No.66
>>65I only watched up through part two and lost interest in whatever came afterwards but Joseph was a great protagonist
No.150
>>149>aged poorlyWait didn't this only come out like, 2 years ago? Or am I in for another rude awakening about how fast time is moving these days?
No.151
>>150I think it came out in '18 or '17 yeah but at the same time the whole 'heh I'm a NEET gamer just like you' thing was a fad that I feel like overstayed its welcome around the time it came out.
No.164
I recently finished the 3D Houseki no Kuni and I gotta say that was a perfect adaption. Miles better than the source material.
I really like the story but the manga is just so badly drawn how am I meant to know which gem is which.
No.167
>>164So many people skipping on Houseki no Kuni just because it's 3D.
It's amazing, easily one of the best series I've seen.
No.168
>>167Putting up with overused CGI is pretty difficult you know. I tried keeping an open mind for Houseki no Kuni but, well, I couldn't. It's just too much for me.
No.169
>>168Yeah, I know. It's really good CGI, though, not something like Ajin.
No.170
I'm not the biggest fan of CG but with Houseki no Kuni I didn't even notice it as a negative, and in retrospect I think the show is actually even better for it, they did a fantastic job using CG as a strength and making it look actually good.
No.171
>>170It's because it's CGI, but it kind of looks like drawn. Besides, you can imagine the gems being 3D (just as you see crystals IRL), so it actually ends up being an advantage.
No.172
>>171>Besides, you can imagine the gems being 3DYeah I think they did a very nice thing with all the transparency and shininess effects, and I think those would be really hard to translate into 2D. It's probably the only show I've seen where I was like "yeah, CGI works here."
No.173
>>171Oh, transparency, that's what I had ony my mind when I wrote about crystals and diamonds. You nailed it, yup, agreed.
No.191
I'm halfway through the third season of Gintama and I'm glad I started it. Easily a 9/10 for me.
No.197
Still haven't watched the Anzio OVA because I wanted to post screenshots while I watched, but I guess that's not happening now that we're on sushigirl…
No.220
>>197Why can't you? I'm still waiting to hear your impressions of it you know.
>>219Who was your fave aidoru?
No.221
>>220My favorite aidoru is Makoto, I really liked her cool moments in the show.
Second fave would be Yayoi the Rooster-aidoru, always got a chuckle out of those noises.
Likewise, who was your favorite aidoru?
No.325
>>324I've been meaning to watch this for ages. No better time than now I guess.
No.326
>>325Give it a shot, it'd be fun to have someone to bounce opinions off of.
No.328
>>327>that gifOh! my heart…
No.395
>>384>I guess there's something attractive about competency.There's something attractive about her ED outfit too…
No.443
>>384Vigne is a monster in bed you just know it
No.465
>>443I was trying to focus but now my head is filled with impure thoughts about Vigne.
You better take responsibility for this post.
No.491
>>476Finished yesterday but too busy to make a proper post about it.
Just from the sound design, OST and comedic timing I get the feeling almost the exact same people who worked on yuru yuri worked on this too (yes I realize both were made by doga kobo but a studio has lots of people maybe I guess).
No.494
>>493I honestly found her really annoying
She was the weakest link in the comedy
No.504
Almost done rewatching Akame ga Kill. I knew it was edgy, but maybe because I know how it ends I've found the rewatch to be pretty funny instead of dark and serious like it seemed on my first watch. I do enjoy how the Jaegers get fleshed out just as much as Nightraid. Some of the background or scenery shots are really pretty too! Eventually I might read the manga to see how the endings differ and maybe even Zero after that.
>>468I got caught up with the official English release of the GabDro manga recently. I watched the anime as it was airing and now I want to rewatch it! I could still hear their voices in my head as I was reading. Tap-chan got a fair amount of attention in the last couple volumes and it's always fun to watch her not believe Vigne is a demon.
>>494She doesn't contribute much, I agree. Her bra not holding out and the scene where she tries to make Satania lick her foot for the melon pan are the only comedic bits of hers that I really remember. She's still really hot though.
No.544
>>476I just got to the episode this screencap is from and it was my favorite one yet. I was alternating between a stupid smile and actual laughter the entire time. The gag of Satania not remembering what Christmas is about while Vigne aggressively enforced her vision of a Christmas party really got me, as did Satania's retardedly brazen attempt to enter heaven. Oh and seeing Gab drunk on Amazake was adorable too.
No.555
>>493Raphi is the hottest, I agree.
>>468I don't understand why it's assumed Vigne is a bad demon. She feels like the accountant devil type, always privy on the little details, who'll tell you with a pouty face that you knew exactly what it meant to sell your soul for fame and fortune, ruthless in her bureaucratic naivete: the regulations say it's time to collect, so she will.
No.556
>>555It's not just assumed, there's an episode where Hell threatens to stop sending her money unless she starts demon-ing better. So it's explicitly csushi roll that she's bad at being a demon.
also nice get No.559
>>556>csushi rollluv me word filters
No.563
>>556"Assumed" was definitely the wrong word. I understand that even hell considers her a bad demon, I just disagree with the point entirely.
No.564
Finished GabDrop. Great show, had me chuckling right up to the end. It definitely deserves its popularity and representation in reaction images and gifs. You can tell a lot of fun was had with the facial expressions, animation, voice acting, and character interactions. Vigne is still best girl but I ended up liking everyone a lot.
I'm sad there are so few doujinshi translated for it>>555I can't say I wouldn't sell my soul to Vigne if she asked in the right way…
>why doesn't she have a haloMaybe she's too much of a pervert?
No.599
>>598There's always the possibility to re-watch it on later dates if you'll so want to.
No.600
I got too hooked on black clover and 28 episodes later my hard drive is running out of space.
There's a couple of pacing issues and it feels like some characters go through their arcs too quickly, but I guess that's something to expect in a shounen manga/anime's early stages as the author has to juggle wanting to tell his story properly and showing as much as possible before getting canceled. It's not egregious but it's easy to notice when this happens. A great example of this comes from comparing the first episode of the anime with the first chapter of the manga. What fits in one chapter is stretched into two or three episodes without it feeling like late one piece. The anime has been connecting every arc seamlessly, because I've been telling myself I'll jump to the manga after finishing an arc in the anime but then I notice I'm two arcs past the arc I've set as the limit.
World building is nothing too special but it's clear the author has a grasp of what he wants to do. Everything makes sense as far meta is concerned and the story has a pretty good hook. It's nice to see an Imagine Breaker-type character with actual stakes and neatly incorporated in his world.
While there are two protagonists, so far the story has been focusing more on Asuta (the one with the shounen hero phenotype). He is the titular character after all. Still, Yuno gets his fair share of screen time. Asuta's side is much more typically shounen while Yuno's has a little more intrigue. I can only conclude the author's forte lies in shounen fluff only because it beats the intrigue portion in terms of volume, since both sides are competently written. It could be the case that the author decides to focus on shounen exactly because this is shounen.
The anime itself is a product of its time. There's some 3DCG here and there and common airtime extending trickery pops out on occasion (like repeating 2 or 3 minutes of the anime before it went to commercial break) but I'm overall impressed with the quality of the sakuga. I don't follow these things and I'm certainly no sakugabooru dicksucker but I've heard studio pierot does some pretty good stuff and it shows here. Even though 3DCG is present, I don't feel cheated by its use like I do with ufotable. When the animators get really serious, the outlines becomes thinner and the presentation assumes this ethereal feeling that really brings out a magical mood.
Also, there's lots of cute girls. I took loads of screenshots of Charmy, the cutest most moe girl of the bunch, which I will dump now.
No.604
>>600I forgot to mention that I love the consistency of some little details, like the group leader casually kicking the door out of every room he walks into. The comedy bits are really hyper and the mood and personalities of Asuta's magic knight division play off each other wonderfully. If I were an expert I'd say comedy and character individuality carry a shounen manga more than story or battles. Black clover has all these bases very well covered.
Also there's lesbians.
No.605
>>598Sometimes I use dice to decide on a random episode of Hidamari Sketch
or Yuru Yuri to rewatch
No.606
>>603cute 5head
>>604cute brown girl
No.630
>>605I'll have to try that. Seems like every time I want to rewatch a random episode of a series I pick either 3 or 7 for some reason.
No.636
>>604Really glad you're enjoying the show, sushi! It's one of my favourite recent anime.
Also Charmy is the most powerful being in the universe and she gets some interesting development later.
No.639
>>636Is that so? Different sushi roll here, I just started this one and I'm getting normalized to the screaming of the MC Asta.
I'm like still 1/4 of the total released episodes.
No.642
>>639Everyone screams a lot, it's crazy.
They even lampshade it a few times too.
No.643
>>639HIS SCREAMING DOESN'T BOTHER ME BUT IT TOOK ME TIME TO GET USED TO HIS SEIYUU, IT DIDN'T FEEL LIKE HE MATCHED THE CHARACTER AT FIRST BUT HE GREW ON ME
>>642EVERYONE SHOULD SCREAM, THE MORE A SHOUNEN'S CHARACTERS SCREAM THE BETTER IT IS
No.645
>>643I think I'm getting used to it as I watch more of it.
I'm at episode 41 and I'm starting to like Asta despite his screaming. Also Noelle's development has been slow and gradual which makes me like her.
And no, not everyone should scream!
No.649
>>646I'll DECIDE IF I WANT TO SCREAM OR NOT!
Though I'll be watching the anime one sushi roll reccomended me earlier. Hope you had fun watching this show.
No.650
been watching texhnolye, its great
No.651
>>650Hey I watched that not too long ago. Great show, I really loved it. My only complaint really was the plot got a little convoluted in some not very interesting ways regarding the rival gangs. But aside from that it was super cool. I did feel like I needed to watch some moe SoL or something afterwards though lol.
No.654
>>651Triangle Staff have felt the same way after completing Texhnolyze, so they did Niea_7 next. You could follow their steps and watch it next.
No.657
>>654Niea_7 was made as a light-hearted project after finishing Lain, not Texhnolyze.
No.659
I finally recovered two of my old hard drives loaded with anime
Now I can rewatch some of my older shows yay
More importantly I can actually download new anime if I reorganize shit across all the drives because I'm out of space AGAIN for new seasonal shit
No.772
>>769Yuuki is insufferable but I suppose she's the best character in the first season unless I'm forgetting one of the minor characters. Teru used to be the best character for me until Ritz went absolutely insane.
Mahjong isn't that hard to learn the actual rules and terminology of, though playing it is a different matter entirely. If you want to play I believe tenhou is still considered the go-to for online playing, sort of like chess or lichess for, well, chess.
No.775
>>772You say insufferable but I have a soft spot for dumb hyperactive genki characters
>until Ritz went absolutely insane.Did the manga go off the deep end or something? I was just planning on watching the anime adaptations.
No.776
>>775Ritz is just a lazy bastard who makes her manga release every other month in a bimonthly magazine with 13 pages of which only 2 are colored
Also made Teru just seem incredibly sad and pathetic which is kind of annoying
Anime adaptions are fine though
No.780
>>769MajSoul has a tutorial in english
https://mahjongsoul.game.yo-star.com (it's currently undergoing a maintenance but it should be back to normal within a few hours)
And you can learn the rest here:
https://youtu.be/hlnC2rgIPrc No.789
>>769Once you learn the yaku and want to get into basic strategy read this:
https://dainachiba.github.io/RiichiBooks/ No.805
>>804I finished it fairly recently as well and also enjoyed it. I do agree with your criticisms though,
and would add that I also disliked a lot of the general characterization of the Sister in the latter half. Her being so emotive, frightened of everything and more of a liability than anything bugged me a bit. They're basically trained soldiers and have all "been through" much worse that that, I would have appreciated her holding her own a bit more. Bit of a bummer for me because I love the Sisters and especially like watching them and Accelerator work together. I also didn't care much about the "villains" personally but that's a more minor complaint.But like I said, I liked it overall, it still had most of the things that make science-side Raildex fun
No.806
>>804I think the big problem is Anti-Skill is very much foot soldiers. They're Academy City foot soldiers and that means obviously they annhilate basically anyone else, but Anti-Skill is in some sense there to deal with rogue level 2s and 3s. Anyone capable of pulling out firepower on the level of the baddies that Accel has to personally step in for is way out of their league, it's like berating the city guard for dying horribly to the dragon.
