RDG: Red Data Girl Episode 12 Discussion

unmemorable_hero said:
I do not understand why people hate this anime so much. I thought it was great. I would really have liked to see more, 12 episodes seems short for such a complicated story, but sometimes that's how it works out, you can't always get what you want.

Takuan_Soho said:

There are many forms of hate with many different causes. In the case of RDG I think that most of the hate is similar to love being scorned: people got emotionally connected to the show, but were bitterly disappointed when the show's conclusion wasn't emotionally satisfying.

When 12 first came out I made a comment that the show should have pared down parts of the story because they didn't have the time to adequately tell them all. I had recommended cutting out the love story (leave it as a friendship) because it was the weakest of the three. Now this was my preference, but the show could have cut some one theme and made the romance stronger and that would have been fine as well. The point is creating fewer expectations but satisfying those expectations instead of trying to cover too much and leaving most of them unsatisfied.

There are other sources of hate: many western viewers, not understanding how the Japanese view ghosts were left confused by various parts of the story (since this could be taken for granted with the main Japanese audience), and this was a source of confusion and disappointment.

minuetto said:
Most of the questions relating to this show that I found and had already answered, are not about ghosts AT ALL.

So, could you please kindly provide me some examples of what part of the show that people are confused because 'they do not understand how the Japanese view ghosts'? I really want to know :)

symbv said:
I object to cutting out the love story. That would have been disastrous for the show.

Takuan_Soho said:

Sure, this thread in particular
http://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=601321

Takuan_Soho said:

Ghosts were just an example, there were a lot of people who were confused by various aspects of this show, and "I don't get it" is not a good emotion to evoke in one's audience. It's sort of like the old saying about jokes: it isn't funny if you have to explain it. Same thing for a narrative.

Takuan_Soho said:

Of course this isn't true of ALL Japanese or ALL Americans, but not understanding something is a good way of getting people to hate something. My response above was an answer to your question as to "why do people hate this show". While the cause of the unknown may be different, that there was an unknown is the issue.

Takuan_Soho said:

If ghosts weren't the problem, then the "world heritage site" would suit just as well. The Japanese care FAR more about this than Americans. In Japan being declared a WHS is national news for a week, in the US it probably wouldn't even make local news. A lot of questions that I answered had to do with this issue. RDG didn't have to explain this aspect because most Japanese would understand how important that could be, but for Americans there would be questions why this was important.

minuetto said:
I think it should be obvious that the question is not about ghost, right? I already made it clear in that thread that Masumi is a shinrei or a holy spirit or a spirit (魂) of a god (not sure how the subs translate this) and he is NOT a ghost. No matter how impressive your information regarding how a ghost could become a god is, it's has nothing to do with this show.

minuetto said:
The fact that the author of the novel made Izumiko's home being part of the World Heritage Site is not a coincidence. It is explained in the novel what the World Heritage Site is and how important it is (both in the real world sense and later in a fictional sense) regardless of what you said that the Japanese in general already know what and how important it is.

Takuan_Soho said:

Except that Himegami was a human who became a ghost (it was implied that she was murdered) who eventually became a God.

Takuan_Soho said:
The point is that there is a continuum between differing spiritual beings that is far more known in Japan, but is a concept is alien to most people in the west, where ghosts could never become a God. This whole back-story wouldn't need to be explained to a Japanese audience but would need to be explained to an average western viewer. Since this wasn't ever explained, many western viewers would have thought that aspect of the story confusing.

Takuan_Soho said:
however understanding would have been far easier in Japan than in the US because most Japanese already know what a world heritage site is, relatively few Americans do.

Takuan_Soho said:

It appears you think I am saying that the ONLY confusion about this show were cultural ones. I am not, the show was confusing and could have used a serious edit and more explanation for ALL viewers. My point however is that the show would seem MORE confusing to a westerner because of a lack of shared cultural reference, and that this greater confusion spurs more hatred.

Takuan_Soho said:

There are other sources of hate: many western viewers, not understanding how the Japanese view ghosts were left confused by various parts of the story (since this could be taken for granted with the main Japanese audience), and this was a source of confusion and disappointment.

minuetto said:
It's alright if you view Himegami as a 'ghost who became a god'. The show (both anime and novel versions) makes Himegami's status rather ambiguous. It entirely depends on each audience's perspective on this point.
In vol 4 of the novel, Himegami told Miyuki that 'There is nothing here. If there is a thing called a vengeful ghost left here (Hachiouji), that should be me.'
Miyuki then asked her 'So you're a vengeful ghost?' She responded that she doesn't know and does not much care. Anyway, personally, I don't think a mere ghost could travel back in time.

minuetto said:

I have had a hard time believing this...

minuetto said:
I know that the cultural issue is not the only source of confusion in your opinion. But your earlier comment (below) made me think it's among the MAIN sources of problems of this show for the westerners and not to the Japanese which I disagree as I said before cultural issues are not a big problem for RDG.

minuetto said:
Am I wrong? If I misinterpret this statement of yours, then I'm sorry and I seriously need to improve my English!

aidoru said:
This episode basically confirmed to me that Miyuki and Izumiko's romance was pretty much the only thing keeping me watching this. I love them together, kinda sad we didn't get to see a kiss but the ending was really cute..

1. Characters. +1. The characters were pretty nice, with Sagara being my favorite.
2. Atmosphere. +1. The atmosphere was pretty decent and at times - great.
3. OST. +1. This anime has one of the best OSTs ever. There is one especially good track that gets me every time it plays.
4. Animation. +1. Well, the animation was of top quality at all the time.
5. Background story. +1. At first I didn't like the idea about the godess, but the final episodes made it kinda more plausible.
6. Storyline. The storyline flow wasn't very steady, though I wasn't very concerned of this(even though I usually I bash on animes who lack in the department of storyline).
7. Ending. +1. It was easily great, and it added very much to the overall quality of the anime. I just love it.
8. Drama. +1. In it's own way, this anime had some nice level of drama.
9. Overall affect. +1. Overall I felt great about this anime since episode 1, and it never really let me down. It had a great flow, despite many accused it of being too slow.
Bonus(extra) point for: I just love Shinto concepts and they were very well developed in this anime(one of the best tries ever, imo). The symbolism was great as well.

Mich666 said:
This was horrible! It was so painful to watch that I wanted to drop it many times yet I was hoping that maybe.. it gets better. But my hopes were in vain.

And that conclusion? Saved by mobile phone! Nothing was resolved, noone was punished, everyone was happy now and ghosts went home.. yay! There was no sense of continuity, things "just happened" on behalf of no logic. Literally nothing made sense in RDG!

There was promising start but after that we only got this incoherent, really bad story that left us with so much plot holes and unexplained things I can't even count them. But those dialogues were the worst and this anime was so badly written I almost wanted to scream sometimes.

Only thing that was done good was animation. But that alone isn't enough to save it.

In the end I am left with bitter aftertaste of needless series. It was total waste of my time.

No doubt the worst anime I have seen this year, 3/10.

I am really glad this is over now and I hope there would be no sequel to this.

Maddelyne said:
No one explained anything.
Everything just happened.
The only things you gained out of watching it was:
What the characters look like, what their names are, how old they are & a few of their weird powers.

rsc-pl said:
8/10
Really good show (as expected from PA Works).
This is a true gem.

So many hates.. I don't understand you people, seriously. Every good show without stupid humour (for grade level people or less) and 'amazing' heroines with god's syndrome receives hates on MAL.