|
Anime/Manga Thread
|
|
Topic Started: Jan 7 2012, 01:00 AM (10,892 Views)
|
|
LightningBolt
|
Apr 1 2016, 07:58 AM
Post #406
|
- Posts:
- 1,432
- Group:
- Members
- Member
- #110
- Joined:
- May 8, 2011
|
Definitely watching: Diamond is Unbreakable Flying Witch Haven't You Heard? I'm Sakamoto Joker Game Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress Kyoukai no Rinne My Hero Academia The Asterisk War (because I hate myself)
Maybe: Bungou Stray Dogs Kiznaiver Kuma Miko Macross Delta
Funimation has announced only one simulcast to the best of my knowledge and the first shows start airing in a few hours. Kinda strange, but there are plenty of titles still out there I suppose.
|
|
|
| |
|
Olinea
|
Apr 1 2016, 09:14 AM
Post #407
|
- Posts:
- 1,724
- Group:
- Members
- Member
- #89
- Joined:
- May 8, 2011
|
So against my better judgment (read: after Dota night was done and everyone had gone to bed) I got talked into just trying one anime and decided to pick a random one from the front page of Crunchyroll. The least offending-looking one was called Konosuba and it looked short enough so fuck it. When I learned the studio behind it was studio DEEN, I didn’t know if it was the best one to start with. A couple friends of mine do nothing all night but shit on the quality of their work, talking about how it ruined their 7th expansion of visual novel eroges or whatever, so I didn’t know if this was going to be worth my attention, but I gave it a shot anyway, and I gotta say, what a fucking anime. Posted Image At first Konosuba didn’t seem like it was going to be much, I mean for a good few scenes we had the blue haired god girl constantly sticking her ass into the screen and a lotta weird shit with the blonde knight girl panting every time something bad happens to her which I guess is a cultural thing for Japan but holy shit everything else, man. Every time the explosion girl showed up I fucking knew I was going to love it. She’s such a good character - I’d go so far as to say she was the best of all of them, with the thief girl as a runner-up. Real shame about thief girl only really getting like two scenes... I was hoping she’d be the 5th party member after the blonde one, but I guess I can’t complain with the results.
Posted Image
Every time the show looked like it was going to do a cliché trope, it always threw a curveball at me. Like with episode 5, I thought for sure the explosion girl was finally going to have to realize there’s more to being a wizard than blowing shit, but they solve it with the “why not just use the giant fucking Macguffin you’ve been ignoring?” everyone asks themselves every damn time this shit comes in and continue on with their daily lives. Normally this sounds like bad writing but the way Konosuba pulls it off, it’s timed perfectly and is very entertaining.
Posted Image
The episode that I would rank the highest would have to be episode 9, every second of this episode I was thinking to myself, "Wow, what a Grade A piece of Japanese animation." It truly changed my whole view of the country and the culture as a whole. And such a wonderful moral too, “There is always something that is worth fighting for.” Before, I’d say “I’m the best” and sock the guy in the face, but now I say “I’m the best” and sock the guy in the face for those I hold dear. Because of this episode I now understand the true meaning of "friendship". Posted Image
Overall this show is some grade A premium weebshit. I’m still not sure why anyone would buy those toys and all the crap the MC had in his room at the beginning but whatever. Maybe the next anime I pick up will be able to shed some light as to why.
|
|
|
| |
|
Snowman
|
Apr 1 2016, 06:14 PM
Post #408
|
- Posts:
- 2,398
- Group:
- Members
- Member
- #107
- Joined:
- May 8, 2011
|
>next anime
RIP oli
|
|
|
| |
|
tfghost92
|
Apr 1 2016, 06:22 PM
Post #409
|
swag on this dick, bitches
- Posts:
- 2,833
- Group:
- Green, Best Color
- Member
- #118
- Joined:
- May 9, 2011
|
Best april fools joke of the day thus far. I lol'd the whole way through
|
|
|
| |
|
Romanticide
|
Apr 1 2016, 09:17 PM
Post #410
|
- Posts:
- 3,887
- Group:
- Bitchin' in Purple
- Member
- #95
- Joined:
- May 8, 2011
|
Amazing post. All dem references mayne, and the Jojo pic is one I don't think I'll ever be able to see without laughing. I think the only thing that could have made it better would have been a "people die if they are killed" reference.
Also lmao @ calling Konosuba episode 9 "a grade A piece of Japanese animation".
Anyway, an actual srs anime thread post. Winter season thoughts.
i shouldn't be allowed to write this many words about chinese cartoons
it literally was too long for one post
Thanks to based Laddie for attempting to fix this very obvious shortcoming, though. (Maybe it's a paid feature.)
I could have wrote about Sekko Boys/Galko-chan but they're shorts. You'll know if you like them in 8-16 minutes. It's also hard for me to think of much beyond "they're funny". Not much story/character development to either and those are the things I look at the hardest. I'd go 6 or 7/10 for each of these idfk. It doesn't really matter, so I'll probably go 7. I'd like to see another cour of both of these.
This season was stacked though. Erased and Showa Genroku were incredible shows, Lupin and Osomatsu were right below them, there was some second tier stuff that I would have put in first tier in any other season (Aokana, Schwarzesmarken, Grimgar, Phantom World), and some stuff came out of nowhere for me (Aokana again, Norn9). I still kept up with some meh stuff (because I hate myself? sunken cost fallacy? idk), but I feel confident in saying this season is the best one I've watched yet.
Continuations:
Osomatsu-San It just keeps getting weirder and better. Iyami Kart is Mario Kart on steroids and hallucinogenic drugs. The finale is the best baseball episode ever and everything else should stop trying. The first episode had the vignette where it turned out the sextuplets were Osomatsu's delusions, but obviously that's not canon. Was a decent surprise though. And of course Letter is another gutpunch of a half-episode. Stuff like that works for me a lot more than the obvious feelsbait of many shows. Yes, part of it is that the writers are crazy talented, but I also feel like part of it is just the contrast between what Osomatsu normally is and the emotional shorts. This show is normally zany to a fault, so when the pendulum swings back, I feel a bit more affected than usual. ESP Kitty, Letter, and the one with Chibita's girlfriend are good examples of this. I'd be hard-pressed to say I "care" about these characters, but I must on some level that I can't identify: Such episodes wouldn't work otherwise.
I like the Girlymatsu gag. It's not some sort of progressive commentary. It just *is*. That's the ideal if you ask me, to normalize things like genderbending to such an extent that they're unremarkable. But this isn't a perfect world, so people will continue to praise such things (if done well, I'd hope) to the heavens. There's nothing special to the gag in and of itself, but it works because the writers always deliver the goods.
I'd care more that the finale undoes Letter in less than a minute, but it's Osomatsu. We're not here for some plot shit; we're here to laugh our asses off. Maybe they could have done 2-3 episodes where the sextuplets are... *shudders*... "productive members of society", but the arc would have lost its humor, or conversely, sadness, at some point. That and there's no way the writers would write themselves out of season two. This is a popular show and they just aren't the same if they aren't the NEETs we've come to know and love. The finale itself was one of the most fucking stupid episodes of the entire show and I loved every minute of it. The baseball episode conceit is perfect; it's an easy excuse for the writers to give every cast member at least one stupidly funny moment. I couldn't imagine a better ending than the Matsu brothers confirming that they are useless NEETs, even with the added motivation of Totoko offering her body. The crazy shonen-esque sequence that immediately follows helps a bit, there. It's an amazing ending to a show full of amazing gags and I can't understand why anyone would be mad over it.
9/10. I still feel I probably underestimated the first cour. Obviously want season two.
Snow White With the Red Hair I'm very disappointed, which is... quite generous. The first cour was developing the Shirayuki/Zen relationship with slice of life elements thrown in, which was a lot more watchable than this. I don't know what the fuck this one is supposed to be. The logical direction to take the show would have been to introduce a romantic conflict. I thought they were trying to introduce Raj as a rival for Shirayuki's love, which could have worked. Could have, but before there was time to set up potential romantic conflict (with Raj or Obi, really), Shirayuki gets kidnapped because reasons. It'd be one thing if the story moved ahead as a result of using one of media's most tired tropes, but...
Nothing was *done* with Kazuki, his accomplice, the pirate captain, and anyone else who was introduced in that arc. They were disposable pawns, taken off the board by higher-ranking pieces when the plot deemed it convenient. I don't care about these characters one way or the other. If I hate them for anything, it's for wasting my fucking time. Shirayuki's father feels like the cheapest attempt at emotional payoff I've seen in some time. I already cared about and liked her for who she is; her father is irrelevant. I like backstory and all, but it has to be done well for there to be any emotional payoff. All we got was a glimmer of recognition and then some flashback scenes. There was nothing to this point to even indicate she might have given half a fuck about meeting her father, but we're supposed to be overjoyed for Shirayuki. Garbage. This arc didn't develop Shirayuki's feelings for anyone, either. Maybe Zen for rescuing her, I guess? (But by that logic, why not Raj? He stepped up too, but of course that character growth isn't going to matter because Zen was destined to "win".) Even then, it could have been done in a less exploitative manner and in a way that actually moved things forward.
Maybe I should have dropped it after this bad arc, but I held out hope that maybe they'd get back to what matters on this fucking show. Instead...
Our penultimate episode was wasted with some Mitsuhide shenanigans. The episode wasn't *bad*, in and of itself, but the timing was atrocious. At this point in the show, I would have expected them to tackle the Zen/Izana stuff from the end of episode 10 and/or the Shirayuki/Zen romance. But no, we get this completely random, out of nowhere episode that doesn't move anything to do with the plot ahead until the last couple of minutes. I don't think it really developed his character much, either. The Kiki/Obi episodes were also a bit later than they should have been, but at least the episodes gave us insight into their characters and didn't take place right when I would have expected the romance to take center stage. We should have come to care about these characters in the first cour, and maybe that would have helped with some of the pacing issues. It'd have been a nice change of pace to go from Shirayuki/Zen stuff to developing our secondary cast, and it'd have made the romance feel less interminable to a lot of people.
The finale was... surprisingly decent. There's no resolution because what is that in shoujo works, which leaves the door open for another season. Even so, I think it could end as is. Wouldn't be the *best* ending, but it would work. We know Shirayuki and Zen love each other and will likely wind up married because that's the endgame of most things. Kind of boring if you ask me. There's more to relationships than just reaching the point where you have sex or get married. It works as an easy story resolution though, which is why we see it so much. I don't think I'd watch a hypothetical season two though. This just wasn't fulfilling material.
I expected more romance. I expected some sort of conflict to justify another 12 episodes. What I got was a generic save the damsel story that barely even moved the romance ahead, if it did at all. I think that's at the heart of my disappointment with this season. 4/10, alright finale saves it from 3.
Gate The first cour seemed focused on developing the world on the other side of the titular Gate/the politics on both sides, but this cour sees Japan taking a more interventionist approach. This... Is both good and bad. Good in that the action generally felt satisfying, even if we know Japan is OP as shit, bad because we know JAPAN IS OP AS SHIT. It's really hard to write an interesting scenario when the difference in power is this vast. Japan being unable to lose saps otherwise decent episodes like the finale of any tension whatsoever. I wish it had ended with Itami and Zolzal throwing down; it'd have given us the only tension in that entire arc. Itami would still win because he likely has the benefit of knowing multiple martial arts/other techniques, not to mention PLOT ARMOR!!1, but anything can happen.