No.821
>>820Accelerator is a special case, though, and I'm still convinced that he's just underusing them. Absolutely nothing stops him from simply changing something's position vector. Vectors are a mathematical construct not inherently tied to velocity. Some of the powers of level 4/5 are just too versatile when used by someone who knows what they're doing. What do you do against Misaka railgunning a metal brick at you or Mugino making quantum physics up wholesale to use her death beams?
No.827
>>821>MisakaEasy to deal with if you use rubber bullets or even pepper balls, keep your distance and stay mobile.
>MuginoSee above. She has the maneuverability of a tank. You don't even need anti-skill for them, a certain demolition's expert with terrain advantage is enough.
>Absolutely nothing stops him from simply changing something's position vector.All the times we've seen him use his power it involved using speed/intensity vectors. He's never once even used his power to teleport. I'd say that's the kind of thing he'd unlock at level 6.
No.830
>>827>Easy to deal with if you use rubber bullets or even pepper balls, keep your distance and stay mobile.There are voltages and magnetic field strengths at which these things don't work. A magnetar's field strength is strong enough to dissolve chemical bonds thousands of kilometers out by distorting electron clouds. Clearly Misaka doesn't have that kind of power, but the power to constantly have a tornado of iron sand around you to vaporize anything that tries to get close is clearly possible. Also, since she has such control of magnetism, she should be able to fly.
>keep mobileThat's mostly on Mugino being a retard though because nothing stops her from just firing off huge lasers in kill arcs.
>He's never once even used his power to teleportYeah I know, but I'm mostly blaming Kamachi for that. I mean from a pure mathematical standpoint he could technically just assign random numbers like <number of bullets remaining in your gun, my penis size in inches, your body weight in tons> and use that as a vector but that's just omnipotence and clearly he isn't allowed to do that.
No.834
>>830Look if you're going to assume all those things about how each lvl5 would use their power then I'll assume anti-skill can do even more based on their superior knowledge of tactics given they're an organized unit of adults fighting teenagers with a with a big case of the chuu2. We're considering a scenario where an anti-skill squad is called to a location and briefed on what they might run into. Optimal results come with 100% accurate and complete knowledge of espers, abilities, location and objectives, of course.
We could end it right off the bat for all espers save accelerator and Gunha with capacity down, but I don't recall who exactly owns that piece of tech so I'll assume it's not anti-skill.
>MisakaShe has not shown to have that level of fine control over chemical bonds or the like. That's only something you might expect at lvl6. The closest she has come to flying is using her powers to wall-run and that still requires metal foundations to work. As for a tornado of iron sand, what makes you believe an engagement would occur in the kind of deserted area where Misaka would find no issue using that kind of power? She's hot-headed but she doesn't ever involve innocent people. One could argue she's actually the type you could negotiate with. But let's assume she has the terrain advantage. How long do you think she can maintain that thing going? If she's using as a defensive measure, she's not attacking. If she's not attacking, let her exhaust herself. If she's able to extend "mini-tornadoes" out to attack, then keep your distance and play the waiting game. She's most likely the lvl5 with the most available info of the bunch so knowledge of her AIM field's reach and intensity (which is sure to decrease with distance) must be a given.
>MuginoLet's assume her personality did a complete 180 and she isn't the type who gets schooled by Shiage (yes I haven't seen raildex past S2 but I did my youtube homework). She's using her power to the best of her abilities. However, even assuming she has AIM stalker with her, she's fighting level 0s. She can't sense them. Engaging in an area with a lot of cover and hazards is ideal. Or divide your squad in two groups and harass her from opposite directions. She can only fire accurately at where she's looking so either running back and forth or firing lasers indiscriminately until she runs out of juice. Not to mention she has a delay in firing her lasers which also happen to leave a massive blind spot in front of her, so if circumstances are good you can end it with CQC.
Current accelerator can literally be beat by a quickdraw champion.
No.835
>>834I'm just largely under the impression that there is a point where fighting smart just doesn't beat fighting hard. Accel at one point takes the rotational power of the entire world and puts it into a chunk of material. Kamachi clearly didn't do the math since an impact like that should've taken off the entire piece of crust that the Windowless Building is standing on.
I'm not really arguing about whether or not they're really that strong, because Kamachi says one thing and has the level 5s do something else. However, you could argue the exact same for anti-skill, because they're supposed to be hardcore professionals but I'm struggling to think of instances when they don't get absolutely shit on.
No.864
I'd like to interject in this debate and point out the simple fact that I'd like for a hot crazy woman to stalk and call my name as intensely as Mugino calls for Hamazura.
No.867
>>864Mugino mellows out as soon as Hamazura basically kills her and then gives her the D so
No.892
>>891Yous should check out the manga too. It's pretty great and Hiroe has been slowly oozing out of hiatus over the past couple years.
No.896
Just finished watching Kaiji, the pachinko arch was filled with tons of crazy stuff but it was good
seeing him win in the end after Part 1's endingI also loved how they used Part 1's OP for the endingI'm kind of ashamed to say it but this is the first time an anime really caught me, I tried many others but ended up dropping them fairly quickly. The concept of someone who wants to score some cash on life and death situations relates to my antics with crypto a lot.
I'd really like something similar, but apparently you need to know mahjong for Akagi for example
On the other hand, I could try getting into Hellsing since I caught a stream on /bant/ and seemed great, or pick back up Evangelion since I got fascinated with third tier angels and their real forms, which according to youtube comments Eva presents accurately on the later archs
https://youtu.be/_A8IzlTOO18 No.899
>>896Only watched Kaiji S1 but the skyscraper crossing gave me a ton of vertigo. Pretty incredible how an anime that didn't have that much going in terms of sakuga managed to get that feeling out of me.
>AkagiI watched it without really understanding a lot of mahjong and I was still engaged. They explain the general rules in the beginning but, even then, there's lot of sideline characters' commentary to drive home the point of how important/desperate/advantageous each and every situation is. I highly recommend it.
No.905
>>904I don't know if the main character feels spiritual emptiness or unfulfillment but the way I actually understand his character is that Tanya is basically a straw nihilist, someone who imagines himself an Ubermensch but just isn't because, among other things, he really is just following what other people have done in the past and achieving success by following what other, more intelligent people have done.
There's also the plot point, which I think at this point has to be deliberate, that Tanya is utterly incapable of recognizing when his surroundings have changed and that what he learned on Earth does not apply. Atheism doesn't make sense in his case, when God now demonstrably exists. He makes the weak case that God is not worthy of worship and is in fact "being X", but this runs contrary to the profit-oriented mindset we see in him everywhere else; as Ando, Winders, and other writers have pointed out, worship of a deity doesn't necessarily mean approval of a deity but simply recognizes his very real power over your fate. His refusal to recognize that his tryhard sociopathy doesn't really work anymore manifests also in him seeing for himself that society is utterly different here but assuming it operates on the same logic as modern Japan, when even assuming it operated on the same logic as prewar Japan would've given him a much more accurate read. The dude is also weirdly concerned with social norms and what is and is not appropriate for someone who's been built up as a psychopath so I'm actually convinced he's a fedora tipper in the original, pseudointellectual edgelord sense of the word.
Also, a nitpick, I really hate how the show is a vehicle for the author to wax lyrical about the little he picked up from reading Clausewitz and Wikipedia and I hate even more the honestly shoddy thinking that's gone into the worldbuilding and strategy. You can blow it off with 'they're experimenting' but all of it that isn't lifted directly from actual warfare comes off as pretty absurd.
No.919
Maybe this kinda fits in here.
I've mostly run out of things in my toWatch-bucket, and been having trouble actually finding more to my taste. Would really appreciate any tips, including a sampler of my tastes to make it easier to rec. something in my direction. A taste compass if you will.
~Like~
Nichijou (except the robo/professor parts)
Asobi Asobase
Mob Psycho
Tonari no Seki-kun
Aku no Hana / Flowers of Evil
Berserk
Monogatari
LotGH
Errything Satoshi Kon
NGE
Serial Experiments Lain
Haibane Renmei
Great Teacher Onizuka
Battle Programmer Shirase
Jojo
Jinroh
Mushishi
Dennou Coil
Prison School
Saiki K
GITS (the movie)
~Dislike~
GITS (the series)
Psycho Pass
Ancient Magus Bride
Zankyou No Terror
Baccano
Black Lagoon
Yuru Camp
Enen no Shouboutai / Fire Force
Koyabashi Dragon Maid
Ghost Hound
FMA
Servant x Service
Food Wars
Macademia Hero
Subete ga F ni Naru / The Perfect Insider
Summer Wars
Shinsekai Yori
Rainbow: Nisha Rokubou no Shichinin
No.922
>>919Watch patlabor, oshii's movies for the more philosophical stuff and his OVA if you just like the characters.
No.923
>>922Seen the movies and liked them, the series wasn't my thing (not into mechs in general). Appreciate the effort though.
No.930
>>919How do you feel about Masaaki Yuasa's works? Stuff like Tatami Galaxy, Cat Soup, Kemonozume, etc
No.931
>>930Tatami Galaxy is actually one of the last things in my bucket, seen 2 eps a while back and really enjoyed it so I've been kinda saving it for the right occasion. Cat Soup was great. Think I've checked most of his other stuff and either wasn't in the right mode to appreciate it then or just wasn't my thing, should have a look over for things to recheck, thanks for reminding me!
No.933
>>905>the way I actually understand his character is that Tanya is basically a straw nihilist, someone who imagines himself an Ubermensch but just isn't because, among other things, he really is just following what other people have done in the past and achieving success by following what other, more intelligent people have doneNot exactly my interpretation. Tanya is, or tries to be, a staunch believer in human organizational structures and sees them as well kept, tried and true path to success. Tanya only ever derides people who act out of emotion than rational thought. S/he denies god's existence because it goes against everything s/he has come to believe. S/he goes to the military because it's the most suitable path thanks to high magic abilities and spends most of the time climbing through the ranks to try and get him/herself an easy do-nothing job away from the frontline. However, as the story progresses, s/he becomes a major player in the war effort, which itself turns into a struggle against being X. If s/he thought her/himself better than everyone, s/he wouldn't have followed the orders s/he was given in the final episodes. You could say s/he has killed his/her own individuality for the sake of the organization.
>There's also the plot point, which I think at this point has to be deliberate, that Tanya is utterly incapable of recognizing when his surroundings have changed and that what he learned on Earth does not apply.But there's demonstrative evidence that it does apply. S/he came up with a whole war plan based on how WW1 turned out which even led to the conquest of not!Paris a decade or two before scheduled.
>He makes the weak case that God is not worthy of worship and is in fact "being X", but this runs contrary to the profit-oriented mindset we see in him everywhere elseHe doesn't refuse to worship as s/he is downright forced to at one point. What s/he refuses to do is acknowledge Being X as god and it makes sense considering his "faith" lies somewhere else. Plus, seeing as there won't be another reincarnation after living as Tanya, there really is no profit to be had in worshiping Being X. It's just a fight between egos at that point and, ironically, Tanya is being "tested" for a different kind of faith.
