MovieChat Forums > Shingeki no Kyojin (2013) Discussion > Great show but overly long monologues?

Great show but overly long monologues?

posted 9 years ago by stalkingvengeance
20 replies | jump to latest

So I just started this show the other day, and am now on episode 13. Really liking it, haven't seen a good anime like this in some time (and basically no childish elements, woo!), but there are SO many of these monologues that take over each episode. At some very critical points, characters go into this long winded speech which, while relevant, kind of seems impractical at that point in time. Someone is about to be crushed, ripped apart, whatever, and the person about to save them is standing there like, "yes, now is the time to FIGHT! Yes, FIGHT, fightings what we have to do because fighting wins and we have to win because we will die. I'm done letting people die, I don't want to see people die anymore, so i'm going to fight!" (maybe a bit exaggerated ;) )

Again, I am very much loving this show, but at these points I want to give some of those characters a slap back into their reality.

[–] daglesj 9 years ago

Yes this is the one major flaw with this show in that the monologues are totally inappropriate to the situation at hand.

When in a stressful dangerous situation where death and destruction are going on around you, standing there crying thinking "Why, Why can't I fight them? Why am I so weak? Why am I letting them all die? Why am I unable to move? Why didn't I put on clean underpants today?" etc. etc. etc. just feels totally wrong. You would be running or acting, not whining to yourself. Just slows the whole scene to a crawl.

Especially odd when those characters have all been trained for three years to fight the very foe they are wetting their pants over. Not very effective training when it seems 90% of your fighting force just runs away or stands there to get eaten.

It's wrong and ruins the flow of the plot. I found myself hitting the FFWD button a lot. In fact if they edited out all the unnecessary fear monologues you could edit the show down to 18 episodes.Very frustrating and doesn't move the plot along.

I gave up watching Death Note for a similar reason. By episode 20 I got fed up with the constant "I know that he knows that I know that he knows that I know I know that he knows I know....

Is it a Japanese writing style? Must be why I like Gogol 13...very little dialogue!

Also...why the hell does everyone have to have a bead of sweat on their face at all times? That gets really distracting once you notice it.

Other than that...it's great.

[–] Near-L 9 years ago

That's the mainly reason why i gave this 7 and not 9

But in the other hand, if the show kept me interested even with those exaggerated self doubt moments, it means its good.

Actually some other elements bothered me a little, like, can anyone explain how:

*SPOILERS*

When the female colossal titan crushes one scout member (the older one, don't remember his name) with her hand, you can see blood and it is pretty clear that he died, yet in the next moment he slices her hand and get out unharmed.

Maybe it was only the point of view of the other scouts, they imagined it was over and there was no way he could get out so they imagined the blood and the squish noise. idk.

Anyway, it was my first anime, and was surprised of how good it can be.

[–] Alex_de_Large_18 9 years ago

You were supposed to think she crushed/killed him. But he sliced her hand and it was actually HER blood that squished out. Then another slice and he frees himself.

[–] FCMan 9 years ago

To elaborate on Alex_de_Large_18's remark, some spoilers will be required to give a proper explanation. You've been warned, a big spoiler of past where the anime went, though not that far past really(it's been common knowledge in the manga for a while). The scout, Reiner, was a fellow titan shifter like the Female Titan(he was the Armored Titan in fact). He was carving Eren's location into her hand, disguising it as her capturing him in her hand. Notice immediately after Reiner cut himself loose, the female titan beelined right for Eren's location. It was all part of their coordinated plan. So your being bothered by that scene was actually you having a good eye for detail!

Yeah, Attack on Titan is a great first anime. It's on the short list of "gateway anime" I'd recommend for new people. Its resemblance to the zombie apocalypse genre that is ravaging America right now makes for a great entry point for non-anime fans stateside. Others on that list of gateway anime with western appeal would include Death Note, Cowboy Bebop, Black Lagoon, and Hellsing. All have very western settings (except Death Note that nonetheless has a western appeal in the vein of Dexter) that fit English voice actors much more than Japanese voice actors.

[–] Lupin-III 9 years ago

Unfortunately the retarted long monologues are a staple of anime now... you really can't find any anime that doesn't use them excessively. I was a long time fan of anime, but it came to a point where all the ridiculously long descriptions of people's fighting techniques, sometimes lasting half an episode, only to roll credits before the actual fight even begins, started ruining it for me. Then there's all the chibi *beep* kitten mouth, rivers of tears, noodle arms... bleh to it all.

[–] daglesj 9 years ago

Do anime shows ever get re-edited by western editors to improve the flow and show structure?

I think that would help a great deal. They seem to know nothing of pacing.

[–] 9 years ago

[deleted]

[–] chisroar 9 years ago

I somewhat agree, in that it could really drag.
Though I came to look at it in a different light. It gave them all far more individuality as character. For instance Jean mentions at least 3 times I believe - he couldn't come to terms that no one saw Marco die. It really cut him up, he kept having this inner monologue to himself, all shaken up. I read it as his having a fear of dying alone and having no one there in his final moments, it playing over and over in his mind. As with any anxiety or strong emotion, though it's all individual to our own psyche, and the show has to make it obvious so we can catch onto these different trains of thought, and I suppose that's why the monologues are so persistent.
So it would be interesting to watch the show without them, but would it be the same show.. and would we feel he same about the characters?

[–] ghost0ne 8 years ago

I've worked with video and film for years and they say a picture is worth a thousand words. That being the case, when you make a narrative for the media the idea is to let your images drive the story and only have dialogue when it is necessary. This is my school of thought on the subject. But the opposite seems to be true for some japanimations. They over explain things. They spell it out, word for word, in a 3 page, no double space, 7 point font essay form monologue so there is no doubt who this person is and why they're doing what they're doing. But this doesn't happen in real life. People hardly know what other people are thinking and they may never explain themselves. I think if you were to leave all that monologue crap out you would definitely improve the pacing but more importantly this would make the characters more ambiguous and therefore more intriguing and mysterious. Saying less says more because now we can interpret why they are doing what they are doing in different and interesting ways. And no one person will see it the same. See what I mean? It opens the door to more possibilites.

I've alway wondered why some Japanimations feel a need to do that. To me, personally, it's a bit insulting that they feel a need to hit you over the head with all this stuff. It's like they think you can't figure it out on your own unless it's spelled out word for word. Having said that, I do enjoy Japanimations a great deal. I just wish they would cut out all the monologue crap. I don't need to know everything they're thinking in order to get the story moving and understand it. The Japanese even do the same thing in their video games.

[–] crazyryoga 9 years ago

I almost hanged myself in more than a couple of times...and it's a pity because the story got me really well but honestly I lost a lot of interest in it..

[–] BarneyRubbleNLittleChina 9 years ago

During my first viewing i was critical of the indeed overly long monologues, but they get better with subsequent viewings ... so long as the soundtrack is the cool techno stuff and not the cheesy J-pop. 

[–] chad-166 9 years ago

I also noticed on the English audio version, the voice actors are extremely dramatic, even when they're talking about regular stuff. Its like everything is fueled with mega emotion, every little worry about why something happened, like if they hear a strange noise.

[–] verycoolnin 9 years ago

Yeah, lol. They have 20 seconds to make their next move before the cannon reloads and they do like a 10 minute introspective monologue. Neon Genesis had the same problem.