Luckily the first half was a Tuka arc. She sorely needed this; she might as well have been one of those lifesize figurines you see at an anime convention before this cour. We know that her father was killed by the Fire Dragon and that she hasn't been able to accept this, which Yao is more than happy to exploit if it means Itami and friends kill the thing. In the process, she comes damn close to breaking Tuka permanently. It's easy to say that Yao's methods are morally bankrupt, which they totally are, but I'm also not the one who will lose their small town if a threat isn't taken out. All's well that ends well though: The Fire Dragon is killed by Itami/everyone else, Tuka is... mostly Tuka again, but with a new personality trait, and Yao's village was saved. Lelei and Tuka got moments of awesome during the fight, which made them feel less like handicaps for Itami and more capable companions. If only they used that power all the time! It was a fairly satisfying arc for me; Tuka got developed, pretty much everyone had a moment in the sun (Unlimited Lelei Works >), and Japan didn't feel entirely OP because we know the Fire Dragon was a formidable foe. I don't need much more from Gate.
The second half tried to do too much. It started off with a conflict between Lelei/her sister Arpeggio (how Itami didn't cap her, I don't fucking know), and then quickly spirals into a plot to assassinate Lelei that was cast aside when Pina needed rescuing. The assassination thing makes no sense in the first place. An able politician, which is to say not Zolzal with his dreams of dictatorship, would have been able to spin this into a net positive for the empire and his regime overall. His father certainly would have. Hell, any other family member would have. But he doesn't give a toss about that; he wants her dead because he's getting none of the glory. The only thing I cared about from that entire arc was Lelei becoming a Master, which they can come back to whenver, so maybe it's not so bad the dumb Pied Piper stuff got tossed aside. I get the feeling they're not done with this plot point/character yet, though. It'd be way too easy and convenient to throw away one of the few potential threats to Japanese goals.
Bunny girls are the best, let's say that right now. Tyuule and Delilah are... ahem. This isn't an NC-17 rated post, so moving on. I was hoping for more Tyuule development. I get that her desire is to see the empire crash and burn because it (and Zolzal) massacred her kingdom's people and probably committed other war crimes, to say nothing of Zolzal raping her (even though she put up with this to further her goals), but I don't know anything about her other than that. I guess that's something they can do in the future, but it's still something I'd have liked to see. I like to know my characters, after all. As it is, the scene where Tyuule is crying despite mostly achieving her goal feels a bit empty. I sympathize with her because she's gone through some shit, but it'd have been more effective if I knew her story before this at all.
I like Pina more after this cour, but her influence in this series is less direct and thus harder to quantify than others. She wants peace with Japan at all costs, which you can't blame her for after she saw the events of episode 6 last cour. She realized then and there that the empire was no threat to Japan at all. Her actions since then have all been in an effort to maintain this fragile peace between the two nations. Well, that and get her precious BL doujinshi. Fucking otaku. I think the moment she went from "eh, I don't mind her" to "holy shit what a badass" was the confrontation between her and Zolzal, more specifically the line about traitors and scheming traitors. That line was just incredible, up there with Lelei's when fighting the Fire Dragon. The delivery played a huge role in making that line so powerful. I think the confrontation summed up her growth from a somewhat idealistic princess (it must be said she's the most pragmatic royal, though) who had never been through any real adversary into a worthy successor to her father's throne. And of course her father declares that she'll become Empress one day.
The finale would probably work well enough as a conclusion, but I want to see a season two. It feels like there's more to this world than the various political intrigues. As much as I like them, I'd also like to see Lelei become a Master and see more of this world in general. I don't think this cour was as good as the previous one, if only because it tried to do a bit too much. 6/10, but still very watchable.
Utawarerumono: The False Faces We had an idea that the series would be getting into more plot-ish stuff; you don't release a new VN and plan to release another one this year without something resembling a plot. I'm going to go way out on a very sturdy limb and guess the first new VN ended on a cliffhanger/sequel hook of some sort, if not exactly the same one. The anime itself was hinting at the existence of an overarching plot, like when Haku went off to meet the emperor, who we now know is his brother.
We got that this season. Yamato declared war on Tuskuru because... I'm still not sure why. The show makes it seem like a blatant land grab, but I'm convinced there's more to it than that. They could have declared against anyone else if the goal was just land, but they declared against Hakuoro's nation. I think there has to be something (or someone, perhaps) that Yamato is seeking, but we have no idea. With war comes fighting, and neither of these series has done that particularly well. The battles and the action are even worse this go-around though, mostly consisting of a suddenly OP cast kicking the asses of nameless Tuskuru jabronies. We were able to believe the first cast was OP; they were almost universally introduced as good fighters. A lot of this cast was introduced to us as daughters of high-ranking figures in Yamato. Of them, Atui was the only one shown to have any sort of fighting prowess. Kuon is Hakuoro's daughter, which we know from the first series' OVAs, so she's obv going to be strong and she probably got training from various people in Tuskuru. The problem is we don't know that from this series' material, so it feels weird to see Kuon murk a bunch of soldiers. We never see the other girls train or anything (gotta have time for all dem hijinks), so it's not very believable that they're good warriors.
The progression of this war made little sense. Oshutoru sent Haku and company to deliver supplies to the front, the troops on the front counted on them to break a fort's defenses, and then... Everyone retreats and Munechika seemingly makes a heroic sacrifice. Still dunno how she got out and I feel it'd have been better writing if she didn't, as much as I enjoy her character. Tuskuru has apparently been kicking Yamato's asses up and down the line, but we see none of that. The first series at least made an effort to show us what was happening elsewhere in the war, even if it was token and really bad. This one? Who the fuck cares, we saw none of it. Stuff like that makes it hard to care about Yamato, or Tuskuru for that matter. The wars and the nations are not the show's focus, but the characters (who are the focus) care about their nations, so making us give even a solitary fuck about either nation would help us empathize with the characters more. Tuskuru fought more with guerrilla warfare tactics in season one, which made sense given the circumstances, and it would have been interesting to see how their tactics evolved/changed over the course of what I have to guess is ~20 years. This series seemed to imply it was more straightforward warfare, which would also make sense given that Tuskuru is now a legitimate state.
Transformations are still OP, still largely unexplained, and still not very exciting to watch. If I had to guess, it's a variant of Hakuoro's (or possibly Dii's - where *is* he?) power, but we don't know how Yamato got it or anything. Without any sort of context, it feels more like the transformations exist largely because Rule of Cool. The mechs and the transformations from season one felt that way, too, even if the mecha were explained.
Absolutely nothing was done with the twin sisters. We learned they have a set of extremely convenient powers, so their role in the show seems to be "walking deus ex machinae". Need to leave a sticky situation? They can create portals so everyone can escape. Of course they close before any adversaries can get through, and of course the enemy has magical barriers that they can't get through when the plot calls for it. Haku might get hurt? They shield him, and their shields have thus far been inpenetrable, even in the face of the Pillar Generals' transformations. They also have healing powers, which they use to help heal Oshutoru at one point. Vurai and Oshutoru's clash after their transformations threatens to kill Oshutoru? Their *real* purpose is finally revealed, that being they can seal the power of the masks. Ye gods. They're less characters and more asspulls. This is one of those things that maybe the VN is better about because it would have time to develop them as characters, but... Oh. Right. We don't know if they'll come out in English, and being on consoles that can't currently be emulated makes fan translations less likely. A fansite might translate the script, but playing that way would suck. It'd still be better than nothing, so I'd still consider importing. Thank the weeaboo gods (these have to exist) for Amazon Japan opening up to Western orders.
Kuon should have admitted her love for Haku. It was obvious to anyone with eyes, and that probably included most of the main cast. Then again, given that it took until the last ten minutes of the first series for Elulu to admit her feelings for Hakuoro, I'm sure I'll be waiting a while with this one. It made sense with Elulu because she was more reserved than a lot of the girls even on her own show, but Kuon has always been a more straightforward character, and I've always felt she's someone who can face her feelings. Seeing her avoid how she's feeling is kind of frustrating to me. I've said it before and will probably say it again, but this constant failure to own one's romantic feelings is one of my biggest frustrations with Japanese media. It's not at all unique to Japan though; so many American things have very obvious and ignored romantic subtexts as well.
All this said: Fuck you Haku. There is no reason you can't be Oshutoru to the world at large and Haku to Kuon, especially when the twins/Nekone know. I feel absolutely awful for Kuon. It'd be one thing if he actually did die, but he didn't and he's knowingly breaking her heart. It seems this lie is affecting him too (see: the scene in the inn where he's basically hoping he gets caught), but he's still the one going through with it despite how he feels about Kuon. Yes you asshole, we know you love her too.
The finale is the best episode this cour and arguably one of the best in either series. In spite of all the meh war episodes and a plot that is seemingly heading towards recycling the start of the first series (the more things change...), the finale is still quite emotional. This is probably at least in part because Kuon is one of my fave anime characters possibly ever, but yeah her performance carries the episode. It has to; she's the one most affected by how the events of the previous episode shook out. I also liked the usual shenanigans of other episodes because the characters and their silly deeds are the strengths of the series, but they were few and far between.
I could go 5/10 pretty easily, but the first cour/the prequel series has earned it some benefit of the doubt. The final episode helps a lot as well. 6/10. Hope they adapt the third VN as quickly as they adapted the second. I need my Kuon/catgirl fix.
Durarara I'll just say this now: I don't think the payoff was worth all the monotony beforehand. I thought the first season was pretty damn good, but now I wonder if that's because I hadn't quite gotten tired of the endless under-developed characters who don't move the story ahead. I also wonder if I fell prey to the sunken cost fallacy; I was ~39 eps in before I realized "holy fuck this is boring". Outside of Celty, Mikado, and maybe Anri, I don't think I'd consider any of these characters "developed", and most of them are secondary characters, if not plain useless. I think some of the useless characters are funny, especially those damned chuunis Walker/Erika, but the show could have worked better with like half the cast. We would have had more time for their backstories, more time for actual PLOT instead of endless filler/whatever was going on, and it would have been easier to remember their names.
And yet in spite of it all, the ending feels oddly satisfying. It helps the final two episodes were the first legitimately enjoyable episodes in I don't know how long. I knew the ending would go down about like it did because Mikado has quite clearly not been sane for at least half this cour, but the Mikado/Kida conversation was pretty gripping. Well, I figured Mikado would die, but Celty being Celty, she had other ideas. It's a giant asspull, even if Celty is that OP, but Durarara has never been the type of show to kill its characters. I can't say I'm surprised. Shinra got Celty back in an incredibly stupid fashion, but... I don't care. I like old Celty more than that new (old?) thing that came about after she was reunited with her head. I can live with this, even if it's meh writing. Shizuo/Izaya was as boring as ever (WHY are they fan favorites?), but the fight was fun to watch and we got some insight as to why they hate each other so, so that's something.
I don't know. Maybe this is a show that would be better with a rewatch. There's too much here, I think, and the long breaks didn't really help matters. Alternatively, I could read the light novels, but that sounds like work and such. In any case, 5/10 sounds about right. 6-7 for the final episodes; they were quite clearly the best stuff this cour.
Originals:
Dimension W How far can one character carry a show?