>worldbuildingIs there any more to it than "WW1 but with magic"?
>strategyI like that Tanya's unit is essentially the first spec ops team in history. Are there any examples you can name of bad strategy? Most of it seemed pretty sound to me.
No.935
>>933>human organizational structures…emotion rather than rational thoughtThe issue here is that Tanya him/herself is commentary on an emotional rather than logical response when your worldview is challenged. He relies on human organization structures from postwar Japan to operate in what is essentially Imperial Germany, and seems utterly incapable of assimilating new information into the organizational structure. Someone as rigid as Tanya, seemingly totally oblivious to how other people feel and incapable of absorbing the fundamental values of their new homeland despite years living as a helpless infant, shouldn't even have made it to middle management in a company.
>it does applyI don't actually mean the war, which is just the author rattling off how smart he is for reading a basic history of WWI. With that being said, I'm struggling to think of a time when she actually used her experience in history to advantage in a way that wasn't stealing someone else's thunder. The man is 90% just reciting rote off actual geniuses; it's as if a Shakespeare student went back in time to Elizabethan England and wrote down King Lear by memory.
>downright forced toThat's brainwashing and clearly not of her own will. Realistically speaking it makes absolutely no sense to acknowledge being X as a god, because something that is supremely more powerful than you in every way and can decide your fate at the drop of a hat IS a god; his 'faith' in human social structures operates essentially the same way - it's so big and so vast that you will be crushed if you fight against it and rewarded if you follow its strictures. The rational (not emotional!) thing to do is to follow its strictures, because the rewards are potentially many, while refusing to follow being X leads directly to problems for Tanya such as Lt. Mary Sue existing.
>bad strategyFor one the launching of cannon is stupendously stupid, not least because operational headquarters during the first world war were no longer really concentrated near the frontlines without failsafes due to radio being a thing. Historically you had your operational headquarters concentrated because of difficulty of communication, but even by the Crimean War we see a dispersal of command begin. Decapitation strikes are always in the minds of commanders since it's the one way you can turn around a battle no matter the circumstance, and so people have tried to take precautions against just that whenever possible - the strongest bodyguards, a mobile command unit, and dispersed structures. More to the point, it's less that Tanya's strategies are bad and more that they rely heavily on the enemy being foolish, or else are lifted directly from history in a way that's the more specific equivalent of an isekai smartass introducing crop rotation.
/rant
No.947
Been watching Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann and I've been having a blast with it. I'm honestly surprised that Kamina is dead.
Though I'm getting a bit anxious because I want to get into Attack on Titan after finishing it, since the last season is getting released this year. Don't know exactly when though.
No.950
>>945ahhh Riko's too cute, I love her
Anyways, it came out in Japan it seems
https://nyaa.si/view/1283585 No.963
>>947Attack on Titan always struck me as normie anime. That's a super biased opinion 'cause the one guy I know who's into it is a cringy gymbro who thinks he's into anime because he likes My Hero Academia and Death Note, but I've never watched it so I can't really say.
>>950Thanks!
No.985
>>963You're welcome!
Have you read the manga or are you going into the movie blind?
No.990
>>985I got the manga in Japanese but I’m not good enough yet to read it in any sort of timely manner. I feel like resorting to scanlations would be giving up, so I’m kinda stuck. I’ll probably go into the movie blind. I hadn’t read the manga when I watched the series either.
No.1044
>>963>Attack on Titan always struck me as normie anime20 episodes in you're kinda right, I feel dead watching this. It kinda involves all the tropes of anime that put me off in the first place
>cheap animation>uninteresting characters>events take too much to happen>colours are flat and everything looks the sameI just hope it gets interesting enough later down the road. Also the second ED is shit. This is really ruining my hopes in anime after TTGL, maybe that set the bar a bit high?
No.1068
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>>928I finally got around to watching it. Overall I thought it was decent, although it didn't have the impact of the first season on me. For reference I haven't read the manga. I'm about to rant, so don't read if you really liked it and don't want to hear my criticism.
The whole time I kept thinking that passing Bonodorudo was only going to be a part of the movie, so the pacing felt way off to me, although that's my own fault. My main gripe is that it doesn't feel like the main three characters grew or changed at all. The first season brought the characters together and developed them and their relationships; there's a ton of character development. You learn intricate backstories for Riko and Nanachi, and watch Riko and Reg grow closer and closer over the course of the series. I didn't learn anything new or have my perception of the characters changed at all by the end of movie.The part where Reg goes to short out the base's power felt like it was going for something big, then simply dropped it. Riko sets up the idea that Reg might lose all his memories (like when they shocked him awake at the beginning of the series), and indeed when he gets electrocuted he goes "Mob 100%", and the whole time I'm thinking "holey shit, they actually did it, Reg lost his memories, how are they going to get them back?" I thought it was like a character death or something, but no, he just goes back to normal for more or less no reason. He isn't really any better at fighting in his "possessed form" either. When Mob explodes in Mob Psycho it's one of the most hype things I've ever seen, but I lost count of how many Bondorudo fights there were and this one didn't stand out. I ended up just wondering "what was the point?"Basically the whole movie felt like a container (hah, get it?) for Prushka's Mitty 2.0 arc. It was definitely gross; tragic; horrifying; and affecting, but honestly it made the same mistakes as Mitty's arc in that it introduces a character, gives her 10 minutes of backstory, and then she suffers a existentially horrifying death. I just didn't have time to get emotionally attached to this character who hasn't really done anything except love her dad and guide Riko up some stairs.Bondorudo is like a worse Thanos. He's willing to sacrifice everything in the pursuit of the greater good (in this case understanding the Abyss), but unlike Thanos he's so needlessly brutal that it's hard to say he's morally ambiguous. I do like Bondorudo, but I don't think he deserved nearly as much time as he got. I want to see what's at the bottom of the Abyss and how it affects Riko and Reg, so the whole movie felt like a filler side-story to me.It was all worth it for pic related No.1082
>>1068Nice nice, lots to talk about! I'm glad you at least found it decent.
> I'm about to rant, so don't read if you really liked it and don't want to hear my criticism.Discussion is always good, critical or not!
**
> I didn't learn anything new or have my perception of the characters changed at all by the end of movie.That's a fair criticism I think. It's definitely more of a long boss battle and lore dump than a story/character arc, especially if you don't care for Bondrewds "character". It's funny that you say you only expected Bondrewd to show up in passing, because believe it or not this actually felt compressed compared to the Idofront arc in the manga. I do wish they included the in depth explanations for his soul split machine and other relics but I get that they probably would have messed with the pacing even more
> He isn't really any better at fighting in his "possessed form" eitherHe is, though. It's more of a permanent power up than a super form though. He says something to the effect of "It felt like a bunch of people were inside me, and one took control" after the effects of the supercharge wears off, then while fighting he says "Someone made me remember how to be this agile". That's why he's able to do his crazy arm cable whirlwind after regaining his sanity, but he couldn't fight Bondrewd on that level beforehand. I think the implication is that rather than erase his memories or make him stronger, it just short circuited his ability to reason and unlocked some old skills/memories/personalities which let him fight better. So I guess while it isn't as "hype" as it could be as far as powerlevels go, it's certainly a significant thing in terms of lore implications (and it recharged his laser beam which is important as well)
> I just didn't have time to get emotionally attached to this character who hasn't really done anything except love her dad and guide Riko up some stairs.That's totally fair. I cry every time at Prushka, but she wasn't given a lot of time to develop in the manga, and she's given even less in the movie. (also I get emotional/attached to characters pretty easily personally) I could argue that it was more meant to hammer in how twisted Bondrewd is than to have you care for her, but that's kind of two sides of the same coin. For me the creativity and interesting lore around all the suffering makes it totally worth watching and showing, even though you can certainly argue that Tsukushi lays it on a little thick sometimes
> it made the same mistakes as Mitty's arc in that it introduces a character, gives her 10 minutes of backstory, and then she suffers a existentially horrifying death.I kinda disagree here though, because Mitty's character is more about Nanachi than Mitty. I think it's actually one of the best moments of character growth in the series when Reg puzzles out that Nanachi's plan is to kill herself after she solves the Mitty problem. She was so devoid of reasons to live and full of guilt after escaping Bondrewd that the only thing forcing her to go on was the hope of ending Mitty's suffering. So when Reg makes her promise not to die after he kills Mitty, it forces her to go and search for new meaning with the group.
>Bondorudo is like a worse Thanos. He's willing to sacrifice everything in the pursuit of the greater good (in this case understanding the Abyss), but unlike Thanos he's so needlessly brutal that it's hard to say he's morally ambiguous.I really don't think Bondrewd is supposed to be morally ambiguous so much as just obsessed with the concept of "progress" to the point of being completely unhinged and unfeeling. He's not even selfish, he has zero compassion for anyone and anything including himself, and the things he does to others and himself are supposed to be morally repugnant because he simply has no morals. He even has total apathy towards being defeated simply because the groups conception of "progress" was stronger than his. It's entirely possible I'm forgetting a line about him doing all this to "cure the curse", but even so I have trouble believing he really cares about that.
As far as being needlessly brutal, well, I'd argue that's more the fault of Tsukushi and the setting being edgy as heck than it is Bondrewd as a character. They mention that Idofront was already there when Bondrewd arrived, and that it was a "ritual site", so I don't think it's a far cry to speculate that the operations involving forcing people to take on the curse/blessing were already underway by whoever built the place, probably as a means to produce white whistles so that you can proceed further down. Bondrewd is doing anything "needlessly" brutal, the things he does are brutal out of necessity for maximum "progress", he's not doing them out of sadism.**
No.1083
>>1082Okay clearly I'm too dumb to spoiler things
Just don't read that wall of text if you haven't seen the movie pls
No.1087
>>1082>Glasses NanachiThanks for the nice reply! I probably would have been a lot more defensive if someone criticized something I liked to that degree.
>I do wish they included the in depth explanations for his soul split machine and other relicsSo that's what was going on. I thought maybe it was something more abstract like Bondrewd is an idea rather than person, and every time he dies another like-minded black whistle puts on the mask and becomes "Bondrewd."Thanks for explaining Reg's "power up" scene. I didn't realize the twirling arm thing was something he couldn't do before. Maybe it was clearer in the manga, but I didn't feel like the movie did a very good job showing me the cause and effect there. That could also be my fault for not being attentive enough.>and it recharged his laser beam which is important as wellThat was another thing I seriously misinterpreted. Nanachi tells Reg the symbols on his helmet display "the number of uses left before a relic becomes unusable. No exceptions" very much implying that Reg (being a relic) will become unusable (die) once he runs out of uses. I imagined this was setting up some major drama down the road in which Riko has to decide between dying or allowing Reg to sacrifice himself to save her or something like that, but it turns out he can just be recharged with electricity?! This relic that's "powerful enough to rewrite the rules of the Abyss" in Nanachi's own words can just be recharged like a battery? What's the point of telling us he has limited power if he can just be recharged whenever Akihito feels like writing in a generator or a thunderstorm? It feels like a random Naurto power that you have to keep track of on a spreadsheet, but it doesn't hold any narrative weight anymore. (Sorry, I wasn't going to rant anymore, lol)>I cry every time at PrushkaI mean, so did I. I should say I really loved the Mitty arc, so I enjoyed seeing more of what Akihito Tsukushi seems to do best.>I kinda disagree here though, because Mitty's character is more about Nanachi than Mitty. Man, you got me there. I agree 100%.I think your interpretation of Bondrewd's character is a good one! Makes more sense than mine did.Thanks for the discussion! I need to get some of this out since I just watched it the other night.
