions, hahaha. Funny story that I just know Vincent and random are going to love since they are also great lovers of the show: in 6th or 7th grade a buddy of mine wanted to watch Fist of the North Star. My only anime acquisitions at the time were that and Akira. I was hesitant to loan it, as I could not afford at the time to replace it(long, looong before I ever owned a computer to torrent it, and there weren't really sites where you could do that anyway, DVD's didn't exist yet and we didn't have enough money for food so spending the $19.99 plus sales tax were out of the question) so he gave me a copy of the first VHS tape of Evangelion. I thought it looked terrible based on the cover and the description on the box didn't catch me at all. Mistake. Got bored and watched it, one of my favorite shows of any kind of all time. Long story short(now that I've already made you read the long story), I've learned that I cannot be trusted to know what I will like, hahaha. I had a similar experience with NGE. I had the entire show available to me and decided to see what all the buzz was. Truth be told, it didn't hook me right away. But I was really bored and decided to turn it into a ritual for myself. A couple of episodes before bed. I found it kind of dull at first but kept on watching it. This is one show that I've found the amazing parts and mediocre parts aren't at all blended. It would totally catch me off guard when it would dive deeper into characters. Especially with Asuka. She just went from chaotic chick to having a reason for being the way she was. They didn't try to pass her personality off as normal (even her peers found her to be eccentric) and she wasn't chaotic for nothing, like many of the other red haired angry copies that every other show decided they needed to have too. I never seen such. Standard archetype so well explained. She was my absolute favourite character in the show In other anime, they always pass off their abusive tsundre character as if she's normal and everyone accepts that, like as if it's a normal cute stereotype. "Yea that's how she is, she just likes to abuse people for nothing, but it's cool". In real life, people would find that kind of person to be a head case. That's exactly what NGE did differently. Everyone knew she was nuts. She was a loner because of how she was. I enjoyed this aspect cause they weren't trying to be wacky and cartoony. It was supposed to be quite normal and it really emphasized how much issues she had
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Post by Vincent Dolan on Oct 30, 2016 17:36:34 GMT
In defense of tsunderes, very few are actually physically violent and those that are tend to be called out on it; the only physically violent tsundere I've seen that's never called on her abuse is Kanzaki H. Aria from Hidan no Aria, which is particularly egregious since she gets violent with guns. Mind, that's only counting the non-harem tsunderes, who tend to be fairly violent because the harem protagonist is almost always of the lucky pervert type (Poster Child: Yuuki Rito of To Love-Ru/Darkness) and always ends up in her or someone else's cleavage, triggering pervert revenge mode. It's a quick, repeatable gag to keep the status quo, because that's about all most harem series have.
That aside, most non-harem tsunderes don't get called on their behavior because, for the most part, their personalities are actually pretty relatable. You've got the Type B that's generally sweet and kind to all they meet... Except that one person in their life who can push every single button they've got without trying and, well, don't we all have someone like that in our lives? We may love them to death, but they piss right the hell off a lot of the time, so we refuse to admit it. Then you've got the Type A that's mostly pretty grouchy or grumpy or just plain rude except to a special few, which I think sums up most people before their morning coffee.
Anyway, on the topic of Evangelion, I've honestly never been able to get into it, despite multiple attempts; it just can't hold my interest for more than a few episodes. I think it mainly has to do with, as I remember it, Shinji being a whiny little brat. No surprises there, since that hateability seems to be an inherent trait in any character named "Shinji". Kind of a shame, really, because Evangelion had some interesting concepts for a mech anime, but if the protagonist sucks, it's going to be really hard to watch the series and have to deal with them. I honestly can't count the number of anime I've dropped for that very reason.
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Ifrit
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Post by Ifrit on Oct 30, 2016 18:17:17 GMT
Did you watch the English or Japanese version?
I never really found him whiney. He's just a kid. Ever see kids these days? Go to tumblr and you will see what I mean. Not unlike shinji. Most just have unrealistic expectations of anime main characters. Not everyone can be a strong brave person. But his redeeming feature is his ability to over come himself. Kids usually have a desire to be nurtured and given attention. When I watched the show, I wasn't looking to relate with Shinji
Plus the show came out when Japan was going through their own crises. Almost as if it was to inspire those who felt weak to over come theirselves for the good of their nation
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Post by Vincent Dolan on Oct 30, 2016 19:08:29 GMT
Japanese; I refuse to watch dubs, with the sole exclusion of Cowboy Bebop. That's one of the few dubs I find to truly be worth watching. Too many just give such a phoned in performance that you lose all emotional impact, to say nothing of the nuances you lose in the translation (seriously, there's a scene in Gundam 00 where a character has a minor mental breakdown accompanied solely by shifts in pronoun from "ore" to "boku" to finally "watashi", all of which translate to "I", so you lose quite a bit when doing so; plus, said character sticks with "boku" for a few episodes after this and it gets picked up on by a comrade which, again, you can't in English).
Anyway, I prefer to be as far away from kids as possible, which is exactly why I never was one. In all seriousness, though, I agree that not every protagonist needs to be strong and brave, especially not at the outset, but Evangelion, to me, always felt like it was reveling in Shinji's weakness in the beginning; like it wanted to rub your face in the fact that he's weak and doesn't want to fight. Other series have accomplished the same thing with more subtlety, which may be part of my problem with the show. All its subtlety (if there is any) seems to be towards the end or the outer fringes of it, whereas the rest is pretty in your face while pretending not to be. Mind, it's been a couple years since my last attempt at the show, so I could be misremembering a bit, but I figured after the fourth or fifth try, it'd be best to just mark it off as one of those that doesn't appeal to me and be done with it.