Not very far, if you ask me. Outside of Mira, I don't think there's a whole lot here. She's easily the funniest and most developed character on the show. I guess Loser comes close, but I don't feel his story arc was all that effective. I dunno, I never came to care about him like Mira. Sure, the guy suffered and his story isn't bad, but what reason do I have to *like* a guy who doesn't show much of a personality? Kyoma had some potential, and I don't dislike him per se, but I find the stories surrounding Kyoma to be more interesting than Kyoma himself. I grow more and more tired of the "stoic with a tragic past" trope every time I encounter it. Yes, we get it, the silent guy (because it's a guy 90% of the time) suffered, so he gets to be all silent and moody and nobody ever calls him on his self-absorbed bullshit. Doesn't help these characters tend to be well-received, in large part because men are conditioned to internalize pain/see men who express emotion as "weak", but what they're really doing is being emotionally immature, navel-gazing assholes. I think I'm getting a bit off-track. The relationship between Kyoma/Mira had potential, but it never felt like it developed. It seemed as if it was and is stuck in neutral gear. Even after everything they've gone through and the revelation concerning Mira's body and who it was for, they're back in the same place they started. I don't know if romance would be fitting for these characters, but I'm not entirely sure they're friends either? The story about Kyoma's wife is one of the most overdone stories in any media, but it was one of the few things I can say was executed well. I don't love Kyoma, as is evident, but I felt that story made him a bit more relatable. The resolution was dumb, but so was the resolution to everything in the damn show.
I probably would have liked the African prince/his little brother more if their relationship had gotten more development or if they had more involvement in the story as a whole, but I just don't see where they would have had the time. Seameyer feels shoehorned in for the purpose of having a nemesis. I don't think the show needed one. The most compelling conflicts for nearly every character were internal (only Loser really needs Seameyer's death), but those are also harder to turn into interesting viewing and harder to wrap up neatly with, say, one death.
The series was at its most watchable when it was episodic and was only hinting at this meh overarching plot. I don't care. I just don't care what's happening to these people, except my girl Mira, but the coils allowed for all sorts of interesting situations that couldn't have happened otherwise. The first half is basically Phantom World in that way, but with a cast I like less and more monster of the week-ish. The second half took us more into Kyoma's story, and it dropped off because I failed to give a fuck. I say this for something every season, because I either don't care about the cast (but those are the shows I consider dropping - I value characters quite highly) or I think the plot is going to be a weak point of the series (see: Utawarerumono this season, Comet Lucifer last season). In this case, it's more the former, to such an extent that I sometimes question if I stuck with this solely because of Mira.
Kyoma dancing in the OP is the most incongruous thing in any anime this season. It's just not very Kyoma-like, at all, but it is kind of funny. While on things that don't really fit elsewhere, it's kind of stupid how the writers/artists (idk which) treated Mira as an object for their shitty otaku audiences to ogle. There was no good reason to have her running around for the length of an entire episode in only a towel, and there was no good reason to have her naked when diving into Kyoma's memories, to say nothing of other, smaller fanservice-y scenes. I laughed out loud and was like "REALLY?" when they showed Kyoma's wife naked in the final episode as well. It was incredibly stupid. I get fanservice is kind of the norm, so I expect it and tolerate it to a degree (a lesser degree than most, I'm sure), but shit like this borders excessive for me.
I dunno. Felt like a chore to tune in as we neared the end. 5/10.
Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash Konosuba takes the piss out of JRPGs, while Grimgar is a more serious and grounded take on the genre.
The cast is just regular teenagers, which is a breath of fresh air when most RPGs of all stripes have you teaming up with a group of badasses who can defeat just about anything. This makes sense given the "saev teh wurldzz lol" narratives of such games, but it also means the characters are harder to relate to. Probably why so many of them have a tragedy in their past; it's hard to get the average person to relate to one of the world's best unless it's shown they have bad experiences like the rest of us. This cast was thrown into this world with no memories of their past lives. Amnesia can be a convenient plot device for hack writers, but I think it works here. It forces the cast to develop their skills as both individual fighters and as a party, and to grow closer to each other as people because nobody from their past life will save them. There's no consideration of "saving the world"; the party is still too weak and doesn't trust each other enough to go very far outside of their city yet. I am kind of surprised the cast hasn't made friends from other parties, but they/the show seem too focused on the development of the main party to bother with friendships for them. I'd say it's for the best; this show is driven by the party. The world and its people thus far are secondary to their growth as a party and their intra-party relationships.
And then the hammer drops. Manato had to die, even if I liked his character. He was too good a leader and he filled too many roles for the team. As long as he was around, he could have continued to cover for the party's lack of cohesion and talent. His death reminds us there are consequences for failure (which... don't really exist in many RPGs, if you ask me. FE/similar games come closest with perma-death, but most of the characters are paper-thin.) and tells the party that they need to get their shit together. It also allows for Mary to join the team, which creates three obvious ships, all of which I think would be good for the characters in question. I don't know if the show will have any sort of romance, assuming it continues at some point, but even so. Beyond that, Mary and the loss she's experienced in this world introduced a different dynamic to the party, one that wasn't all sunshine and rainbows. Ranta kind of brought that element to the party, especially after Manato's death, but he wasn't all that upfront about it. His sort of character never is. But after the finale, I have some hope he'll at least cooperate with the party, if not be friends, which would be an improvement. Maybe all it took was Haru putting a bit of trust in Ranta. He seemed to act aloof but inside he yearned to be part of the group.
Grimgar goes to great lengths to make the monsters seem relatable. Goblins have an intelligence of sorts, often wander in packs like a party would, and the higher-ups are shown to play chess and use some human tactics. They even worship a deity, I believe, though I can't remember if that's explicitly stated. (I think it was?) Much of this applies to the kobolds, but we're shown a farming settlement in their mine, along with an entire level dedicated to metal smelting. It's enough to make me wonder who the bad guys *really* are. If the monsters are this intelligent, it's not a stretch of the imagination to assume they might want peace and to live on their own terms as well, yet the humans systematically hunt them down, kill them, and sell their belongings for cash in their own settlements.
I wonder how the show will work if it continues. Right now it's reminiscent of an early-game grind, culminating in the first real boss in Death Spots. Speaking of which, I'm not a fan of how we were deprived of a full party fight with Death Spots, but it should also solidify Haru as the leader. It felt as if the party didn't really accept him as leader but knew someone had to take on the role. I digress, but whatever. RPGs tend to boil down to "grind to beat the boss", which works well enough for a game, but it could quickly get stale in an anime like this. The simplistic structure is easily laid bare without gameplay to fill the gaps. Luckily the anime could choose to fill those gaps with more character/world development than you'd get in many an RPG, and given the quality of this season, I'd give them the benefit of the doubt.
Bah gawd dat artstyle. It's easily the most creative one this season. The juxtaposition of realistic characters and painted backgrounds works to drive home the idea that this is a fantasy world. The musics are pretty good too; the song in the filler ep a couple weeks ago was exceptional, as was the song when Manato was buried, and I like both the OP/ED as I do for many shows.
I'd consider buying a game like this if it existed. The closest things out there might be the Atelier series and Recettear, both of which are pretty grounded and have everyday people as characters, but they're a bit too light-hearted to be similar to Grimgar. Plenty of darker JRPGs exist, like SMT, Persona 3, and even God Eater if you want to consider a MH-esque game part of the genre, but I don't think they capture the tone/essence of Grimgar. Anyway, this series is a lot better than I'd have thought given its premise and "Grim" being right in the name. 8/10.
Schwarzesmarken I didn't really know what to expect. All I knew was that I had spent $80 on the Muv-Luv trilogy because it's a well-regarded VN series and I don't mind supporting localization of VNs if the price is right, so I figured I should watch this and see if I might like the universe/writing. The BETA might as well not exist. They only serve as a backdrop for our characters and for the political machinations of the show. They have no personalities, no leader, and no tactics beyond Zerg rushing the East Germans (and I guess the UN forces at times), so there's no reason to care that they exist. I think this show could have been pulled off just as well without the BETA, but then how do you justify mechs and all that shit. It might be hard not to include them, seeing as they're probably in other works set in this universe. I don't know yet, but it sounds like they're in Alternative? I love my political intrigues, so it gets points from me for that alone. This is one of the better ones I've experienced in some time, and it's the real meat of the show. It's easy to doubt everyone's loyalties. I started off doubting even the 666th's motivations because it's quite clear most of them are somehow off, and they're *the good guys*. It becomes clear later on that they're all good albeit damaged people who wish for a free and united Germany, but the early doubts help to set the tone. This is a series in which you shouldn't trust anybody and it's not shy about constantly reminding you of this. Just when you start to trust, say, Lise or Axmann, the writers won't hesitate to remind you why you shouldn't. The politics can and do change at the drop of a hat, further exacerbating difficulties in determining who is trustworthy. It probably helps that Beatrix and Axmann are characters that are eminently hateable, but also respectable foes. I hate their goals and everything they stand for, but I couldn't help but admire how they went about carrying out their plots. I also couldn't help but respect Beatrix's piloting abilities even if she has an OP mech. They were worthy adversaries. I don't like a lot of villains because they often feel like cardboard cutouts and representations of shallow, mostly disregarded ideals, but I enjoyed their presence on the show. Even though they didn't get much development, it did feel like they truly believed in their absurd ideals and that there might be a bit more to them than what we saw in the show. Might be. Idk, I haven't read the light novels obv. Hope the VN gets through Greenlight, which I shouldn't worry about. Absolute shite can and usually does, so a quality product should sail through. Lise is a bit more complicated. On one hand, I feel sorry for her. The Stasi torture/reprogramming made her crazy, and her brother sleeping with her did not help matters, especially when it seemed obvious from early on that he also loved Katia (and Lise quite clearly knew this). On the other, how fucking dare you help capture Irisdina and kill Pham? She did deserve her death though, and I don't doubt it was a combination of mercy and revenge. It was one of the best moments of the show, not because she died, but because they handled the coup de grace so well. Irisdina started off as best girl by being totally badass from the word "go", but then got arrested around the halfway point. Maybe a bit past, I'm way too lazy to look up/remember when. You can make an argument she got damseled, but it's fitting of the setting (Stasi-run East Germany wasn't a place filled with rainbows, unicorns, and cupcakes) and Theodor sends a girl to rescue her in the end anyway, which shoots holes through any power dynamics argument, so it's not the best of arguments. I do think it's hard to maintain the mantle of "best girl" when you're in prison. She was admittedly being awesome even there and trolling her captors, but she wasn't directly involved in the main plot again until the end. She went out in a blaze of glory though, which is the best way to go out when this series isn't shy about killing off main characters. Surviving to see Berlin at sunrise struck me as implausible though; that just doesn't happen when you're shot in the gut. I guess story-wise it sets up a powerful Theodor scene, so it's not all bad. Platonic love between people of the opposite sex/gender is a thing that entertainment doesn't really acknowledge happens and I came to like Theodor as the series went on, so seeing him admit his love for Irisdina was a great scene, even if a contrivance. I wish the secondary characters got more/better development. I liked Pham well enough, but the whole "big sister" thing came right before her death. It wasn't all that great and trying to develop a character before you kill them off isn't the best way to make me care that they just died. Anett was probably my favorite girl other than Irisdina, so I'm glad she made it through the carnage. Have to press f to pay respects to Walther though; she wouldn't have otherwise. I also liked that Theodor gave her the mission to rescue Irisdina, though it seemed apropos of nothing. Why does she get that mission, exactly, and not someone else? Sylwia was a... female stoic? This is allowed? That aside, she always seemed aloof for no good reason, and pretty much any development could have told us why and possibly made us care. I thought Gretel was just there at first, but as the show got more political, she started to take a central role. Makes sense seeing as she's basically the squad's political liaison. But yeah, by the end I liked her enough to feel something when she got shot by that arsehole Axmann. Let us note that the female body armor is fucking stupid. It puts so much emphasis on the boobs, and all for the purpose of fanservice during the many shots that occur inside mechs. I don't mind it aesthetically. It looks good and all, but it serves no practical purpose and would be a pain in the ass to make in a real world situation. Also the Circe ass slaps/compliments. They feel like an inside joke, but I don't think we ever got context for that. I don't care much though; they led to some of the funniest dialogue ever. 8/10. Looking forward to Muv-Luv Extra in a week or two. Yay backing.
|
|
|
| |
|
Romanticide
|
Apr 1 2016, 09:18 PM
Post #411
|
- Posts:
- 3,887
- Group:
- Bitchin' in Purple
- Member
- #95
- Joined:
- May 8, 2011
|
Part two, because apparently 50k characters is supposed to be "enough".