No.1306
Recently rewatched it – Dennou Coil is one of my favorite pieces of media, period. Aside from the other sushi roll that mentioned it in their list earlier up the thread, I've only met one other person that knows of it, and they were the one that introduced me to it in the first place.
The themes feel similar to Serial Experiments Lain, which is admittedly another one of my favorite shows, but while Lain leans significantly into the terror and isolation that arrives with the internet primarily, Dennou Coil takes a significantly more optimistic approach that treats those ideas with the same seriousness, but in a different way that makes it feel distinctly real. I could probably parse it out if I had more time, but suffice it to say that if you grew up with the internet as a kid, you will likely relate in some way to Dennou Coil personally.
The first time I watched it, I felt it may have had some pacing issues, but the second time through I didn't feel that way at all. Either way, I think it's a really amazing show. It was marketed for kids and there are a few childish scenarios and jokes, but it's never patronizing and the anime takes itself seriously.
No.1312
>>1306Dennou Coil is awesome, good taste sushi rollymous. It's been many years since I watched it and you made me want to see it again. I recall having a few moments where I thought to myself "can't they just take off the glasses", but aside from that I thought it was fantastic.
I really don't remember much about it though now that I think on it, so I do think a rewatch is in order
No.1315
>>1306Dennou Coil was optimistic in a way I doubt is really possible nowadays with the proliferation of an actual augmented (and distorted) reality in the form of smartphone-assisted social networks.
>I've only met one other person that knows of itIt's just kind of old. Not a lot of stuff from back then still gets discussed much. Might just be me but it feels like we used to talk about anime from the 90s a lot more in the 00s than we talk about anime from the 00s now.
No.1332
I've been watching more of black clover via stream because I'm poor as well as cheap and it's been one hell of a ride. There's this sense that everything has a purpose and everything has been building up to the current arc. Even things that seemed like filler at first. I'm tempted to check the manga to see how much of the anime is actually filler since everything has been neatly tied together with the "main" story.
It's been hard to stop myself from binge watching more than I already have, starting around the tournament arc's climax, or the first time the mage emperor fights (both moments blessed with some great fight choreography). However good the arc I'm at feels, though, there's a feeling of finality to it. Like where can they go from here? It's dealing with a theme whose resolution was the ending of a very popular long-running shounen. I've mentioned it before but, once again, it sort of feels like the author is rushing through yet another arc out of fear of getting axed before he gets to finish his story. This time the pacing doesn't look like it has a couple of awkward moments, though. The action is happening at a quickly but well structured. It's good unfiltered shounen. I'm drawn to the ideal of hard work paying off and black clover gets that across wonderfully. I'll be sad when the eventual reveal that the protagonists were children of destiny all along rears its ugly head, but I'll keep enjoying the ride.
Charmy still mega cute and the cuter she is the more mysterious she grows. She has some awesome overpowered abilities that she doesn't seem to be using at their full potential. I keep expecting her to show up and kick the shit out of everyone at the critical moment but she's always either involved in group efforts or conveniently absent. I might be reading too much into things but it makes me think the author has big things in store for her. Charmy as Julius' successor as mage emperor confirmed?!
No.1338
>>1337Leet post for leet girl!
About to watch episode 113. I've been pretty much non-stop watching since the tournament started but like I said, around episode 84 when
Yuno fights the aqua deer captain I started getting really hooked and by the episode
Licht kills the mage emperor which I think is episode 92 or 93 I've been watching it non-stop.
Speaking of which, the OPs have been pretty damn awesome but the ED themes are misses more times than they are hits with me. I love it when OPs change visuals along with the story progression and when one opening's visuals changed to
Licht fighting the mage emperor I was so damn hyped.
And also also, I was afraid the author had spent all his creativity on giving individuality to the squad captains but a couple of nice characters have been popping up all over.
Finally, I will continue praying that sister Lily wins.
No.1339
>>1338Damn I forgot to mention that I want to marry Mereoreona.
No.1346
>>1340This is why you don't fuck with Charmy's food.
No.1469
この勇者が俺TUEEEくせに慎重すぎる, Hepburn: Kono Yūsha ga Ore Tsuē Kuse ni Shinchō Sugiru
Action comedy how about an overpowered hero who is also over-cautious. Nice balance of comedy & serious with the emotional goddess guiding the coldly rational hero. I liked it although the pacing was slow at times even if it is made sense in the story.
Rating: B
No.1533
>>1510Episode 9 is my favorite so far, I started watching it after seeing some scenes, the context (or sometimes lack thereof) makes it all so much better
No.1615
>>1568That AMV makes the show seem cooler than it is, I love it.
>>1614>ending was weakI'm not surprised, like you I'm still having a good time with it though. It's a great pick-me-up after work because I know I won't get saddled with suffering like might be possible in other shows.
No.2058
I'm checking out Hellsing currently, tried to maybe a year or something like that ago before but didn't feel like something that resonated with me then so dropped it at first ep.
Doing both the first and Ultimate one at once for fun, interlacing them. Prefer the tone/pacing of the non-Ultimate one so far.
No.2061
>>1615>That AMV makes the show seem cooler than it is, I love it.This. I've been listening on loop everytime i see this thread.
No.2085
>>18I'm currenty watching Kaiba, and it's great! I really love the simpler style of animation, it really allows more movements and bolder camera shots.
Does anyone have recommendations for something similar to this ?
No.2086
>>2085Everything from Masaaki Yuasa (Kaiba's director) is great, especially Cat Soup and Tatami Galaxy
No.2087
>>2086Tatami Galaxy was great but I have never seen Cat Soup (didn't even know it existed). I try will watching it then, thank you for the recommendation!
No.2091
>>2087It's one my favorite manga and has a great anime BUT it is the antithesis of comfy, i'd recommend watching it with a good state of mind. The author was a very interesting but problematic person and Cat Soup tells a lot about her.
No.2334
My thoughts on the Berserk adaptations are provided below.
Aside from reading a small amount of the manga a very long time ago, my first encounter with Berserk was via the Ougon Jidai-hen movies sometime around 6 years ago. My memory of the movies is fading, which is what triggered my watching the original 1997 TV adaptation. I enjoyed the movies and rated them 7/10. I liked the story above all else.
Anyway, I watched the 1997 TV adaptation of Berserk much more recently, and here's what I have to say about that:
The original adaptation is better in terms of visuals and overall production quality, especially with consideration to production year. I much prefer the art style of the original adaptation. It also has a longer total runtime which is used effectively for greater character development and more plot detail. I would say it is better directed as well.
The story itself is very good, and the adaptation is well executed and well directed. Berserk's strongest characteristic is the writing, but in one respect it is also its greatest flaw from my perspective. My biggest issue with Berserk is the main character — Guts. He is poorly characterized and simply boring as a main character. The series would be much better if Griffith were the main character and Guts were a side character. Griffith is a far more compelling and interesting character than Guts. The same could even be said for Casca, albeit to a lesser degree. Although the 1997 adaptation does a much better job of exploring Casca's character arc than the movies. In any case, I wish that Guts hadn't soaked up so much screentime.
The setting is classic dark medieval fantasy. It is fairly immersive. It is complemented by the high level of visual detail, most notably in landscape frames and backgrounds.
The OST is suitable and pretty good overall (aside from the grating OP and ED songs). However, it would have been nice if there was more variety in the OST, considering the length of this series. Some songs, although they are good, are repeated quite frequently. Voice acting is good as well; the VAs are quite well matched for their character roles, and there's a wide range of voices among the cast.
My overall rating for the 1997 TV adaptation: 8/10
This is more of a personal problem rather than an artistic criticism, but I find Berserk to be overly grotesque and gruesome at times. It becomes uncomfortable to watch at certain points. I don't derive entertainment from shock value. The show is extremely dark and I needed to be in a dark mood to even find it palatable during some story arcs. Maybe this stirring of emotion within me, no matter how unpleasant, is an indication of artistic worth? In any case it didn't affect the appraisal of the anime I've written above, but still I thought it important to address this. Berserk isn't really the kind of anime I'd gravitate to naturally, but I felt compelled to watch it because of its cultural significance.
As for the more recent adaptation that began in 2016, I decided not to watch it because the consensus is that it's an abomination and I do not want to get spoiled on that part of the story via an inferior adaptation.
Lastly, in case this isn't obvious from what I've already written, I think that a newcomer to the Berserk franchise should initially watch the 1997 TV adaptation instead of the more-recent movies.
No.2433
>>2336the movies are garbage
No.2655
I just finished rewatching Toradora, which incidentally was one of the first series I watched when I was getting into anime. At first I was surprised by how much better it was than I remembered, but by the end I understood why I left feeling lukewarm after the first time.
The first 10 episodes were great; subtly building up Ryuuji and Taiga's relationship while they each think they're in love with someone else until episode 8 where Ryuuji almost drowns and Taiga flips out in front of everyone and screams that he's hers. The above mentioned dynamic is the soul of the show, but unfortunately from here there's virtually no progression until the finale.
After the beach house episodes the narrative progressions stalls horribly. The culture festival arc centers around the drama that Taiga's dad is coming for her. Ryuuji and Minorin have strong opinions about why that's a good or bad thing but don't explain it well to each other at all, resulting in the classic "misunderstanding drama" which is just annoying to watch. I don't even remember what else happens until the ski-resort episode near the end, and meanwhile Ryuuji and Taiga are both trying to help each other with their romantic endeavors and refusing to acknowledge their feelings for each other, just like the beach house 11 episodes prior. There were moments in the first half of the show where you almost think the Taiga and Ryuuji area awakening to their feelings, but it's almost like they've regressed since then. We could have cut all of that and all we would have lost was a lot of sad Minorin.
So I've been slogging through the second half of the series waiting for a couple of episodes of payoff, but it isn't until ONE episode before the finale they confess to each other (except it gets interrupted by a phone call for some reason so it's not even properly satisfying), then–despite only moments ago having admitted they have feelings for each other and not even having kissed yet–they decide to [i]runaway together and get married[/i] out of nowhere because Ryuuji had a very minor disagreement with his mom. They runaway together and have their first kiss (which was a really good scene), and after that Taiga leaves him without saying goodbye to attend another school, presumably to better herself for his sake. /fin WTF?!
I was so invested in the characters at first, but the show let my emotional connection fade with 13 fairly worthless episodes (there was some good stuff, but so much could have been cut), and then the forced drama of running away really alienated the characters for me. Finally the extremely bitter ending of Taiga leaving really crushed me, and further alienated me from the characters decision making.
It's a super popular show, so I know there are people that like the aspects of if I hate, and I'd be curious to hear from them.
No.2716
Halfway through watching hunter x hunter 1999 version after putting it off for so long, going at a pace of about 3 episodes a day.
This is the best shounen anime I've ever watched but, at the same time, I feel like it poisoned the well of the subculture in a subtle way. Interesting world with a story that has perfect tempo as far timing for low points, high points, build-ups and climaxes (as of ep.47). It's ridiculous how it's seemingly the originator of some gimmicks in other shounen that followed it. One piece's haki is such an inferior version of nen and I always felt like it was a detriment to the whole work the moment haki became more than intimidation and a way to to clean hit logia devil fruit users; I never followed Naruto too much but the arguments that the Uchiha clan is inspired by the Kurta clan and Sasuke as a mix of Killula and Kurapika hold a LOT of weight – kind of sad how hunter x hunter in the west was victim of bad timing in its release. Just a few years later and it would be THE shounen everyone would obsess over after dragonball; instead of narutards, the 00s could have been swarming with "huntertards" – and I'd likely be one of them.
