Toon Zone Talkback - "Basilisk": Gaze Not Too Long Across the Abyss ...

[Maxie Zeus]

This is the talkback thread for "Basilisk": Gaze Not Too Long Across the Abyss ... (http://news.toonzone.net/article.php?ID=20766).

http://news.toonzone.net/images/2007-11/basilisk/splash-basilisk-lg.jpg

After suffering through Glass Fleet, it sure was a pleasure to watch Basilisk.

After watching it I did a forum search here--doesn't seem to be much discussion of it. That's too bad ...

[SpaceCowboy]

I thought it was pretty good from when I watched it on IFC. The only problem I had with the series was the lack of actual animation in the later half of the series, which is why I'm kinda waiting for the price to drop for the boxset on this one even though its story is pretty good.

[Ed Liu]

I finally grabbed vol. 1 of this series after seeing enough raves about it, and liked it enough to spring for the boxed set one of these days. From the first bit, it seems like it's Romeo and Juliet, except across generations and with ninjas. Everybody knows that everything gets better when you add ninjas.

Just judging by the first volume, this seems to be a good second-step to anime. I don't think I'd recommend this title as a first title to look at in the Wonderful World of Anime, but it's definitely something to recommend after someone's seen the warhorses and wants to go deeper.

One thing I do have to gripe about (and it applies to FUNimation titles in general) is that the subtitles are REALLY hard to read. Geneon used to do them perfectly and ADV's are fine also, but for some reason FUNi's titles don't come out too well on my TV. The dub is fine, but it really seems to me that a title so steeped in Japanese history and that seems to wrap up so many cultural elements ought to be heard in Japanese.

-- Ed

[Maxie Zeus]

I finally grabbed vol. 1 of this series after seeing enough raves about it, and liked it enough to spring for the boxed set one of these days. From the first bit, it seems like it's Romeo and Juliet, except across generations and with ninjas.

Honestly, the "Romeo and Juliet" stuff gets old after awhile. The good news is that by and large it eventually just turns into a MacGuffin. The bad news is that about halfway through the fifth disc the characters, who ought to be doing interesting things while worrying about the MacGuffin, stop doing really interesting things.

Admission against interest:

Oh, alright, I'll admit it: I mostly lost interest after Saemon died. He was so good at screwing with everyone's minds that I just couldn't wait to see what he did next. After that there was just Tenzen, who was loathsome in a much less interesting way.

A more substantive complaint:

It's probably not a secret by now that everyone on the two lists dies, and even if you haven't read spoilers, by the end of the first disc you've probably surmised as much yourself. But I'll put that fact in spoilers anyway.

The problem is pacing: By end of episode 18 or 19 (I don't remember which), there are only four people left. Two of them, you know, will survive until the end of episode 24. So the only question is, which of the other two will die first, and who will kill them, and how. That takes about 3 or 4 episodes to settle, which is a deadly slow pace for something that doesn't have much suspense anyway.

The adaptation would have been better, IMO, if they'd taken a leaf from the 1945 film adaptation of Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None, which saved up four of its ten murders for the last ten minutes of the movie. That gave the audience a lot of suspects and a lot of suspense--is the explorer the killer? the secretary? the doctor? the detective? and who will be next to die?--right up to the end.

Aside from Gennosuke and Oboro, the story should have kept (IMO) at least another five characters alive until episode 21 or 22, so that the narrative wouldn't flag quite so much at the end.


Everybody knows that everything gets better when you add ninjas.

Or zombies, as a friend of mine once pointed out.

Zombie ninjas? Oh my goodness, now I'm so excited I have to go to the bathroom! [/calvin]


One thing I do have to gripe about (and it applies to FUNimation titles in general) is that the subtitles are REALLY hard to read. Geneon used to do them perfectly and ADV's are fine also, but for some reason FUNi's titles don't come out too well on my TV. The dub is fine, but it really seems to me that a title so steeped in Japanese history and that seems to wrap up so many cultural elements ought to be heard in Japanese.

I only watched some of the sub, I'll confess. In principle, I'm with you. But I begrudged having to take my eyes off the show's sweet, juicy visuals for even an instant, and so watched 95% of it dubbed.

[Kitschensyngk]

I put up a review of Basilisk on another forum where I basically described it as "Romeo and Juliet with ninjas".

[PeppeRaskell1]

...FUNimation Channel is advertising that Basilisk will be showing on the channel. No date yet, just "Coming Soon..." (Probably Fall.)

Sounds like it'll be a great change from some of the lightweight shojo fluff that's on FUNi these days (Negima! Fruits Basket, Utena, Peach Girl, & Suzuka)