Moar originals:
Aokana: Four Rhythm Across the Blue Easily the cutest and most joyful show of the season, and sometimes that's enough. Even when it's dealing with subject matter that would make episodes in other series feel sad, Aokana still manages to pepper the episode with laughs. Mashiro acting like an abandoned cat in what would be the series' "saddest" episode was good stuff.
But yeah, the girls are really what carry this show. They're simple characters but it works well. Their personalities are one or two traits but stupidly funny traits, and the interactions are the best. The reaction faces are also my favorites of the season, and I feel like these sell scenes that wouldn't be as hilarious otherwise. I also like how pretty much everyone in this cast gets along. It'd be easy to make the best school full of douchecanoes because that happens in sports stuff all the time, but no, the players in that school are genuinely interested in helping our protagonists improve their skills and are friendly with them outside of the sport itself. It makes the cast more likeable and it creates a dynamic where you want to see Asuka win because she's the best, not for some cliched reason like "revenge" or whatever. I guess what I'm saying is it's different and it puts the focus on the sport instead of eye-rollingly bad stories attached to it. Anyway...
I was never watching for the Flying Circus, which they helpfully abbreviate to FC. The sport itself is surprisingly compelling for being totally made-up, but Asuka's development is unbelievable. We start out with a girl who had literally never flown before, but by episode 6 she's able to compete with a national champion. Ummmm. That... Is just bad pacing, even with the handwave of "natural talent". There's no way around it. It might be a bit more believable with Misaki (best girl obvi), who had past experience in the sport, but she's also been implied to have a ceiling. A decently high ceiling, but not the champion's, let alone Asuka's or the main antagonist's. It kind of feels like they had to introduce the antagonist and the "birdcage" strategy (think Mayweather-Pacquiao but in the air and you have the gist of this "strategy") to give Asuka a challenge. This could have been avoided with not-ass pacing. Like, you know, having her lose her first competition to... whoever, really, and then having her practice for an episode or two to get better. Point is she shouldn't have been this good this fast, and it necessitated some dumb bullshit to try and make us believe there's conflict. This would kill another show because, you know, it's kind of the plot, but Aokana gets by on the strength of its girls, cuteness, and humor for me.
The finale was great, easily the most fun example of this sport yet. It also helps that we finally start to see Inui emote in the last two episodes. I use "antagonist" because it's the most fitting storytelling terminology, but really she's just an opponent. I'd have liked to see more of her character. As it is, all we saw was a girl who played emotionless yet flawless FC (until she met mah girl Misaki fuck yeah), but we know nothing of her. My guess would be Saki was her first and only friend, and they were both captivated by Aoi's FC.
Nothing was done with Masaya. Neither "MC" nor "POV character" are accurate terms. He's quite clearly not the main character (that's Asuka), and the show isn't told strictly from his point of view past episode two. After that point, the POV seems to be more omniscient narrator than Masaya. "Male lead" probably comes closest. Anyway, it's stated that he was an FC prodigy in his youth, but he lost to some random newcomer one day and lost all desire to play. I wonder if that newcomer was Misaki, but that's neither here nor there. His role is basically to give advice during matches and help the girls train, and at the end of episode ten he finally took to the skies, along with the coach... And then it cut to credits. Episode eleven kicked off another tournament, probably the final one. GODDAMNIT. This could have been good development for both characters, but Masaya needed it most because outside of a flashback in like episode five, we have little reason to care about him. The Saki/Inui/Aoi interactions have provided some background on Aoi, at least. Not *enough* but some.
I think the romance being cut was for the best. It probably works for the VN because there's a lot more time to develop such things, but it would have felt shoehorned in here. This is a funny/cute show, and it decided to focus more on the FC aspect than the romance aspect, which is the right move. There wouldn't be enough time for both, and we have a trillion romances/romantic sub-plots every season. Perhaps this is why we didn't get much Masaya development: It was all hidden in the girls' routes, which we see little (or none) of.
It's earned its 8/10. I looked forward to watching it on Monday almost as much as Osomatsu. Almost. Someone needs to bring the VN over here; I'd back that shit instantly. Maybe Sekai Project will if Karakara does well enough (same writer), in which case I see backing that as an investment.
Haruchika - Haruta & Chika If it tried to be a band show, it would have been an inferior Sound! Euphonium, which... Might have been watchable? I dunno. If it went all-in on the mystery aspect of the series, it likely would have been better as well. As it is, the show is trying to be a band show, develop 5-10 main-ish band members, AND solve mysteries. Almost every episode is trying to do far too much in its 24 minutes and it feels like a mess. I think this is a reason why Haruta comes off as a know-it-all. Ignoring he's written that way, most episodes have very little time to show us the process of solving the mystery. So Haruta strolls in after a fade to black, he's figured it all out, and then explains it all in one or two minutes because that's all they have time for. It's hardly the optimal way to do a mystery show. It's hardly an optimal way to tell a story. "Show, don't tell" is a rule for a reason.
I like Chika a fair bit, despite her character's total lack of originality. I dunno, she amuses me and I love her archetype in general. I just wish they did more with her, or any of the girls, because this show feels driven by two or three of the most boring dudes in existence. Maybe that's a huge part of the problem: Haruta and whatever the other smartass's name is are not compelling characters, but they're given so much screentime and so many words. I want to see other band members take the lead and solve some of these mysteries. It'd be a better way to develop band members, as opposed to the "one episode and forget them" approach. The band teacher is also boring and I don't know what Chika/Haruta see in him. Doesn't help he seems like another fucking know-it-all, which this show didn't need more of. I'm supposed to believe one small band has this many geniuses? Taki from Euphonium is basically this asshole but better, and even he barely rises above "he's there" for the most part.
This said, the show has its moments. Episode 5 was almost entirely focused on the mystery, and it was easily the most emotional one of the season. Sure, it introduced us to a new cast member because it had to, but we got into the mystery pretty quickly and the story was touching. It's almost as if focus benefits a series or something. Episode 7 was surprisingly good too; I think the old farts carried that episode. Maybe that's a reason I stick with this show. In spite of how bad the mystery solving is, how irrelevant the band sequences feel, and how most characters barely even matter outside of their episode, it still manages to be more poignant than it has any right to be.
And then the final episode tried to remind us this was a band show. There's a disconnect when it's said time and time again this band is comprised of mostly amateurs, but the music the show is playing is quite clearly professional. I get it's far easier to find and a lot cheaper to use a recording (I'm assuming that's what they did here), but even so, the episode felt implausible to me. At least they only got a bronze prize? Also episode 8 was so bad I don't know why I watched episode 9. I could have easily dropped it after that boring, extremely predictable episode, and I still don't know why I didn't, especially with such a loaded slate. 4/10.
Myriad Colors Phantom World The common criticism seems to be this anime is "generic". It's really funny how shows that dare to be colorful, joyful, and have cute girls are usually the ones slapped with this criticism. I never heard this shit of, say, Gangsta, never mind it's far more fitting of the term than Phantom World. (I even used it there, hee, though in my defense I said "it seemed pretty generic at first".)
There's almost nothing truly unique in storytelling in 2016. I don't believe the schools of thought that say there are only two or seven stories in the world, but I do believe that most (if not all) stories have been told in some fashion. How a work differentiates itself from others is in its characters, setting, and execution IMO. You can argue Phantom World has generic characters and I'd concede the point; none are groundbreaking. There's more to characters than a list of traits, though. Interactions also matter, and this cast's interactions between themselves and with Phantoms are consistently great. Yeah, the concept of Phantoms has been done before in various ways, but the show itself resists the easy temptation to be a "monster of the week" sort of thing. A good number of episodes serve to develop the main cast and make them feel like there's more to them than a few traits. My favorite in this vein would probably be the one featuring Reina and the alternate family; shit hit me in the feels. Some are definitely more monster of the week-esque, but they're still fun to watch and that's a reason I'm watching the show to start with. Still others combine both yet do so in a way that's fun to watch and develops the character involved in a given week.
If you can still see something as unique, odds are you don't have the authority to speak on whatever it is you're speaking about. Once things stop being unique to you, you can start to understand what makes them tick and that's when you start to develop a voice that's worth listening to. Everything will become generic in the strictest sense of the term, but it's a pretty useless term for serious critique anyway so who cares. If your words are worth a damn, you'll have explained yourself without resorting to bottom-tier criticism like "generic".
Other than that, the show looks wonderful. Not the best-looking anime ever, and I'm not sure I like the artstyle more than Sound! Euphonium (which was hnnnnngh), but KyoAni consistently delivers the goods in terms of art and animation in my experience. I think I blocked the fanservice out. Always easier to do with a good series than a mediocre one though. A fair bit of the fanservice, like the rubbing involved with Mai's incantations, is quite dumb but I kinda forgot it was there. Ruru's outfit is indefensibly stupid even with the story justification and arguably cultural appropriation. It's a pretty damn stereotypical "Middle Eastern" outfit. But rly why are we putting a tiny Phantom in that outfit? Do we really need our tiny fairies to look sexy? Enigma is in some ways walking fanservice. She could have easily been male, or a less sexy female, but I guess that's anime for you. It's not indefensibly dumb like Ruru's design is but it's a bit silly, so I guess it fits in Phantom World. I'm sometimes amazed at the sheer number of unnecessary boob/ass shots though. If there's a girl in the scene, KyoAni probably found a way to get at least one boob/ass shot.
I liked the first part of the finale. The drama was gripping and Haruhiko needed development, so I'm okay with it. The second part felt rushed and anti-climactic though. The fight looked amazing, but Enigma just pwnt everyone last ep with relative ease and they hadn't trained since, yet they beat her in a fight anyway because Haruhiko got his powers back. It's not like the fights were ever the best part of the show, but one as important as this to Haruhiko's character/what little overarching plot there was in this show needed to be plausible. I'm not sure I like the story turn, though. The episodic format for this show and served to develop everyone well enough. It also blew one of the most OP Phantom designs and I don't see how any season two story arc would up the stakes. I don't think the finale was *bad*, just that it could have been better served with a more dramatic fight/better foreshadowing throughout the show.