Gon is much more engaging than I ever thought possible (I found myself fist-bumping when Gon gets one over on Hisoka in heaven's arena). The quintessential shounen protagonist. Excellent, beautiful, flowing animation of which I only found one mistake, and only because there was one frame missing in a tea cup sip sequence. And the backgrounds are beautiful! The OST has this nostalgic rpg maker 2k3 feeling to it. Hard to tell if I like it doe to nostalgia or if it genuinely stands the test of time, but whichever the case it might be, it fits the action like a glove. The seiyuu work is top notch and reminds you of how overproduced today's seiyuu work is. It's refreshing to hear a man's voice like Leorio's. It makes me cautious of the 2011 adaptation, because it's almost guaranteed to be performed in the modern flavor.
On the other hand, there's quite a bit of fujo bait that I had hoped was the usual overreaction and over-analysis of subtext. I'm still wondering if it's just a prejudice born ut of years hearing about it getting to me, but, however great a character he is, Kurapika is the biggest victim. I can give Hisoka a pass (so far) but the studio went out of its way to make Kurapika very… Sexually vague. I have yet to watch the 2011 adaptation and haven't touched the manga, so I can't say if this is as the author intended or if the studio went the extra mile to try and catch extra viewership.
I want to recommend it enthusiastically, but these idiosyncrasies make me slightly cautious. Definitely worth it if you want to know what the fuss is about and why so many people still allow themselves to suffer through hiatus purgatory. As far as I've watched, it's that good.
No.2720
>>18Getting ready to watch Planet With because Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer was a good read
No.2764
>>2763My favorite among those is Girls' Last Tour by a lot, but if you've never seen it you definitely should watch Madoka if only for the context of what all the fuss was about 10 years ago. I wonder how much has been spoiled for you through cultural absorption at this point though
No.2765
>>2764I never really troubled myself with anime much so the only thing I seem to know about it is that there's lesbians, seems like a magical girl show, it's pretty gorey, and that apparently
undertale took some inspiration from it for a final boss
No.2766
oh and also guns
No.2768
>>2763All three are good, hope you watch them all eventually
No.2769
>>2763I watched Angel Beats long ago but it's one of those shows that I remember surprisingly little of. There was a cool music scene and an angel girl and they make weapons out of dirt or something for some reason? Oh and there's a girl trapped in a computer room which I don't think I even understood at the time. Weird show and kinda full of stupid anime tropes but I remember it being very popular.
No.2779
>>2777>ended up losing track of what episode I was on one of the anime.I've done this several times with Hidamari Sketch, Aria, and (to a lesser extent) Tamayura. I'm still watching them. I've been watching them over the last 6-8 years now because I don't want to saturate myself with them, and also I kinda slightly vaguely almost never want them to end sorta, just a little bit. I'll try to find the episode that I'm to, but it sometimes clicks with me partway through an episode that I'm watching one that I've already watched, I just didn't recognize it right away. If I do end up repeating a few episodes here and there, I don't really mind, certainly not with these series - it just pads them out for even longer.
So maybe you should only do this sort of thing with anime that you don't mind watching a repeat of every now and then.
I used to watch one episode of Tamayura per year, always on my birthday. But I skipped last year, so maybe I'll go one episode every two years!
No.2780
>>2777Having the series live on in your mind is a lot more satisfying than forgetting about the whole thing after 12 episodes
>>2779>maybe you should only do this sort of thing with anime that you don't mind watching a repeat of every now and thenI've wanted to watch Hidamari according to the original airing schedule like some other posters were doing.
>I used to watch one episode of Tamayura per year, always on my birthdaythat's a nice ritual sushi.
No.2781
>>18i haven't watched anything since aot stopped airing
i hate the time commitment of binge-watching and i don't know anything airing rn that i'm interested in
any recs for shows currently airing? i'm fine with catching up
No.2784
>>2783Reading Wraith Arc before watching Rebellion might be a good idea. Won't help out too much, but csushi rollically it takes place between the series and the movie.
No.2790
>>2786Hmm
To be honest I don't remember that and I never followed up on the show with the manga or the movie or anything. If you watch the movie do let me know if it explains things any better.
No.2791
https://myanimelist.net/anime/31559/Prince_of_Stride__AlternativeI watched Prince of Stride: Alternative, which is an otome-game adaptation by Madhouse. Here are my thoughts:
For context, this show revolves around an imaginary sport that is kind of like a relay-race version of parkour but with a leader who coordinates everyone. It is very entertaining to watch, actually.
The animation quality is good, but much more importantly the visual direction is absolutely terrific. I really like the way colour and brightness effects are used in this. It's difficult to explain but this anime was so bright during some scenes I felt like I needed to wear sunglasses just watching it. It was sort of like they played with the exposure settings on a camera or something like that. It looked great. Art style too I really liked. I liked the character designs. The visuals for this anime are a major strong point. I enjoyed them enormously. Especially for a sports anime, having awesome visuals like this really was a pleasure. Cinematography was also well done and made the sporty scenes enjoyable to watch. There are also lots of really cool sound effects that enhance the running scenes a lot. The running scenes look, feel, and sound AWESOME. Overall the production quality is excellent. The OST is good as well and enhances the mood of a variety of scenes.
In terms of characters, there is a self-inserty team-leader girl character and there are her male team members. You might anticipate that this would result in a typical reverse-harem situation, but actually shounen-ai between male team members is the only romantic subtext, and even that is mild. Apparently in the VN there is a lot more hetero romance involving the MC. The male characters are fairly likable, and each have unique personalities which mesh together for some good chemistry within the team. Takeru was my favourite character. Beyond the characters themselves, the drama is handled fairly well, which leads me to my next point.
This anime has great direction. They had to introduce an entirely new sport and do some world building, but I never felt like I was being forcefed information. Exposition was handled well. There's also a good balance between sporty scenes and slower, more dialogue-heavy scenes. There is some comedy, but it's sprinkled lightly and not used inappropriately. The anime actually has a consistently serious tone (and feels that way to the viewer). Maybe that was an artistic risk because someone might find the sport they're doing to be absurd, and it might be easier to just load up the comedy. I'm glad they didn't take that approach. The series feels competitive, dramatic and exciting. You could really feel the emotional highs and lows. I felt excited every time I queued up an episode to watch.
If I had to identify a weak point in Prince of Stride, I would say it's the plot. Although well executed, the story at its core is kind of mediocre. Sometimes it can be kind of 'melodramatic' as well, however this is hardly surprising for an otome-game adaptation.
Overall rating: 9/10
Shockingly underrated anime. Really well directed and exceptionally entertaining. I will definitely be rewatching this.
I really hope that someone makes a high-quality Blu-ray rip of this (I couldn't find one). It seems like this franchise got disproportionately less recognition in the West relative to its popularity in Japan. There is little evidence of any kind of western fanbase. I think the combination of sports and the otome aspect is a major reason for the anime's lukewarm reception. The average person watching it for the sport appeal was likely put off by the otome elements, and conversely the otome audience often didn't enjoy the sports focus. I think that the anime as a whole appealed to very few people — most people were probably only drawn in by specific aspects of the show, not the sum of its parts. This might explain the mixed feelings that so many people seem to have. I'm probably unusual in that I found most dimensions of the anime appealing. Hopefully the rumours about a second season are true.
UP UP SPEED UP
No.2792
>>2777What does it even mean to get saturated on a series that isn't 500 episodes long? Most shows are 26 episodes at best these days. I guess if you count every Symphogear series as being part of a bigger Symphogear continuity (which tbf it is) you could get burned out but…?
>>2780>Having the series live on in your mind is a lot more satisfying than forgetting about the whole thing after 12 episodesI'd just forget about it anyway until some random reaction picture reminds me of it.
No.2793
Decided to finally get around to watching the Heaven's Feel movies and honestly I just feel a bit pissed off now. The movies were alright, even if the fights were a bit nonsensical, but I'm still bitter about Sakura getting a route and Illya not getting one. I just don't know, while Sakura works better for the overall storyline I feel as if Illya is a more interesting character with the whole conundrum of whether or not she can count as human working pretty well with Kotomine knowing he shouldn't count as human. Or maybe it's a case of the grass being greener.
No.2844
https://myanimelist.net/anime/34494I watched Sakura Quest. Here are my thoughts:
Sakura Quest is a 25-episode show that is mainly focused on the efforts of various civic employees working to promote commerce in a small rural-Japan town and restore its tourism industry. The show is fairly self-aware and is clearly meant to be a social commentary in some ways. Although it is genre tagged as a slice of life, it usually felt more like a drama to me, albeit a slow-paced and not overly emotional one.
I liked the main female characters in this. They were all relatable in various ways and felt like real human beings. Much of my enjoyment of this anime was derived from my appreciation of the characters. I empathized with multiple characters in various ways. The young-adult career search is a frequent theme in the show, which I'm sure many people will find relatable. This anime does a good job of depicting authentic female friendship, carefully built up through personal connections, instead of just superficial character interaction. If you're looking for an anime with female characters that feel like real human beings instead of tropey moeblobs, then Sakura Quest might be worth a try.
I have mixed feelings about the writing; although sometimes crude, in some ways it was one of the things I enjoyed most about this anime. There were aspects that I liked and disliked about the writing. Sometimes there are 'coincidences' in the story that are a little too convenient. These sorts of 'plot conveniences' are a symptom of lazy and poorly planned writing, in my opinion. The story demands a fair bit of suspension of disbelief. At times it felt like the plot was a little bit 'forced' and unnatural. These are subtle criticisms, the importance of which will likely vary significantly among different viewers.
I really liked the overall themes that were used in the writing, but the plot mechanics through which they were implemented were often very crude. In other words, from a very broad perspective I liked the writing, but the detailed specifics often seemed amateurish and careless. The author had good broad-view ideas, but they were poorly executed. I'm still able to appreciate the writing in some ways, but that requires that I look past the crude details. Providing examples would require spoilers, but I think someone watching the anime will understand my point here. The social and economic issues of rural Japan, and the ways those issues affect individual characters, are core themes in the writing.
I liked the writing themes, I liked the individual characters and their respective arcs, but the actual episode-by-episode plot was often boring and almost always crudely executed. Keep in mind that this is a 25-episode anime with minimal 'filler' content. Meaning, no fight scenes, singing scenes, slice-of-life silliness or unrelated comedy skits; the show is nearly always advancing some kind of plot (albeit, a usually mundane one). As a result, when the plot starts to drag it really craters the entire show. I wish that this anime focused more on the character arcs of the cast instead of the seemingly neverending sequence of mundane inconsequential events that took up most of the screentime.
In terms of direction, the show has an amateurish feel in this regard as well. Speaking as a very patient viewer, even for me the pacing was slow at times. As I've said in the past, I'm fine with slow pacing as long as screentime is being used effectively. The problem with Sakura Quest is that there is not much else of entertainment value. The viewer is forced to sit through the slow march of the mediocre plot without any other noteworthy potential sources of enjoyment.
There are some funny moments. At times, the humour is fairly intelligent as well. It got some chuckles out of me, but it's usually not really a laugh-out-loud kind of humour. Much of the humour is derived from the social commentary aspects of the show, so from a comedic perspective it feels more like watching an amusing parody.
Visually, this show is not particularly well animated, but a lot of attention and care is paid to body language and facial expressions. I appreciated this a lot. To me, this is far more important than highly fluid animation. However, unfortunately the art style is quite bland. The character designs are also fairly simplistic.
The voice acting is average overall. However, I liked the voice acting for the MC (Koharu); the VA fit her role well and was unique in subtle ways. The OST is unremarkable, although I liked the first ED song.
Overall rating: 6/10
This anime is amateurish but also charming in some ways. There are some good characters. The writing exhibits many good ideas, but they are poorly executed.
Ririko is literally me.
