User Reviews

I had very little expectations going into this and that's definitely the best way to experience it, so I'll keep it brief. I've watched the movie and read the first book, and this feels like a perfect combination of the 2 while having it's own style. Both the books and film are very funny, but there's just something about the sense of humor of this episode that made me laugh just a little bit more. The video game references are stylishly done and make this a really fun watch, it's so creative and vibrant. There's also huge inspiration from anime and I think it pays off incredibly well. I'm extremely excited to see what direction they take this unique show in.

I remember watching the first part of the movie.

I was hoping that this would be a different experience, that maybe the time to pace it more slowly would allow less to be lost in adaptation but this first episode seems more or less the same beats as the first 30 minutes of that movie.

I can feel something there I want to like. I can feel what this might have been. Maybe it will get better but I am not motivated to watch more episodes unless I am starved for good animation on Netflix.

I want to critique the story they're telling but it's just not much of a story. There isn't much to criticize in terms of narrative because there's barely a narrative (so far).

He's into some chick and her exes therefore want to beat him up. I might have been intrigued if this was my first exposure to the franchise.

But no. I was put out to find how similar the adaptation was to the movie so far. For me, a new adaptation is a statement that the first one was flawed and therefor this new one will fix that. Maybe just because the comic book was a series and had to be redacted to fit 90 minutes, I don't know.

So far what I have mentioned is enough for me to not be enamoured with the show but I typically stick with things like this.

It's the visual style and just general presentation style that is repelling me from watching episode 2 at this time.

Conceptually I dig it. It probably worked very well in comic book form. The imagery of this is real world but stylized in a way informed by retro videogames and certain other popular culture references. Each character is introduced with a quick profile including a "fun fact" which is not that fun (maybe that's the point).

I do not like being told someone is the "cool gay room-mate". I'd rather observe that through what the characters say and do and maybe some non-linguistic story-telling because, you know, it's a tv show. To me this is just lazy story-telling. You might point out that it's a stylistic choice but I cannot shake the impression that they are cowardly hiding behind all the gimmicks because on some level they know that they have an un-intriguing plot and null characters. I guess this kind of thing was fresh in 2002 but it's just aged badly even over just 20 years.

One improvement is the New Yorker. In the movie I was scratching my head on what Scott was doing with her when I would totally have stuck with the other girl, Naivz. (I can only guess the spelling). In this version, Naivz is there for currently no discernible reason but her role has been reduced and New Yorker is actually a lot more charasmatic. Her interaction with Scott actually had some charm and eroticism to it.

I did not care for the the suggestion that Naivz was "an angel". Totally informed attribute.

So yeah, it might all kick off in episode 2 but for now it's kind of a waste of resources.

I watched in the French dub and I would recommend it.

Please don't call this an anaim or manga, it is neither of those things.