But yeah, I rather enjoyed Phantom World. I'd be hard-pressed to say it broke new ground, but I can say that for 95% of everything in every medium and it's an entertaining anime that was pulled off well. There is nothing wrong with this, despite the insistence of uncultured plebeians to the contrary. 8/10.
Konosuba JRPGs are an easy genre to make fun of and there's a lot of material, so I wish that the show had hit on more things. Going into people's houses and looting their shit would be easy to poke fun at, as would the fact that shopkeepers are selling stuff to adventurers out to save the world (or the town in this case), as well as other stuffs, but aspects like these aren't mocked much if at all. Then agaim, some jokes might be a little *too* obscure for a general audience, or just might not play as well as I think they would.
There are still a number of jokes that take the piss out of the genre, but the series is even more focused on its four main characters than poking fun at JRPGs. There are only one or two jokes attached to each of them: Kazuma is a NEET/straight man, which is weird but it works; Darkness is a knight who can't hit the broad side of a barn/a masochist; Megumin loves explosion magic but passes out after one spell; and Aqua is a mostly useless goddess with some admittedly badass magic. Like with Rinne, the variations on the same old jokes just don't get old. Part of this is, of course, the highly exaggerated personalities, but the more important parts are the timing and the delivery. The jokes feel apropos given the situation and they're sold *really* well by the voice actors.
It would have been extremely easy to go the fanservice route with a character who looks and acts like Darkness, but outside of the obligatory fanservice episode, Konosuba avoided that temptation. Props for that I suppose, but no props for episode 9. Seriously what the FUCK was with that scene? It took the joke to a somewhat creepy place and it felt out of place for the series, even within the context of that episode. I would have expected a hilarious shutdown of the MC, or even an interruption (which happened, but not before it got creepy), not... that. Squick.
A nice, fun watch and I look forward to season 2. 6/10.
Erased That feel when you don't want to say much so people can experience the show as blind as possible, but you feel obligated to say something.
There are some small flaws with the show. It never really did much with Airi. We met her in ep 1, she got much-needed development during ep 4 and clearly became best girl, and then we don't see much of her anymore. Shit sucks. Then again, that kind of makes the very end of the show more touching. I wasn't expecting Airi at that point, and then BAM! It ends on the most perfect note and I loved it. Maybe seeing Airi more would have diluted the impact of seeing her there, I dunno. Satoru was also out to save a few other girls, but this was mostly the Kayo show. I think that works well enough. Most people will be very invested in whether or not Kayo lives/finds her happiness because she's an extremely well-written character and one who is easy to empathize with, as I was, but at the same time: Why involve other girls at all if they're not even going to matter or be developed much as characters? We don't need a serial killer angle if the one girl our protagonist is out to save is developed well enough, which Kayo most certainly was. Speaking of ancillary characters, Satoru's crew outside of Kenya/maybe Hiromi felt disposable. They could have not been there and the show would have worked almost as well. I also wonder what happened in the "present", as it were, but Satoru wound up arrested and most of the important stuff took place in the timeline we ended the show in, so it's whatever.
The ED is beautiful. If Lupin's didn't exist, this would probably be my favorite of the season. I don't think this thought really fits anywhere else, and I don't have much to add to that because music is usually a love it or hate it thing, but I felt I had to mention it. *shrug*
Anyway... The core experience is so damned good and the ending works so well that I don't think of these as flaws that detract from the experience in any significant way. 10/10, watch this now.
Norn9 One of the last shows I caught up on. What can I say? I don't like Hulu much and I'm not willing to pay $12/month for no ads (and the one or two whole anime I'd watch per season) when I get three months at Funi and more anime for that price. Sure, I can watch this the same week as paid users, which is much appreciated, but I also have to put up with ads a lot and I can't watch in HD. No HD is the real Hulu killer here IMO, but so are ads when I would be paying $8/month. It's a tradeoff, I guess.
There's a plot here, something about resetting the world so that humanity doesn't obliterate itself or some such, but you don't care about that. Really. You don't. I don't and I've been watching the damn thing. Maybe the VN is better about it. You should be watching for the romance, which there is more of in this show than season two of Shirayuki. Oh, right, that's saying nothing. I can't pass up easy Shirayuki digs. ANYWAY, the series juggles three(!) romances and manages to do so without dropping the ball on any of them. They're not *great* romances because there just isn't enough time to fully develop any one of them, but the progression and the character development are both plausible, so they're decent. Each of the couples is still struggling with various problems from their past, which allows the writers to develop the characters further, but it also slows the romances down. I think this is the way to go; problems like the ones in these characters' pasts aren't resolved with a few simple words, and we need reason to care about these characters before we can start rooting for their romances to work out. There are also third wheels in each relationship, but it's easy to tell who will "win", as it generally is with these things. The Koharu/Kakeru romance is the main one of the series, and as such it/their characters get the most development. It worked; I liked their characters more than the rest and hoped their romance worked out more so than the others. Koharu is hella cute btdubs.
Overall pacing is meh though. I felt the romances were being developed well, but then the plot came in and ruined everything. Now we're left with half-finished romances because apparently we're supposed to care about this Reset shit and the circumstances surrounding it. No, I don't care about this antagonist and his reason for resetting the world. It's a cliche reason, as so many are, but the thing that's missing here is a reason for me to give a shit. Why does he love this woman? More to the point, who is she? The show could have stood to spend an episode telling us about this; it'd make him more sympathetic and his reasons understandable, thus we'd care. Conveniently enough, there's an unneeded recap episode that could have been omitted for this. The plot would still be dumb and he'd still be a creep for being obsessed for thousands of years, but whatever. It'd help. More than any other show this season, this would have benefitted from a second cour, even if only 6-8 episodes, to resolve the romantic subplots/to develop Sorata as a character holy fuck he just takes up space.
The finale got delayed and I had a mini-heart attack. If it ended with episode 11 (not counting the recap), I'd have flipped my shit. It would have been terrible. This ending is *better*, but it still does nothing to resolve the romances. It comes closest with the Koharu/Kakeru romance, but I'd hardly consider that a resolution. They reunite and Kakeru asks Koharu to "take his last name", which I'm not a fan of, but I'm one of those silly progressives who thinks that tradition is dumb as shit. I dunno. I think the romantic resolutions could have and should have been more definitive. Akito/Shiranui living together is a pretty obvious implication, but there's nothing definitive, no moment that tells the audience "these two are a thing". And don't tell me Mikoto winds up with *Natsuhiko*, when the show was building up Mikoto/Sakuya as a thing throughout the entire run. I guess that couple *works* but I don't like it in the least; there never seemed to be chemistry there.
Why the fuck is every AI ever female? This isn't even solely an anime problem. Siri and Cortana exist, to say nothing of the endless video game and sci-fi AI assistants in other media. GLaDOS is awesome of course, and I'm sure I'd love SHODAN (System Shock 2), but they're two of the few that have something to them beyond "lol AI assistant". It's rather conspicuous that every "assistant" is female and sounds subservient as shit. In a just world, we'd also have male AIs, but funnily enough almost none exist. It's almost as if a patriarchal society prefers to make women subservient. There's no good reason to gender the AI here other than, well, anime. Its only role in the show is to oversee the Reset process, but they made it a girl because anime fans are the worst. It's not even a goddamned character until arguably the final few minutes! But suddenly I'm supposed to care about this AI and whoever it was because it loved Sorata, a character who did sweet fuck all throughout the series. This AI was female, why? It's so stupid.
I wanted to read the VN anyway, so seeing that the anime was good motivated me to buy the VN. Yay timely flash sales. It was probably done to get anime viewers like me to buy, but still timely. I'll probably read it after Muv-Luv Extra/the Clannad side stories/G-Senjou no Maou. I have to imagine the VN is better with the romance side of things simply because it has more time to devote to that stuffs. 7/10.
Lupin the 3rd Part Four It's not very often we get an entire cour's worth of episodes dropped on us day one. I wanted to save this for last because no matter how I sliced it, this would be the biggest undertaking. I'll just say this: This was my first Lupin experience and it was totally worth it. I watched The Woman Called Fujiko Mine soon after this and that was pretty damn good too. I enjoyed that *more* in some ways, mostly the non-cliche treatment of a female character/the psychological aspects/the surprise of female nudity not feeling like total fanservice (even if it probably is, in part), but both are wonderful series. Anyway, Part Four.
For a show about thieving, the best episodes aren't really focused on it. They tend to be the more character-driven episodes. While every character is seemingly one-note, the episodes dedicated to the cast do a good job of fleshing them out a bit, and often have an ending that punches you right in the gut. Goemon's episode with the assassins epitomizes this IMO, and it was my favorite. The episode where Lupin steals a singer's car was also really touching; I legit had tears in my eyes. It didn't develop Lupin or any of the main cast, but the story involving the manager/singer was moving. The character interactions are top-notch too, which always helps me overlook relatively simple characters. You don't need deep, multi-faceted characters if their interactions are strong enough. The antagonist of the second half (Da Vinci) could use more development, though. SURE, we know who he is because who does not, but... What are his motivations? What happened to him? I mean, this is a fictional universe; you can't just drop that name on us and expect that to explain everything. He also seems less believable than everyone else by virtue of being super OP by this show's standards just because of who he is.
I wouldn't be horribly surprised if these characters were developed more in previous parts, but it doesn't feel as if you have to have been with Lupin since it first aired to know them. Given that previous series are older than me (fuck me I'm old), this was a good move and speaks to the writing of this series.
Fujiko and Rebecca are both god tier waifus btw. You can't go wrong with either. I prefer Rebecca, though. Love of alcohol aside, because you know that always factors in with me, she appreciates both the fine and mundane things in life. A meal of expensive wine and french fries? Drinking the fine wine she made herself and then a cheap beer? Who does that? Rebecca, that's who. I wish there were episodes focused on her not stealing to further develop that side of her character. The show says she models and does all this other awesome shit, but we don't see much of it and I feel like it'd show us another side of her character. I also wish the men would get kidnapped for once. Sure, Goemon is OP, Jigen is a hell of a shot, and Lupin is Lupin, but... I find it weird the women are the only cast members who got kidnapped, even if the Fujiko kidnapping turned out to be a hoax. (Zenigata arresting Lupin isn't really kidnapping, and even if it were, power dynamics are a thing.)
The thieving itself is good fun, but that isn't why I was watching Lupin. I was watching for the character-driven episodes and the great interactions of the cast. Even so, the heists themselves tend to be pretty intricate, and the chases that often result once Zenigata/whoever busts the crew can be zany. The methods they use to escape are sometimes out there, like Fujiko jumping off a ramp with a tank (lol), but it's all fun to watch.
Ending was anti-climactic. The final heist was set up to be epic and all, but it turned out to be twelve minutes of Da Vinci changing the scenery and Lupin outwitting him because reasons. It was just too short to elicit any feeling other than "this was rushed as hell". It could have been the best heist of the show, doubly so because of the metaphysical nature of stealing a personality (which would prove Lupin's boast about there being nothing he can't steal), but instead it turns out to be one of the worst episodes. The second half saves it, mostly because of the Lupin/Rebecca conversation. I'd knock the score for this, but I don't feel the overarching plot, if you can call it that, was ever the point.