No.2884
https://myanimelist.net/anime/31500/High_School_FleetI watched High School Fleet, also known as Haifuri. I watched the TV anime, OVAs, and the movie. Here are my thoughts:
This is basically the maritime clone of Girls und Panzer, which I didn't enjoy enough to watch more than the first season of. It's been years since then, but I think one of the main reasons I dropped GuP was because of the crappy characters. I remember also thinking that the battles were very drawn-out and often boring. Anyway, enough about GuP — I only bring it up because the comparison is so common.
High School Fleet involves battleships which are operated by crews of cute girls. This is a winning combination, in my view. Watching the girls working together in their various naval roles is entertaining. The girls are enrolled in a naval academy for training to join a military organization called the Blue Mermaids (Blue-Mers LOL). It's unreasonable of me to expect this, but it would have been nice if a bit more attention was given to the technical aspects of the battleships. Although, anime is probably the wrong medium for that. Regardless, if you like military stuff then there's an okay amount of that here. Admittedly, I'm kind of a military dork so I'm probably a little biased in this regard. The ships featured in the anime resemble WW2-era battleships.
In terms of animation, CGI is frequently used to animate the battleships. The CGI can sometimes appear crude, even by anime CGI standards. However, the character animation is often surprisingly good (although inconsistent). I'm fine with this resource allocation as the high-quality character animation does enhance the cuteness appeal of the show. Both the art style and character designs are fairly generic. Although I will say that a disproportionate degree of attention is paid to the characters' hair, both in terms of design and animation. I enjoyed this subtle aspect of the show since I just really like hair (OMG I'm such a weirdo) and think it's an important feature. There are lots of cute hairstyles among the cast! Anyway, it's not really the character designs themselves that evoke the feeling of moe within me, it's the 'gap moe' of the girls operating warships that really amplifies the cuteness.
The cast is very tropey, unsurprisingly. Some of the characters are pretty funny though. I don't have any significant complaints about the cast; this isn't the kind of show that requires character development. The cast is enormous, making it difficult to implement individual character arcs anyway. None of the characters are annoying, thankfully.
In terms of voice acting, there's a fair bit of variety. Some of the VAs do an exceptional job (ex. Rin), although they are diluted by the enormous size of the cast. As for music, I liked the OP song (the vocals are pretty good). The OST was nothing special. I would have liked to have seen a more military-like soundtrack for this. Could you imagine a well-produced military-inspired OST with lots of brass instruments used in a show like this? That would be awesome. There was a mild military theme to the music, but I would have preferred it be stronger (I realize this is kind of a silly complaint). Regardless, a more creative and talented OST composer could benefit this anime a lot, especially considering that there are plenty of moments without any dialogue. However, I will say that the sound effects during battle scenes were pretty nice.
There was a healthy mix of plot and lighthearted silly scenes. It was sometimes a fun show to watch. However, one of my biggest issues with this anime was the plot itself. The battle scenes were usually fun and entertaining, but many other plot-related scenes were tiresome. Without giving too much away, the story involves a dumb mystery. A lot of screentime gets wasted on eyeroll-inducing scenes related to this mystery phenomenon. Just know that it was really dumb, and not in an enjoyable way — I sometimes felt like I was watching a one-star horror movie. Even beyond the mystery, the writing in general is just poor. The plot doesn't completely dominate the show, so I don't want to overstate its impact on my viewing experience. Still, it was pretty bad and I would have preferred a completely different story or, better yet, no plot at all. Seriously, I even would have preferred that everyone just sat around painting their nails and drinking milkshakes, while occasionally firing some torpedoes and 400mm cannons. In any case, for maximum enjoyment of this anime, I think the best thing to do is shut your brain off.
No.2885
>>2884Overall rating for the TV anime: 6/10
I pretty much got what I expected. It was fun and cute, but there was room for improvement. It felt like this anime 'played it safe' in a lot of respects. Aside from the naval setting and the sometimes-strange plot, it was a fairly stereotypical moe show. I actually would have liked to have seen the maritime theme embraced more than it was. Meaning, a greater emphasis on naval operations, naval warfare, and general seamanship (I realize this is an unrealistic expectation for anime). As opposed to tropey character interactions that we've already seen play out in countless other settings. Due to its setting, High School Fleet had a chance to be truly unique. This chance was somewhat squandered. I also think that this show would have really benefited from a higher animation budget. There was tons of opportunity here for gorgeous visuals that would have enhanced the viewing experience, but this wasn't fully capitalized upon.
I'm not sure if it had any effect on this anime production, but apparently the studio went bankrupt not long after it aired (the movie was made by a different studio). Maybe there's a story behind that.
I'll also include my opinion of the two OVA episodes: they were bad. The plot was bad and they didn't even take place on the ships, which removed a significant driver of my enjoyment of the show. The OVAs were considerably worse than the TV anime, in my opinion (OVA rating: 4/10). I wouldn't recommend watching them unless you adored the TV anime.
As for the 2020 movie, here are my comments on it:
- the same crude jarring CGI is used to animate the ships, unfortunately. In fact, the visuals in general are barely a step above the TV anime, which is disappointing. As I already said, this anime could benefit a lot from better visuals.
- again, not enough focus on the maritime theme of the show. Not nearly enough cool battleship content. To my stark disappointment, the first ~50 (FIFTY) minutes of the movie did not have a single battleship scene (so, basically half the runtime). High School Fleet continues to squander its potential by not focusing on the things that make it unique and entertaining. It still continues to be "Generic School Anime but Sometimes On a Boat This Time" (which unfortunately isn't unexpected).
- again, another ridiculously bad plot that feels like it came out of a grade-school creative writing class. Literally the kind of thing I'd expect in a one-star movie. Not that I care that much about the plot anyway. Please just show me some cool battleship stuff and accompanying gap moe; at this point I don't even care what storyline you need to justify it.
- when the battle scenes did finally arrive, they were pretty underwhelming, particularly for a movie. Sound effects were alright but could have been better. I was also disappointed by the lack of any ship-vs-ship skirmishes.
- the sense of novelty that kept me interested in the TV anime has since worn out. I've already seen 14 episodes of this anime, and the movie isn't really bringing anything new to the table.
- the characters are still just as cute as they were during the TV series. This is one thing that High School Fleet consistently does an okay job of.
- overall I simply didn't enjoy the movie as much as the TV series. Spending ~half the screentime onshore was a major reason for this. It's called High School FLEET, okay?! FLEET. As in, on ships at sea in the flipping water! That's all I'm asking for!
My overall rating for the 2020 movie: 4/10
Rin and Tama are the cutest!!
There's another thing I want to say about modern anime more generally, even though this review might not be the best place for it, and I'm probably stating the obvious anyway. A lot of modern 'moe' CGDCT shows will add a theme to their story or change the setting or do something to try to distinguish themselves from all the other similar shows. So many of these anime will, in concept, have a totally unique and interesting theme that could make for a memorable show. Upon implementation though, the show will squander this unique potential by deferring to the same tired formulaic CGDCT material — the same tired character interactions, the same stale comedy, the same character types and tropes. High School Fleet is yet another example of this (and hardly the most egregious). It doesn't fully commit to the elements that make it unique, and instead plays it safe, so what you end up with is Generic School Anime (sometimes on a boat this time!). Admittedly, High School Fleet has a unique plot (and unfortunately it's quite bad), so it's not even an ideal example of this phenomenon.
No.2919
https://myanimelist.net/anime/32995I watched Yuri on Ice ("Yuri!!! on Ice"). Here are my thoughts:
Visually, the anime is good overall. There are lots of really nice character designs. The cinematography is pretty good, especially during the skating scenes. The character animation is fluid, although sometimes inconsistent. Some episodes were better than others in terms of animation quality. The most jarring visual imperfections were the frequent off-model frames during the skating scenes. This might have been exacerbated by my tendency to repeatedly pause and rewind these parts, but I doubt I'm the only one who noticed this. I'm not a stickler for animation quality, but there was room for refinement here. In any case, at least they didn't use CGI for the skating. For the record, I watched the Blu-rays; I've heard anecdotally that the TV broadcast had some animation sloppiness.
Sound effects are nicely done. Like in the ice arenas for example, it sounds exactly as it would in real life. I could feel the cold rink-arena air as I watched this anime. The OST is decent, although I wish there were more musical variety, particularly during the skating scenes. Both the OP and ED songs are great. Voice acting is alright; Victor has a nice voice.
Although not bad, the writing of Yuri on Ice is not one of its stronger attributes. The story is simply okay, and it serves its purpose. Anyone watching this anime should set their expectations low in this regard. Personally, I didn't particularly empathize with any of the characters.
Sometimes character development seemed abrupt and unexpected, without adequate foreshadowing. This might partially be a consequence of the show's pacing, which is arguably kinda quick.
Strictly in terms of being a sports anime, Yuri on Ice is decent in this regard too. The skating scenes are captivating. Watching this anime made me want to go play some kind of sport. Although it did not feel as intensely competitive as other sports shows I have seen, there is a lot of emphasis on the mental state and psyche of the figure skaters, moreso than I'd expect in an ordinary sports show. The strong emphasis on the psychological dimension of sport performance is a somewhat-unique trait of this show. I suppose the solitary nature of figure-skating performance is ideal for this. Personally, I think it would have been nice to see more attention paid to the technical aspects of figure skating, although I suspect few other people share that opinion.
No.2920
>>2919I think that Yuri on Ice sought to strike a balance between on-ice scenes and off-ice scenes. In terms of total runtime, the anime has tons of scenes on ice — even more than I expected. The on-ice scenes are very entertaining and are when the show is at its best, in my opinion. I really did enjoy the skating scenes. However, this came at the cost of having less time for off-ice content, and consequently, less time for character development and related storytelling. The prioritization of on-ice scenes may be one factor which resulted in my lack of empathy and emotional connection with the characters. Now, I'm not saying there is anything objectively wrong with this. Yuri on Ice delivered more skating content than I expected, and I'm thankful for it. However, I think that the consequences of this screentime allocation should be acknowledged. This effect is also compounded by the size of the cast; the large number of characters diluted the attention paid to individual character arcs. I think one mistake this anime made was trying to implement character arcs for too many side characters; it would have been better to exclusively focus on the main characters, particularly due to the scarcity of off-ice screentime. On the other hand, more character arcs create more potential ways that a viewer might connect with the anime, which in theory might broaden its appeal. Perhaps this was a decision made with the intent to make Yuri on Ice more of a 'crowd pleaser' show (a common strategy for the directorial decisions, it seems to me).
Now of course for the answer to the question some of you are wondering — how gay was it? Well, it was pretty gay. In fact it was even gayer than I expected. There was a lot of very strongly implied subtext, both in words and actions. However, a lot of it struck me as pandering fanservice. Sometimes it was almost exaggerated to the point where it broke my immersion. It was not an elegant kind of romance; it was more like forcefed fanservice. I didn't dislike the flavour, but it could have been implemented more gracefully. The crudely implemented homosexual overtones did not match the elegance of the figure skating. This flaw is also representative of a broader issue that I have with this anime — I wish it took itself more seriously. Yuri on Ice feels like it was created to please its audience (and sell) instead of satisfy an artistic vision. It is difficult to become emotionally engaged when there is a constant barrage of various forms of practically fourth-wall-breaking fanservice. Similarly, potentially great scenes are sometimes dragged down by the use of comedy. Yuri on Ice could have been a very emotional show if it told its story with confidence and seriousness, instead of (perhaps cynically) pandering to the audience. I wonder if things would have turned out differently if this was a manga adaptation.