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Post by sadatoni on Oct 30, 2016 19:49:01 GMT
So I've been watching anime for around a year now (I'm not counting when I was a kid and my favorite "cartoon" was the original Astro Boy), and I have managed to watch the original Evangelion (subbed version - I agree with Vincent). It never made much sense. Particularly the last 2 or 3 episodes. In fact, I never figured out who or what the angels were, why they were attacking, and how they knew the number of attacks that would eventually occur. Didn't like Shinji, Rei was interesting, as was Asuka. Not enough there to get me to watch it again or any of the reboots.
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Post by Adrian Jordan on Oct 30, 2016 22:31:27 GMT
Evangelion was not easily detangled for me either. I didn't really understand a lot of it until I had regular internet access, which was a long time after I had watched it. The original creator of the series never meant for it to be completely understood, so there just aren't answers to a lot of questions. I'll add a few details that may help. Probably won't allow you to miraculously enjoy the show, but at least you'll know, hahaha.
Angels are humans that developed the same as us emblematically, but then cast off human form. They are thought to be formed from one of the two original vessels, Adam and Eve. Angels come from Adam, and Lilin(us) come from Eve.
The spawn of Adam are attracted to Eve. We keep the real Eve, who is also called Lilith, in a subterranean vault and pinned by the Lance of Longinus. We cloned Rei from the Eve vessel and created an artificial "soul" to inhabit/function it, and it's thought that the Angels kind of caught scent of her and that's why they showed up. Adam and Eve were made to propagate life on all planets, and it would make sense that the Angels would do whatever was in their power to reach her when they found out where she was.
The Evangelion Unit's are essentially angels that we made and weaponized/enslaved. Unit's 01 and 02(Shinji and Asuka) have the souls of their respective mothers inhabiting them, which is why you will see them occasionally self-activate in order to protect them. Unit 00(Rei) does not, and is theorized to run off of some kind of technology and this is why hers often malfunctions.
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Ifrit
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Post by Ifrit on Oct 30, 2016 23:15:07 GMT
Evangelion was not easily detangled for me either. I didn't really understand a lot of it until I had regular internet access, which was a long time after I had watched it. The original creator of the series never meant for it to be completely understood, so there just aren't answers to a lot of questions. I'll add a few details that may help. Probably won't allow you to miraculously enjoy the show, but at least you'll know, hahaha. Angels are humans that developed the same as us emblematically, but then cast off human form. They are thought to be formed from one of the two original vessels, Adam and Eve. Angels come from Adam, and Lilin(us) come from Eve. The spawn of Adam are attracted to Eve. We keep the real Eve, who is also called Lilith, in a subterranean vault and pinned by the Lance of Longinus. We cloned Rei from the Eve vessel and created an artificial "soul" to inhabit/function it, and it's thought that the Angels kind of caught scent of her and that's why they showed up. Adam and Eve were made to propagate life on all planets, and it would make sense that the Angels would do whatever was in their power to reach her when they found out where she was. The Evangelion Unit's are essentially angels that we made and weaponized/enslaved. Unit's 01 and 02(Shinji and Asuka) have the souls of their respective mothers inhabiting them, which is why you will see them occasionally self-activate in order to protect them. Unit 00(Rei) does not, and is theorized to run off of some kind of technology and this is why hers often malfunctions. Wonderful explanation. This is how I've seen it too. As for the ending, I've always seen it as the result of all subconscious minds melting together slowly in the premoridal soup they all became a part of. Shinji gaining the option to decide how their future should be (like a new utopia or a continuation of their previous world) symbolized its efforts to assimilate his mind with theirs. It wasn't so much that I seen him as being chosen, rather, I seen at as his exact experience with his mind slowly being assimilated into the mass consciousness they all became a part of, and in order for him to ease up and accept this fate, he was given two options to choose from. He ended up choosing his old life with his old problems because his mind didn't want to let go of his old life, even though he was offered paradise. At least it's how I seen it The show borrows elements from gnostic Christianity. Many gnostic Christians don't see the bible as a religious book of worship and history like most Christians do, but instead see it as a metaphorical representation of psychoanalysis. In the show, I believe they play on these concepts, and it's quite evident that psychology plays a major part of the show, from the shallow stuff to the deep stuff Shinji represents a fragile ego struggling to let go of its grips on life and the world and one that struggles to come to terms to accept life for what it is. He can't let go of his past which hinders his movement forward, and in death he is unable to let go of his life. Who he is and who he has become, despite his dissatisfaction with it
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Post by Adrian Jordan on Oct 30, 2016 23:27:02 GMT
Yeah, as far as I've been able to figure it he was chosen by Rei to be the person who had control(Gendo wanted it so that he could reunite with Yui, but Rei chose Shinji instead) and the scenes shown were possible outcomes. Shinji finally mans up and decides not to recreate everything to suit only him, and chooses an option where everybody has the chance to come back and pick up who they were. It's left ambiguous as to what will ultimately happen, as they have the will to either stay connected in the LCL sea or eventually reemerge. Once I understood this I thought it was a great ending. It was done the way it was because the studio was out of time and money and couldn't do it up the way they wanted. Then Death and Rebirth and End of Evangelion came out and booted me in the nuts, hahaha.
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Ifrit
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Post by Ifrit on Oct 30, 2016 23:35:37 GMT
I never took at as him literally rebuilding everything. I always saw it as something that happened in his personal experience with the afterlife. A continuation of his specific mind. I always imagined that everyone had their own version but since he was the main character you saw his continuation of consciousness.
Not saying anyone has to agree. But it played with the original concepts better this way, for me. To me, every character was a psychological concept as opposed to just the traditional story telling formula where everything is literally focused around one guy that's probably based on the creator. The way I see it makes it in such a way that it not only accepts their one dimensional character designs, but makes use of them being that way.
The beauty of interpretation
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