Dat artstyle, dat music. I love the older style, not that I'm going to pretend I can place it. It has this hand-drawn/manga look that I wouldn't say is "rare", but it's definitely not a look you see in everything. It just feels more dynamic sometimes, especially in action scenes like when Nix just explodes on Da Vinci. Shit looks intense and you don't get that same feeling from a lot of series. As for the music, more things need jazz. I need to listen to more jazz. But yeah, the ED is the best ED of the season and it's not particularly close outside of, like, Erased's. The OP is pretty damn legit too, as are all of the songs with vocals used throughout the series.
Basically I feel like Lupin does a lot and it does pretty much all of it well. It's in that tier between Erased/Showa Genroku and the second tier shows for me. 9/10.
Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju Another one of those anime I don't want to say a lot about.
I normally don't put much importance on voice acting. My standard tends to be "does it hurt my ears?" If no, then it passes. Maybe I can tolerate just about any voice. Maybe it stems from me bashing A to get through voiced dialogue in games. Maybe I just don't get what makes good voice acting/miss nuance in the human voice. Yay Asperger's. Hell if I know. However, the voice acting is essential to Showa Genroku. If the VAs couldn't convincingly use multiple voices, the rakugo would all fall flat. Of course, it sometimes fell flat early, but that was by design. In some ways, it might be harder to be intentionally bad. Flat voice acting would be fatal to a show that often tells one story, a story that is thematically important to the episode it's told in, for a third of an episode or better. The rakugo is wonderful to listen to and I enjoyed every story, but even it is secondary to telling a great story about its main cast.
I don't think I would say I like any of these characters (Kikuhiko comes closest, but I can relate too much, I think), but they are all *extremely* well-written. The Kikuhiko/Sukeroku relationship is the driving force of the show, and it's damn good. On the surface they're best friends, but right below that there's a lot of tension. Without spoiling everything, Kikuhiko wishes he had the same type of talent as Sukeroku and grabbed the audience's attention like he could, whereas Sukeroku resented that Kikuhiko was the favored child and would get the title of Yakumo handed to him. There's a love triangle in the second half of the show, which is handled quite well and in a non-cliche way: Kiku doesn't even love Miyokichi, so it doesn't create the cliched drama that it usually does in lesser works. If anything, it's easier to argue that he loves Sukeroku, but this being 1950s-ish Japan, that would have went over like a lead balloon.
The only real flaw in my estimation is that it didn't do much with the present storyline, but that's not much of a flaw when the main cast/story is this great. I also would have liked to see Konatsu as she grew up, but I think we get the basic idea of how that went from Konatsu's/Kikuhiko's first interaction post-funeral. Maybe season two will go into that holy shit I'm hyped for it. I wonder if the stuff involving Yotaro will be as good as this cour was, but maybe I should trust the writers. They delivered every single week this season.
Studio DEEN making an anime that looks as breathtaking as this makes me question all that I know. Konosuba looks like the cheap DEEN we all know and love to mock, but this looks amazing. Makes me wonder why they can't make their stuff look better. (Budget issues, maybe?)
In any case, 10/10. I think it's better than Erased. Might not be the fairest comparison since they're going for different things, but Showa Genroku simply has fewer flaws and was more consistent week to week.
Dagashi Kashi Hotaru carries this show. Outside of Kokonotsu's father, who is there so rarely he might as well be an absentee father, she's the only character who's interesting in the least. Most of the humor is driven by her, as is most of the show in general. Without her, there's nothing holding the show together. Kokonotsu is the straight man for pretty much everything that happens, which explains to an extent why he's boring, but it's possible to be a straight man and not bore the audience to death. See: Kazuma of Konosuba, amongst others. Saya is your obvious childhood friend/character crushing on the MC, but of course she'll never make a move. This said, her half-episode with younger Kokonotsu was one of the better moments of the show. Endo is... Boring? I dunno, there's nothing that distinguishes him other than being Kokonotsu's friend. I guess maybe that he's a bit perverted, but that's every teenage male ever on some level.
The "plot" is Hotaru trying to convince Kokonotsu to take over his father's shop so the father can come work for her, but they tried that for half an episode and it's rarely come up since. It's just window dressing to quasi-justify a bunch of weird dagashi stories and shenanigans, which is alright by me. Anthropomorphizing the dagashi in order to tell crazy stories about them is a great tactic, probably one of the few available to make this series entertaining. Sadly, the show moves away from this the further it gets into its run, which makes it feel less like the Dagashi Kashi we had come to know and makes it feel more boring. When Hotaru's not telling weird stories involving dagashi as main characters, the cast is doing stuff like drinking fake beer (and Hotaru is getting drunk off it, 10/10), having random taste testing competitions, and of course eating ice cream... boobs. Or bombs. Boobs are way better though, as we all know. Of course this would be the show's version of a fanservice episode, and the sexual innuendo is turned up to 11. I actually don't mind this, even if it might be exploiting Hotaru's incredible design to the max for purposes of humor. It's just a very funny half-episode, easily one of the best of the show's run.
There's not much else that stands out about the show, for better or worse. I guess I like the ED? I have a good time watching it and all, but when you look beneath the surface, there just isn't much *there*. Maybe I'm getting tired of it, I dunno. Luckily what is there can be quite funny at times. I'd say 5/10 seems right.
Pandora in the Crimson Shell This borders the edge of watchable for me, kinda like Haruchika. Probably even more so tbh.
I really, really hate the transformation sequences. I turned away from the screen whenever this shit was happening. Whoever thought it was a good idea to have them happen in that way should be fired and then rehired, just so he can be fired again. Because it was most likely a he. It's just completely unnecessary and was obviously done because FANSERVICE!!!1, never mind they aren't exactly human. Doesn't help their designs are more cute than sexy. I guess there are people into cute girls, but doing things like that with cute and young-looking female characters is the fastest way to make me think "creepy". They also act pretty young, so... Yeah, it's creepy as shit. I was thinking of dropping this after episode 1 because of these transformations, but I've given more offensive fare two episodes, so I felt I had to at least watch one more. The only redeeming aspect is that these sequences aren't more than 20 or so seconds.
It gets better. Not by much, but by enough to at least get through it. The plot is so meh it physically pains me, but if you're watching for that, you're doing it wrong. The best thing about Pandora is Nene and Clarion's escapades, and there's a new one each week for them. It's not even their hijinks that I love; it's dem reactions and reaction faces. They're just consistently amusing, and they're the reason I tuned in each week. Assuming I remembered it's a Friday show, which wasn't exactly a guarantee because I forgot it two weeks in a row. The various gags with the reporter are also funny, too. I love that her crew is often too drunk to pick up her calls.
BUER is fucking annoying. At least he gets smacked by Nene/Clarion every time he says or does something stupid, which is worth a chuckle, but it happens multiple times an episode and it doesn't make him less annoying. Of course he's plot-centric because not irritating viewers who might be creeped out by a doll that acts like a pervy old man with a lolita complex is asking too much. All that effort going into hacking BUER's pictures was an amazing joke though. It doesn't redeem him by any means, but fuck if it wasn't a great joke.
Action is surprisingly good, but given how meh/bad other aspects of this show are, maybe it just looks better in comparison. The fight between Clarion/cyborg guy was one of the more compelling things to come out of this show because there was a slight bit of drama. I knew Nene was going to come in and save the day if only because this show is too upbeat to let Clarion die/get severly injured, but it at least created the impression that Clarion could lose, which is more than you could have said for every previous situation.
4/10. Sometimes that feels generous, mostly during transformation sequences.
|
|
|
| |
|
Romanticide
|
Apr 2 2016, 11:37 AM
Post #412
|
- Posts:
- 3,887
- Group:
- Bitchin' in Purple
- Member
- #95
- Joined:
- May 8, 2011
|
The Ace Attorney animation is terribly meh. If I weren't so invested in this series, I'd drop it after episode 1, because it makes Studio Fucking DEEN look like Michelangelo or Leonardo da Vinci or some such.
The plot seems intact, but even the Wii ports of the original games look better than this shite. I don't know how to put it. Even Konosuba looked better than this shit, and I'm fucking drunk right now.
I'll probably still watch this because I hate myself, life, the universe, and everything, but if it stays this bad, I won't enjoy it. There are so many pivotal moments even in a season one that could easily be ruined with meh animation/meh pacing. This first episode didn't even make the tutorial case interesting. The tutorial case is always pretty easy, but because the game has more time, there's more development of that case/the criminal's motives.
I hate myself and this was utter shite. I'll probably watch again next week to see if it gets better.
Also press f to pay respects to Mia.
|
|
|
| |
|
Romanticide
|
Apr 11 2016, 07:43 AM
Post #413
|
- Posts:
- 3,887
- Group:
- Bitchin' in Purple
- Member
- #95
- Joined:
- May 8, 2011
|
Early Spring impressions because wynaut. I've watched pretty much everything I plan on trying out. Might watch Wagamama High, if only because Sekai Project is doing the VN, but I think I've tried everything else I want to.
Joker Game/Kabaneri/Kiznavier/Bungo Stray Dogs should be the obvious "top tier" of the season, barring a dip in quality. Each of these series had a pretty good debut episode, and every one of these had at least one incredible shot, with Joker Game being the best of the bunch IMO. I don't know if I'd recommend them without reservation yet because that's always hard to do after one week, but I enjoyed them all. I'll be sticking with this group of shows through the season; I'm interested to see where they all go.
Dat Kabaneri artstyle tho. Wit Studio did it again. Hell, this might be their best artwork yet (that I've seen, anyway). I'm still upset that's on Amazon Prime, along with the other Noitamina stuff. It might not always be great, but it sure as shit is different from the usual fare, and that's the kind of stuff I like to support on the legal streaming sites. No anime is worth $80/year, so I'll be using the illegal sites for this one.
Crunchyroll has been promoting Kiznavier like they're its pimp, and other hyped series have disappointed me, so I'm a bit reticent to say it's going to be great. Sure, I looked forward to it, but at this point that's more because Mari Okada wrote it and less because Trigger is making it. Trigger hasn't made shit to write home about since KLK. Episode one was good and all, but I'd wait at least a week or two and see how the series is going then before picking it up.
Jojo is Jojo, what can I say? It's still as good as it ever was, and I have high hopes for this part given the things I've heard about it. So far, it's lived up to the hype. The new artstyle might not be as "realistic" as that of past parts, but it definitely feels more unique and there have still been some great shots. I love the look thus far.
On that note, Rinne is also Rinne, but I don't expect it to do anything new. It might introduce new main characters, but I expect it to be more of Rinne and company trying to capture spirits and other hijinks. It's comfort food in that sense; I always know what to expect and that's a good thing for the most part. Show could benefit from a serious (by its standards) story arc, but beyond that it's good as is.
Haifuri was not what I expected. I expected cute girls and ships because, well, that art and the premise, but I didn't expect the plot twist at the end of episode one. This might be a bit more serious than I gave it credit for, which I don't mind in the least. I like my moe trash, but I also appreciate some substance to it, y'know? I'm almost definitely sticking with this one though; it's cute and it might be legitimately good to boot.
Space Patrol Luluco is good fun. Episode 2 was a bit too serious for my tastes, especially in an eight minute short that I'm watching because, one, Trigger, and two, because I expect batshit insanity most every week. I guess they had to introduce this Alpha Omega Nova guy to us though, and Luluco practically falling in love with him after watching him shoot a guy was fucking hilarious.