My overall rating: 7/10
It was a consistently entertaining anime. The figure-skating scenes were both captivating and plentiful. It was easy to watch, however it never really engaged me on an emotional level. Don't go into this anime expecting a compelling story or rich characters — you won't get either of those things. Fortunately, there are plenty of other sources of enjoyment. Even though there is an overarching story, you could show a random episode to someone unacquainted with the series and they would probably still be entertained. It is a surprisingly easily digestible show, in stark contrast to my wrongful prior assumptions about it being more suited for a niche audience. As for the homosexual romance element, if you go into this expecting anything deeper than shameless pandering fanservice then you will be disappointed. For maximum enjoyment, Yuri on Ice should be approached with a casual lighthearted attitude. Also, due to how much skating content there is, I'd advise against 'binge watching' this anime. It will feel repetitive if you watch it too frequently. I watched ~2 episodes a week and this felt optimal to me. Yuri on Ice is an enjoyable anime if you set your expectations correctly.
I also want to say, despite this anime's reputation, it is a decent sports show. Before viewing, I expected that the skating aspect would be secondary to the core story. This is not the case. Skating is the central theme in this anime and I'm grateful for it. I would sincerely recommend this anime to people who enjoy sports shows, regardless of the sexual overtones.
I'm not sure what the situation is with the rumoured sequel movie. I had been delaying watching this anime because of the supposedly upcoming movie, but unfortunately it still hasn't come to fruition.
No.2923
>>2922I adore Gin no Saji, glad you liked it too roll.
I watched it back when it aired but I remembered really liking how the main character grows, and the insights into farming and agriculture are surprisingly both interesting and informative. I never got around to the second season though, perhaps I'll give the whole thing another watch (or give the manga a try)
No.2936
https://myanimelist.net/anime/35241I watched Konohana Kitan. Here are my thoughts:
The characters are kind of bland but there is good chemistry among the cast. Some of the character designs are cute, and there are some nice kimono outfits. The show has a fairly rich traditional-Japan theme, and primarily takes place at a large rustic ryokan. Most of the characters are so-called "fox girls" who are ryokan employees. The fox girl thing is mildly cute but it's not a major reason for my watching the show, although I'd imagine there is a passionate audience out there for this kind of thing. There are some mild supernatural themes that creep into the show at times as well. This anime often feels like it has a surreal dream-like atmosphere.
Art style during some scenes is nice. Colour is used well. The background in some frames can be quite detailed and colourful. Visuals are one of the show's stronger attributes. The animation itself isn't particularly fluid, and there are a lot of stills, but I often found myself pausing to admire frames.
The OST is okay and the voice acting is mostly unremarkable. I would have preferred a different seiyuu for the main character; her voice was kind of annoying to me. I liked the voice acting for Ren (the pink-haired girl).
This anime definitely has direction issues. Although I haven't read the manga, I get the impression that it might be a better way to approach this if you care about the story. This anime feels very disjointed. It feels like random scenes from the manga were just haphazardly slapped together with zero care for the broader narrative. Episodes have inconsistent mood, and transitions between scenes are not handled well. Furthermore, I often felt like I was missing background information during any remotely plot-related scene. Sometimes it almost felt like I was watching a promotional video for the real content, instead of an actual stand-alone anime.
There is a lot of yuri pandering. However, I never felt any sense of deeper meaningful romance. It always felt kinda cheap and shallow. 'Pandering' really is the right word to use here. That doesn't mean I don't enjoy it, but you should know not to expect anything deeper in this regard. Even beyond the romance element, the whole show just feels like fluff. There's little cohesion from scene to scene, nevermind between episodes. For me, this anime was just something to shut my brain off to and watch some cute stuff with nice visuals. If you expect anything more than this then you will likely be disappointed.
Despite my criticisms, it was still usually a pleasant and relaxing show to watch. The more I tried to actually use my brain while watching it, the less I enjoyed it. The show is fine though as just some cute fluff to wind down with at the end of the day. This anime is best watched immediately before bedtime.
My overall rating: 6/10
No.2944
https://myanimelist.net/anime/32924I watched Urara Meirochou. Here are my thoughts:
This show focuses on novice users of divine powers and their journey to improve those skills. I like divine themes in any kind of story, so I'm probably a little biased in the degree to which I liked this anime. In fact, I wish the show focused even more on the actual divine powers and supernatural themes. In terms of screentime, this anime has a lot of typical slice-of-life scenes. However, there are sprinklings of broader plot that are strategically added. When they do occur, the divination scenes are quite nice.
The main characters in the show are all likable and have good chemistry in their interactions. However, this anime has too much comedy, in my opinion. Both in terms of the way it interrupts enjoyable moments and in the way that so much overall screentime is sucked up by mediocre comedy. The timing of the comedy was poor too. It often broke the tone of a scene in a disruptive way, and in general was too frequent for my taste. I sometimes felt like I was getting emotional whiplash by the way the mood constantly jumped around. It felt like the show was trying to cater to someone with an extremely low attention span. There were many moments where I was soaking in the mood of a scene, only for it to be disrupted by some unfunny tone-breaking comedy. This is the show's greatest flaw from my perspective. However, in fairness, the latter half of the series is comparatively less comedy-heavy.
The art style is unique, creative, and in general quite nice. The style of the background setting, like the town's houses, is unique. The soft pastel colour palette is nice. Stylized frames with artistic patterns and the like (think Hidamari Sketch) are effectively used during dialogue scenes. The pervasive use of soft curvy haphazard linework contributes to the show's playful fantasy-like atmosphere; it sort of reminds me of childrens' storybooks. Some of the character designs are fairly cute, with cute outfits too. The animation quality in this is fairly average, but there is a lot of visual detail. You can tell that a lot of attention was paid to minor details, moreso than I'd expect from this kind of anime. I found myself pausing frequently just to admire random objects or features in the frame. Cinematography is used effectively and creatively as well. Each scene usually has lots of variety in terms of 'camera' angles, framing, distortion, etc. A lot of care and creativity was put into this anime's visuals, even though it doesn't have 'butter-smooth' animation. I really enjoyed the visual aspects of this show.
The main characters have incredibly cute voice work, which is great because the show is dialogue-heavy. It seemed like a fair bit of attention is paid to sound effects, like during divination scenes for example. Even mundane things, like the sound of movement on tatami mats, are handled in detail and with care. The OST seemed good, although it is usually overshadowed by dialogue and sound effects.
My overall rating: 8/10
Despite my distaste for the comedy and the way it was implemented, this show is exceptional in many other ways, and I very much enjoyed watching it. The atmosphere, setting and themes are rich and unique. The art style is creative and unique. All of the main characters are likable. The divine powers theme in the story is interesting and refreshing. However, if they got rid of the comedy and focused even more on the divine elements in the writing, I imagine that I would rate this anime even higher. In fact this anime had all the ingredients to be a 10/10 for me personally, and that potential could have been realized if things were executed differently. Regardless of my lamenting some squandered potential, I enjoyed this anime quite a lot.
I want to read the manga because the writing seems like it has lots of promise.
Lastly, to anyone who enjoys the SoL genre, absolutely I would recommend this anime. It is creative, comfy, cute, playful, relaxing, and unique. I enjoyed every single episode and always looked forward to watching it. It really was exceptional.
No.2945
Bit of a weird/vague question. My uncle was talking about an anime from the 90's based off of Dungeons and Dragons. Does anyone have a clue what he might've been referring to?
No.2946
>>2945Record of Lodoss War?
No.2947
>>2944Been meaning to watch this for a while since the main girl is so damn cute, you convinced me. I enjoy your writeups btw.
No.2948
>>2946That must be it! Thanks!
No.2962
https://myanimelist.net/anime/32086I watched the Blame! movie, released in 2017. Here are my thoughts:
For the record, I have never seen the older (2003) OVAs nor have I ever read the manga. I knew nothing about the franchise before watching this movie. Obviously this review will not address the faithfulness of this adaptation to the manga; I am only evaluating the movie as a standalone product.
Basically, Blame takes place in a sci-fi post-apocalyptic setting because machines took over and blah blah blah reasons. The premise and setting kind of reminded me of the live-action Matrix trilogy.
This movie is animated in CGI (well, at least the characters and machines are). There were moments where the character animation seemed unnatural, but overall the characters looked okay to me. By CGI standards, it looked good. Facial expressions were done surprisingly well, which is unusual for CGI animation. Beyond the characters, the background setting looked terrific. There is tons of detail in the background landscapes, which really complements the post-apocalyptic sci-fi setting. There are lots of screencap-worthy frames in this movie. The muted, mostly grayscale, colour palette is suitable as well.
The audio production quality is excellent. Lots of different sound effects really enhanced my immersion. Regardless of the CGI visuals, this movie sounded very realistic to me. Blame's setting is one that can really be enhanced by sound effects, so it's great that this was capitalized upon. The OST is great too, and really well produced. The voice acting is adequate; I liked Cibo's voice.
The plot was pretty generic post-apocalyptic sci-fi material, and fairly predictable. In some ways it felt like a generic Hollywood blockbuster film plot. Although at times I felt like I was missing background information, it was overall coherent and competently executed. The plot was also fairly self-contained, meaning that there were no significant loose strings at the end (a common manga-adaptation issue). There was minimal character development, but the characters served their purposes, and none of them were annoying or unpleasant. Some of the character dynamics were a little corny at times, but these instances were short-lived. In terms of sci-fi stuff, there is a decent helping of cool technology in here, although nothing particularly unique.
My overall rating: 7/10
I found this movie immersive and consistently entertaining. It sounded great and looked good. It was competently directed and didn't have any major flaws. It was a good cinematic experience. Manga readers probably feel differently, but I think this movie did a good job of depicting a post-apocalyptic sci-fi setting.
If you have a surround-sound setup then I'd recommend using it if you decide to watch this (or at least a decent pair of headphones).
No.2969
>>2944Urara is really good. The ED is very catchy. It's too bad the manga is done.
No.2981
https://myanimelist.net/anime/31478I watched Bungou Stray Dogs (all 3 seasons + the movie, the OVA, and some of the Wan shorts). Here are my thoughts:
I generally speaking don't like action anime. I also dislike superpowers as a plot device. I prefer comedy served as a side dish; too much comedy will put me off depending on how palatable I find its flavour. For these reasons I expected that I would not enjoy Bungou Stray Dogs and in fact almost passed on it entirely. Just to be sure though, I pessimistically watched the first episode just in case.
I felt hooked at episode 3 and knew I'd be watching the entire thing. The first few episodes were strong. There were interesting characters with tons of promise.
Season 1 has a good balance between comedy and serious scenes. Don't be fooled by the comedy of season 1 though. Like many other anime, they lure you in with a lighthearted beginning to introduce characters and setting, and then the more emotionally tumultuous journey begins. Season 1 spends most of its time fleshing out characters and setting. There is a major shift in tone from season 1 to season 2. There is very little comedy in season 2 and the tone is far darker. The difference was so stark that I double-checked to see if they changed staff. Actually, in general this anime is all over the map in terms of tone. These transitions are usually handled well though, which I think is a sign of good direction.
Here's a summary of my pros and cons.
Positive aspects of the anime:
- Interesting and sometimes well-developed cast of characters.
- Many of the characters are both likable and memorable.
- Complex (yet coherent) and interesting plot that interweaves numerous characters with different motivations, ideologies, backstories, etc.
- Good voice acting.
- Complementary OST with variety.
- Some of the supernatural abilities are kind of cool or at the very least unique.
- Attractive male characters and yaoi ships.
- Funny comedy sometimes (mainly season 1)
Weak aspects of the anime:
- Large cast without adequate development of many characters.
- Arguably poor direction at times. For example: rushed story arcs, inappropriate comedic relief, boring fight scenes, etc.