God Eater episode 10 was incredible. Matter of fact, I'd recommend watching the show for this episode alone. It was that good. You'd be sitting though 6-7 episodes that are "just there", and 1-2 legitimately good episodes (the one or two involving Vajra), but I'd still say it's worth. It was an amazing episode and I wouldn't hesitate to put it up against last season's best stuff. The ending is just... I dunno. I don't want to spoil it, but damn, I didn't expect something this "gritty" to be so moving.
Also, dem ufotable production values. You should know how good those are by now.
Endride/Re:Zero felt like they were meh after the first episode, but the second episode of both shows was better. Endride did absolutely nothing with ep one besides look pretty, but episode two set the stage for the rest of the show and established Alicia's character a little bit, which by default makes her the best character because the male leads are both kind of annoying. Re:Zero's jokes in part one went over like a lead balloon, but the drama in part two was more to my liking, and it established this as a more serious setting in spite of the cringe-worthy "humor". Of course, I wasn't in the best of moods when watching Re:Zero, so that might factor into how I felt about the humor. I'll watch the "second episode", as it were, tomorrow and decide if I want to stick with it, but as of now it's looking like something I can stay with.
I'll probably give Hundred at least through tomorrow's episode. If the fight is bad, I might just straight up drop it. Life is too short for a magical high school show with bad fighting. It's also pretty obvious already that Emile is a girl and she loves the MC. Being a silly progressive, I was hoping that Emile was really a guy and that he had fallen in love with MC, but I should know better. It's easier to write Emile as a girl, if only for the shitty heterosexual romance story and otaku/merch sales.
Kuma Miko is super cute. It's probably not going to be great, but it should be a fun watch every week. The interactions between Natsu and Machi are going to be what drives this show, but even outside of that the rest of the cast is pretty damn funny too. See: the girl screaming "SEXUAL HARASSMENT" after Yoshio's story, and Yoshio trying to get his drunk friend to stop fishing.
Bakuon and Sakamoto also fall into this category of "likely not great, but should be fun watches". Sakamoto more so because the MC seems like a Mary Stu and almost everyone likes him for being so cool/stylish (this is also why his haters hate), but he just seems to want to live a normal, everyday life. Bakuon was pretty fun itself, though. The part where the MC's bike is talking about men was the highlight of the episode for me, though the ending part where it went into blond girl's loyalty to Suzuki bikes was pretty fun itself.
The new Gundam was watchable. I'd continue this series, but it doesn't sound like this is a good starting point for Gundam and I want to cut back to 10-13 shows this season anyway. I'm sure guides are out there for getting into the Gundam universe, so I'd probably go by one of those and start wherever they recommend.
If anything is feeling like a clear drop, it's probably The Lost Village. A thirty character cast with few to no characters I care about, the first eight or so minutes of episode two focusing on MC (who I already fucking hate btw) falling for girls too easily, and these idiots wanting to live out some fucking libertarian fantasy all adds up to a drop. I imagine they're going to start killing cast members off because it'd be almost impossible for anything to make viewers care about such a large cast in ~12 episodes, and it kinda feels like it'll turn into some sort of horror show, but it won't do anything for me if I don't come to care about the survivors. The writers have tried to introduce everyone, but there's nothing to latch onto yet and I really doubt there will be.
I like the atmosphere of the show, but it's bogged down by stupid shit. Cutting the cast in half and making less of them idealists who want to run off and live out some shitty ass Ayn Rand novel would make the show infinitely more watchable.
And yeah I'm not watching Ace Attorney sober. I did that this week and it just confirmed the show looks cheaper than a three dollar hooker, which pisses me off. This IP deserves better. I also feel like a fair bit of the humor is lost. Sure, there are some chuckle-worthy scenes, but because this series will have to streamline everything, probably at the expense of investigations, it won't be as funny as it can and should be.
It's going to be a drunk hatewatch, but I've already written drunk thoughts. I guess that's fitting.
EDIT: I totally forgot My Hero Academia. I don't know how? The artstyle isn't to my tastes, but it's quite clearly well animated. I wasn't a fan of the giant lady, whatever her name was (obvious fanservice was way too obvious and not very funny despite them playing it for laughs), but outside of that it was better than I expected it to be. Then again, given that I expect most superhero stuff to suck hard, that's probably not saying much. I'll watch at least this week's before I decide if I stay with it or not. I probably need MC to grab my attention in some way though. Why should I care about some milquetoast that wants to become a superhero?
Fuck me I mentioned 19 shows. Not that I count God Eater as "this season" because it'll only have 3 more eps, so 18 shows rly. Way too many, and I wasn't planning on watching some of these, but there was nothing better to do on the days they came out. So I tried them because I hate myself.
|
|
|
| |
|
Snowman
|
Apr 14 2016, 05:01 PM
Post #414
|
- Posts:
- 2,398
- Group:
- Members
- Member
- #107
- Joined:
- May 8, 2011
|
Hey weebz http://www.avclub.com/article/scarlett-johansson-ghost-shell-looks-about-youd-ex-235299
|
|
|
| |
|
Romanticide
|
May 11 2016, 11:20 PM
Post #415
|
- Posts:
- 3,887
- Group:
- Bitchin' in Purple
- Member
- #95
- Joined:
- May 8, 2011
|
http://www.theverge.com/2016/5/9/11612530/ghost-in-the-shell-anime-asian-representation-hollywood
Not that the world needs another taek on the GitS movie, but this is probably the best one I've read.
It might turn out to be a good action movie. It probably won't turn out to be a good Ghost in the Shell movie. While I did enjoy the action aspects of the series, they aren't the best parts of it. If there's an equivalent to how I feel about this adaptation, it'd be the Bourne movies. I can kind of turn off and watch them as action movies because they are enjoyable in that context, but they have never captured the essence of the novels to me. Even then I'd be like "the books were better", because the first three (arguably four) were. We don't talk about books post-four; they're universally bad and the movies are better than that tripe.
Given that this is by a former Grantlander: I miss Grantland. The Ringer can't get here soon enough, even if Simmons is becoming more insufferable by the day.
|
|
|
| |
|
LightningBolt
|
Jun 24 2016, 09:16 PM
Post #416
|
- Posts:
- 1,432
- Group:
- Members
- Member
- #110
- Joined:
- May 8, 2011
|
A Little Witch Academia anime was confirmed. Yeahhhhhh boy.
|
|
|
| |
|
Romanticide
|
Jul 4 2016, 11:44 PM
Post #417
|
- Posts:
- 3,887
- Group:
- Bitchin' in Purple
- Member
- #95
- Joined:
- May 8, 2011
|
Spending my 4th posting about weeb cartoons. My #priorities are in order.
This season was a hard one to care about. There were a few obvious upper tier shows, if not exactly "top tier" shows, which I kept up with, but I felt this season didn't have much depth. There are a few of those "not the best, but still worth watching" (Kuma Miko, Sakamoto, etc) sorts of shows, but I didn't feel particularly motivated to watch them most days. Still not caught up on some of those shows, and I think my write-up would basically amount to "it's funny", with some mention of Bakuon's incredibly stupid fanservice, so I'll refrain from writing about them. Something like My Hero Academia is good according to most everyone, but it's also not really my thing and was more of a de facto drop than a "this is bad" drop.
This season can be summed up with "Fire Emblem Fates was better", and Fates has a worse story than every anime with a story this season. But that's a pretty boring post.
I'll try and watch Flying Witch soon-ish. Don't know if that will be this week, necessarily.
Winter spoiled me. Hopefully summer is better.
Continuing:
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable After all I've heard about this part, I was pretty hype for it. Persona comparisons make sense, though I somehow doubt this show is going to get as in-depth with its characters as Persona does. The vibe of Persona 4 is kinda there, however. Yes, I know this came approximately forever years earlier. You get my point.
Much like part 3, this is a slow burner thus far. I think it took until Avdol's "death" for me to feel like Stardust Crusaders picked up/the group coalesced and became an actual group as opposed to five men fighting against Dio. What was that, episode 14 or something? Point is, nothing has happened to make me think this is a fighting force. They haven't had any sort of event that makes me feel they're more than just three teenagers (and Jotaro, but he's not going to be in the "group", as it were) looking for a bow and arrow. The Chili Pepper fight could have been that, but it was highly anti-climactic. The fight itself was pretty short, didn't have any awesome action sequences, and it failed to make me feel like "yeah, they could actually lose". And this was supposed to be the main villain of this arc. I really hope whatever the next arc is is better.
Joseph being written back in... I don't know. On one hand, I like anything that isn't hyper-masculine; it serves as a good contrast compared to the rest of Jojo and I tend not to respond to super-masculine things anyway. Jojo goes over the top and knows it's over the top, so I'm okay with it. Then again, hyper-masculine (and FABULOUS) is kind of Jojo's thing. We're not watching Jojo to see a budding relationship between Josuke and his absentee father, are we? No, we're watching for awesome Stands, fights, and FABULOUSNESS. The time they spend on Joseph is time that could go towards another character, one that would easily be more relevant to the main group/the story at large because odds are they wouldn't be senile half the time. Joseph is my favorite Joestar thus far, so to bring him back and basically shit on how badass he was in part two doesn't sit well with me. He didn't do much in part three when you think about it, but they didn't spend the entire time reminding you Joseph is super old either. That and we got some of the best Engrish ever.
This point about hyper-masculinity is why I appreciate Koichi's existence. Not everyone in a Jojo cast needs to be so ripped they could medal in a Mr. Universe competition. I think he needs some kind of push to go from meek and slightly cowardly to the badass we know he's capable of being. I get that every Jojo character is afraid at times, and that's how it should be, but Koichi feels more afraid than most and it makes me want to shake him sometimes. I have faith you can be awesome, fucking do it already kid.
Stands are getting more creative, which is nice. More Stands in this part are lending themselves to things that aren't combat, which allows for more storytelling possibilities. The restaurant episode was probably my favorite so far this part, in part because the Stand is unique, but in larger part because it subverts everything you know about Jojo. It uses the usual "tells" (the music, the exaggerated faces, etc) to make you believe the chef is actually an enemy Stand user, but in the end he turns out to be a chef with a Stand, one that makes his customers healthier. Maybe I should have figured it out after the first time Okuyasu felt better, but I'm a cynic and fully expected the PLOT TWEEST at some point. I think long-running series need these episodes, where things don't happen as you'd expect. It'd get stale if every episode of something like this stuck to the same tropes, or had minimal deviation from them.
I think I'd need more context for a proper rating, meaning "more Jojo". Maybe it'll become better in retrospect, I don't know. As it is, I'd probably say a 7. I enjoy it, but there are a number of "buts".
New:
Re:Zero The first part of episode one, jfc. I wasn't sure if I was going to stick with it after this, as I've said, but I'm glad I did. The second part was acceptable, and the show got really good in a hurry after that.
Fantasy is one of the most tired settings out there. Time travel is really easy to fuck up. Re:Zero doesn't reinvent the wheel where fantasy is concerned, but the time travel part of it keeps it from being a totally bog standard fantasy show. You have a lot of the usual fantasy tropes, and they're used in fairly standard ways, but the cast is strong enough for me to be like "okay, whatever, I just care what happens to these people" and the writing is strong enough for me to overlook that it's all trope-y as fuck.