- Asspull conflict resolution and all the usual issues with super powers ("muh power is arbitrarily better than yours, and then everyone died, the end.").
- Unshakeable feeling of protagonist plot armour, even from early in the series.
- Using the absolutely insufferable 'rich American' character trope for an important character.
I don't particularly like super powers or enjoy fight scenes. Thankfully the fight scenes in this are dialogue-heavy and/or resolved quickly. Someone who naturally gravitates towards the genres of this anime would probably enjoy it more than me.
My overall ratings:
Seasons 1, 2 and 3: 7/10
Dead Apple movie: 5/10
Wan! shorts: dropped after 4 episodes
I actually would recommend the TV anime to a casual viewer because it's a very easily digestible series. Also a pretty solid 'page turner' — I usually watched multiple episodes in one sitting. I'm not surprised to see how commonly well received this anime was. There is pretty much something for everyone in this show; I mean that in the sense that there are many aspects of it that can potentially appeal to people.
No.2982
>>2981Assorted miscellaneous comments:
Okay animation, not great (not an issue for me). Could be considered a negative if you want to see well-animated exciting action scenes. Overall the visuals of this anime are mostly unremarkable. Probably the only noteworthy things are the character designs, which are pretty nice. There are also nice city landscape frames that appear sometimes.
Good OST. Lots of variety yet it still always complements the scene well. The music definitely enhances this anime. Good voice acting too.
The atmosphere in general is rich. It's difficult to describe but the show has a very 'punkish' lawless feeling.
Direction quality varies a lot. On average it's good, but it varies a lot from episode to episode. Sometimes the show is suspenseful, other times it can be somewhat boring or melodramatic.
All three seasons started strong but I found the last few climactic episodes of each to be somewhat underwhelming. This might be due to my distaste for long drawn-out fight scenes. I also never felt like the stakes were particularly high in pretty much all the conflicts, despite the often epic scale of the events taking place. Unfortunately, from early in the series I learned to expect asspull conflict resolution, or at least resolutions without major consequences to the protagonists. The use of super powers in any story permits bad writing in this respect. I will say though that I liked the frequent theme of redemption/atonement in the writing.
Good characters. This is probably the best aspect of this anime. There are many characters in the cast who are unique and interesting, as well as memorable and likable. I think that the characters really carry this show as a whole, and are a major reason for the success of the franchise. I should mention that the characters are (loosely?) based off of various famous authors, so someone who's familiar with Japanese literature might derive more enjoyment from this series. For example, one of the main characters (Osamu Dazai) is based on the author of the well-known novel "No Longer Human."
There are a lot of attractive male characters in this and a ton of potential for yaoi ships and the like. I'll spare the average reader from my elaborating on this point. There are some romantic pairings within the context of the story. It doesn't surprise me that this franchise is popular among Japanese women.
I'll also include my comments specific to the Dead Apple movie:
- the plot and the resulting drama felt artificial and forced.
- plot was confusing and messy.
- the characterization/behaviour for some cast members seemed inconsistent with the other anime content.
- any humour felt like audience pandering instead of anything organic (ex. lazily recycling jokes from previous content).
- overall was simply worse than the TV series, both from an artistic and entertainment perspective.
- for anyone wondering, you don't need to watch this movie to understand the story of season 3.
Here are my comments pertaining to the "Bungou Stray Dogs Wan!" 2021 chibi-style shorts (based on the few episodes I watched):
- these are just lighthearted comedy skits.
- the skits are unfunny and boring.
- much of the comedy relies on the character dynamics already established in the prior TV seasons.
- the one nice thing about these shorts is that they do a decent job of showcasing the voice acting of the cast, which as I've said is pretty good.
- I'm not sure what the point of making these was, besides having a poorly veiled advertisement to broadcast on TV to remind people that the franchise exists.
- I dropped these shorts after 4 episodes. I'm not sitting through 12 ~12-minute episodes of unfunny chibi "comedy."
No.3001
https://myanimelist.net/anime/33988I watched Demi-chan wa Kataritai (not including the ONA), also known as Interviews with Monsters Girls. Here are my thoughts:
This is literally just a typical school SoL show but with a (mostly inconsequential) monstergirl gimmick. That's it. The show doesn't excel at much, and it's not particularly unique or creative. It is watchable though, marginally.
Aside from the novelty of "demi-humans," the characters are pretty bland as a whole. Although, the vampire girl is a good character; she has a playful personality. I enjoyed her presence in the show. However, the rest of the cast is fairly bland. I would say that characterization is one of the weaker aspects of this show, particularly because it is a dialogue-heavy SoL that features interviews of the main characters.
This anime has a significant 'romance' component, moreso than I expected prior to watching. It's a shallow kind of romance though. Truthfully, the show probably deserves a harem genre tag. I guess this isn't surprising considering it's a SoL with a male main character and nearly all-female supporting cast. Most of the story revolves around the main teacher character helping the demi-humans with their personal problems, and in the process learning about their biological characteristics. This story sounds interesting in concept, but in reality the final product is boring and surprisingly generic.
The animation quality is mediocre but sometimes the cinematography is noteworthy. During some moments (not consistently) the character animation is above average. The image frame moves along with actual character movement, which can enhance the sparse moments of fluid animation. A decent job is done for facial expressions as well. The art style of the anime is quite generic and lacking in visual detail. The character designs are similarly generic.
The voice acting is unremarkable, aside from the vampire girl who does a great job. The OST is also unremarkable.
My overall rating: 4/10
This is just a typical highschool SoL show, but with a demi-human 'schtick' added. As a whole, it feels surprisingly uncreative for the premise. It is mostly boring and generic, and it doesn't excel at anything in particular. It was just barely entertaining enough for me to watch to completion.
I wouldn't recommend this anime to anybody.
No.3004
>>3001The succubus doujins are decent though lol
No.3016
>>3004>Show is meh but the porn is goodMany such cases
No.3025
https://myanimelist.net/anime/7785I watched Yojouhan Shinwa Taikei (including the specials), also known as The Tatami Galaxy. Here are my thoughts:
Once I realized that the MC was a self-pitying young man who was envious of his peers and pining for romantic affection, I knew I was going to have a bad time. Seriously, I can't stand this kind of character. If you find this garbage relatable then you need to take a serious look at what kind of person you are.
The two central characters (MC and Ozu) are pieces of shit, and the story consists of them acting like pieces of shit but with some time-loop stuff thrown in. I pretty much hated everything about the writing in this anime. My enjoyment was significantly impeded by this. Most of the story revolves around the MC being the pathetic worm that he is and treating everyone around him terribly, all the while pining for romantic affection. In addition to this unpleasantly relentless theme, the plot itself often feels repetitive due to the frequent time rewinds. This is because the same events and scenarios are repeated frequently, often with little variation both in terms of the facts of the story as well as the style in which it is told.
Visually, the show is pretty creative. The art style in the backgrounds is unique and stylistic, as well as highly detailed despite the constant scene changes. In general, I enjoyed looking at these creative visuals — they captivated me enough to continue watching the anime despite my grievances.
The style of direction and storytelling is interesting. The first-person narration by the MC is unique, particularly in anime. I think this style of storytelling is more common in American movies. Perhaps this is because it is relatively less common for anime to have conventional novels as source material. My main complaint about this storytelling style is that the narration is almost relentless during each episode. What I mean by that is, there is a near-constant info dump to pay attention to, while also trying to appreciate everything that is happening on-screen. I felt like my attention was often split between the visuals taking place and the narrative audio.
On the subject of audio, the voice acting is not bad. It's difficult for me to gauge the OST because of the literally constant fast-paced narrative dialogue which prevents me from hearing the music clearly. I recall there being some not-bad piano music. OP and ED songs are okay.
My personal overall rating: 4/10
As I already said, I seriously loathed both the characters and the writing in this. Furthermore, although unique, I didn't particularly like the style of storytelling. Additionally, this anime became repetitive very quickly and often felt like a chore to watch. The creative visuals are pretty much the only reason I watched this to completion.
To be fair, I am probably the wrong audience for this anime. This kind of story doesn't click with me at all. Furthermore, the focus is entirely on the MC, who is nearly always on-screen. So, in my case, hating the MC's guts is a major issue.
My intuition might be wrong about this, but I suspect that a lot of the people celebrating this anime must find it relatable in some way. At least the college setting is probably relatable for much of this anime's audience.
I will concede that the 'love doll' story arc was pretty funny. It got some laughs out of me.
No.3026
>>3025Here's an anime I picked up exclusively because of the ED. I ended up having the same feelings regarding the plot. The author comes off to me as a particular kind of shameless hipster mostly because he does stuff that centers heavily around Kyoto, but then again I only know of this and Uchouten Kazoku (this one's actually good) so my perception is skewed as hell. I guess the secret to success is being absolutely shameless and writing pseudo-blog stories with self-inserts and plenty of scapegoats to blame on personal shortcomings and a perfect raven-haired girl that is just the right amount of beautiful that nobody else but you notices thus leaving her in wait for your advance.
No.3027
I've been watching Paranoia Agent lately, I'm only up to the fourth episode but I'm enjoying it so far.
No.3028
>>3026Wow, you actually feel similarly? I was expecting any feedback I got for this review to be negative because Tatami Galaxy seems to be liked by everyone. Plus I worded things pretty strongly…
>a perfect raven-haired girl that is just the right amount of beautiful that nobody else but you notices thus leaving her in wait for your advance.Haha, many such cases in fiction.
>Uchouten Kazoku Haven't seen this yet but it is in the backlog.
No.3031
>>3028>>3026Well I think I would disagree, but it's been so long since I've seen this anime that I have nothing to base that on other than "I didn't feel that way when I watched it". Perhaps a re-watch is in order. The ED is indeed great, it introduced me to Sotaisei Riron.
No.3032
>>3028definitely targeted more at people with ASD and/or crippling social anxiety. That's true of a lot of animes though.
No.3044
https://myanimelist.net/anime/12679I watched Joshiraku (including the OVA). Here are my thoughts:
Having somewhat recently completed Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu, I thought it would be interesting to watch Joshiraku with the memory of it fresh in my mind. However, I quickly realized that the two shows are completely different. Joshiraku is a comedy and consists of short skits. The main characters are rakugo performers, although rakugo itself is not a major aspect of the anime. The rakugo theater (usually backstage) is only a setting for the various comedic skits (which are usually unrelated to rakugo). So, don't be like me and expect this to be a rakugo-themed show.
This anime is clever and amusing, but not really laugh-out-loud funny. There is a lot of clever wordplay. It often breaks the 4th wall; it is a very 'self-aware' show. Occasionally it felt boring; some skits can feel a little drawn out, and the pacing of the skits is slightly sluggish at times.
I could tell that some of the jokes were too Japanese even for my weeb ass. There were seemingly obscure references to Japanese culture, history, politics, geography, etc…
In terms of audiovisuals, this anime is unremarkable at best. The visuals are adequate, and provide demonstrations of the jokes when necessary. The voice acting is similarly adequate. The OST is unremarkable and fairly inconsequential due to the dialogue-heavy nature of the show.
My personal overall rating: 6/10
Most episodes got some chuckles out of me, but it was never gut-bustingly hilarious or anything like that — just moderately amusing. I enjoyed how clever a lot of the jokes were.
If you like puns, clever wordplay and Japanese cultural references, then this is the comedy anime for you. It is a very Japanese show in that there are frequent references to Japanese culture in some form — anything from politicians to pop culture to kanji readings to traditional folklore. The cultural references have a lot of breadth. Receptiveness to this will likely vary a lot among viewers. A casual anime viewer probably won't be amused by puns about train station names (or something equally culturally esoteric), but a smaller subset of dedicated japanophiles would probably eat this stuff up.