Rem/Ram are best girls. I doubt I could pick between the two, even though the show is trying really hard to convince us Rem is the better twin. I think they're at their best (read: funniest) when they're together, so maybe that's it. There aren't many things I laughed at harder this season than some of the lines they had when Subaru woke up in Roswaal's mansion. Felix is best boy, but I may or may not be biased here. I mean, a feminine-looking catboy? How can he NOT be my best boy? I like pretty much all of this cast so far, which feels kind of funny to say because I don't know why I should like Emilia. She's obviously the female lead, has had by far the most screen time outside of Subaru, and will probably wind up on the throne/with Subaru in the end somehow, but until last week's episode, I didn't have much of a reason to like her. She didn't seem defined as her own character until she told Subaru that he was really doing everything for himself (which I 110% believe); she seemed more defined in terms of Subaru's love interest than anything else. Boring.
That ending to this week's Re:Zero got me fucked up. I think I need more vodka to cope. I don't care how it happens, that shit needs to be reset.
Speaking of Subaru, I don't know if I like him or not. On one hand, he's a NEET with a self-awareness level above zero. Does this ever happen? He can also be funny at times now that I've warmed up a bit to his humor. On the other, a lot of problems are of his own making, he does *not* realize he had a lot of help to get even this far, he's ignorant of the world and seems to have little interest in learning about it (I guess that takes time away from pining over Emilia though), and I just want to slap the shit out of him for being so dense and arrogant. Julius beat me to that, not that it seems to have done any good whatsoever.
I feel like I should say something about the plot, but I got nuthin'. It's hard to put my finger on what I like about the story thus far. I'll skip that shit and go straight to the part where I give it 8/10.
Joker Game I didn't think I would be dropping this one. The first episode showed some promise and then... Any implied character focus is thrown out the window in favor of loosely connected/un-connected episodes. Exciting!
The spying in and of itself is *alright*; you can follow the logic of each episode. It might not always be immediately evident, but by the end of the episode you'll probably see how and why events unfolded the way they did. I wish there were a second part for each caper though; it would give us time for more insight into the motivations of the characters and agencies involved and that would make this an infinitely better show.
However, why should I care? The cast, most likely by design, has no discernible personality traits. I get that it'd be bad for these super spies to have quirks that would give them away in the field, but no personality and no development is just lazy writing that makes it impossible for me to give a damn if they succeed or not. I certainly don't care about Axis Japan succeeding in its goals, so I'd have to care about the characters to care at all about the plot. It's easy enough to gather that D-Agency is fighting for its very existence, but a few short scenes at the ends of episodes or whatnot are not enough to make viewers care about their plight. It's not entirely clear how the individual episodes tie into a larger whole, if they do at all. Why are these spies even doing these things? I get it's to further Japanese goals, but each episode feels divorced from the others, you don't see how the events of a given episode affect anything, and it doesn't even feel like any of this fucking matters.
Ludlum novels work because you care about the main character(s). Ludlum protagonists are all cut from the same cloth, as are the plots, but it's generally a workable cloth (with Jason Bourne being the best version of it) so it's easier to overlook. Helps the average book is ~4 hours for me. The Bourne/Bond movies work because they're good action films. Light on the spying and the character/agency motivations but they're good fun to watch for two hours. More recent Bond movies have even given us more insight into Bond than any episode of Joker Game has on any spy. Why does Joker Game work? As far as I can tell, it doesn't work because there's nothing to latch on to. I feel like I'm watching spying for spying's sake, but that isn't why nations spy on each other, or why people are willing to do it.
I don't know. I'd be inclined to go like 4 or something. It's not offensively bad; it's just boring, which is arguably the most offensive thing a work of art can be. At least I'll remember how bad the worst of the worst is. I'll forget most of Joker Game in weeks.
Bungo Stray Dogs If you try to catch two hares, you'll wind up with none.
Bungo Stray Dogs' biggest problem is it doesn't know what it wants to be. Sometimes it wants to be a comedy, and to be honest, this is what the show does best. Each episode has a lot of little jokes and most of them work for me. Most of the cast so far is one-note, Dazai being the only real exception (he's also the funniest), but that one note generally lends itself to some pretty good jokes. I don't think I'd have a problem with the show if it were just an episodic show with a lot of gags and jokes. However, it's also trying to be a serious show with an overarching plot, and these efforts fall flat. Why should I care about the Port Mafia? They don't feel like legitimate antagonists, outside of the few people with the same powers as the Armed Detective Agency. Even then they aren't interesting villains. Matter of fact, why should I care about this cast? One note personalities work for comedies because you aren't expecting anything but lulz out of a comedy, but in a show that aspires to be serious at times, you need reason to care about what's happening and who it's happening to. Character development goes a long way towards giving me a reason to care, and it's just lacking in this show for everyone outside of Atsushi. Not that it makes him any better or inspires me to give a fuck about him; it just explains why he's a whiny milquetoast.
I wrote the above before episode 8. I stand by it because it's still true and as such don't blame anyone who dropped it, but the show focused on Atsushi/Kaguya after episode 7, and it's better for doing so. I'm totally on board with the Atsushi/Kaguya ship, but mostly because I like Kaguya. Her type of character normally doesn't interest me, being less emotive than the average plank of wood, but it's obvious she just wants to be relatively "normal", insofar as you can be normal having a power that's triggered by a cell phone of all things. The emotional moments concerning her were some of the only powerful moments this show has had thus far. The show still has its humorous moments, but there are fewer of them. I'm alright with this as long as it finally knows what it wants to be.
The fight between Atsushi and... I forget the antagonist's name, don't care enough... was weird. Suddenly Atsushi becomes a competent fighter out of nowhere, despite having no training and being largely unable to control his power. I guess that can be hand-waved away by Dazai claiming Atsushi was far better than our lovely antagonist was, but even so, it would have been nice to see him learn... anything, really. Learning how to fight and/or how to control his power would have made the fight more plausible. Even so, it wasn't bad to watch, from a pure action perspective. Story-wise it's still out of left field.
Kind of hard to grade a show like this. A lot of things get *worse* in the second half, so this is like reverse Charlotte syndrome or something. 5 or 6 sounds about right. I enjoyed the latter half because it's finally showing a modicum of promise, but it remains to be seen if it'll be squandered. Slightly looking forward to cour two, which is something I would not have said a few weeks ago.
Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress I think Wit Studio has sold me on at least trying anything it does. The artstyles of The Rolling Girls, Seraph of the End, and now Kabaneri have all been incredible. Seraph especially was not an exceptional series, but it was watchable every week and the artstyle was one of its best aspects. I guess I have to watch AoT before spring season now, too, if only to have a taek.
Obligatory "fuck Amazon Prime". Still salty. Even ignoring that I'm salty and will always be, what anime fan wants to pay for every damned service just to get at a handful of shows? I don't mind two or three being in the game; competition is good for us as consumers. Paying $8-10 a month for everything is like death by a thousand paper cuts though.
ANYWAY. Kabaneri. I bash on "dark" and "gritty" all the time, but this is dark and gritty done well. I care about most of the main cast. Ikoma is a main character I like, which is about as rare as a thirty point buck. I think a large part of that comes down to him being a defined character and not just someone for the male viewer to project himself onto. He could have stood more development to become a badass, but it's not like he's so badass that he always wins, so I guess he's balanced idk. Mumei is my favorite character on the show; she's cute and kicks all the ass ever. Beyond that, she's the only one I would say gets anything you can call character development, what with her going from "i must be teh strongs to deserve lief" to "I might be weak, but that's okay". Ayame is an interesting leader, not relying on physical strength/coercion to get things done. Seems her tactics are more based on cooperation/mutual benefit, which is refreshing in these sorts of settings. It's idealistic and naive, but why would I want to watch something where all idealism has died. Even secondary characters like Takumi, Yukina, and whoever else are still quite likeable cast members.
We haven't talked about how ripped Yukina is. She'd kick our asses, man. I love her design, but not for the usual reasons. I love it because it's realistic. She puts in some damn hard work on the train, but like 90% of anime would have a girl in such a role look impossibly beautiful because #anime, with no definition in the arms or anything like that. I don't know, it shouldn't be so much to ask that a female character actually look befitting of her role, instead of being designed for otakus to jerk it to. Gotta get dem DVD/Blu-Ray/merch sales to justify season two of stuff I suppose.
The plot is nothing special whatsoever, but it works because it's executed well. Ikoma and Mumei pretty much always pull through, but there's a sense of tension that is lacking in a lot of other things. I never thought either of those characters would die, but the trick is in making us believe it's possible anyway. I felt like Kabaneri succeeded in leaving that possibility on the table, even if I knew it'd never go through with their deaths.
We know nothing of the Kabane, really. Sure, Biba was researching them and he has medicines that do... things... but even so, I don't know any more about the Kabane than when I first hit "play" on episode one. They're basically zombies and maybe that's enough. Even so, I'd like to know where they come from, what exactly Biba has found out, if it's possible to cure them, etcetera. There's a lot we could learn that would make them out to be more than just another cookie-cutter zombie species. I'd also like to know more about this world. Ikoma/Mumei/others speak of returning the world to the way it was, which is all well and good, but outside of caring about the cast, I care... why? I want the cast to live and all, but without any sort of attachment to the world, it makes no difference to me if they say "fuck this world" and run off to live someplace free of the Kabane (if there is one lol) or if they save the world. I felt episode 7 was the best worldbuilding episode (and one of the best episodes, period, in part because they stopped throwing more zombies on a screen in an effort to elevate the stakes), and elements of worldbuilding are present throughout, but even as a whole I just do not care.
Ending was pretty rushed though. Biba was introduced at the end of episode 7, and it was obvious from even that point he'd be the bad guy. There just wasn't enough *time* to establish him as a villain, much less one I should feel anything about. One of the reasons I tend not to like villains is that most writers make it abundantly clear that "hey, this is a Bad Thing they did and you should hate the villain for this". It feels like a twelve year old's idea of morality, which doesn't interest me. Grey morality for the sake of appearing like you're making a super duper mature work of art doesn't interest me much, either. I get that Biba is doing bad things, but I would have been interested to learn exactly why. You could argue it's either to save the world or to take power for himself, and both arguments probably contain elements of the truth. There's also the whole "revenge" angle, which was lame as shit. Like, yeah, your father was afraid because he's a coward and because nobody accepts the Kabaneri. I can't blame him. Understandable reaction I suppose, but I don't care about Biba, so it doesn't work for me.
I would have been much more interested in the politics going on in this world, or more in a "save the world" sort of tale. I don't care all that much about what was offered. However, it was still told reasonably well and I liked the cast, which helps. 8/10.
Haifuri This season's Aokana. Not as good, but I didn't expect that. I expected hot garbage tbh, but the end of episode one is like "no fuck you, this isn't going to be just cute girls on ships". Basically shit just got real after episode one. If only shit stayed real, this could have been an amazing show instead of merely good. Alas.
The show's biggest strength and weakness is the cast. I love the Chief Engineer, she's clearly best girl, but fuck if I can tell you almost anyone's name. The cast is insanely huge, which is justified by the setting being a ship. It'd be unbelievable if a group of 8-10 were running the ship, but the problem with something around 30 girls (I'm not counting, screw that) is it's hard to learn their names and come to like most of them. There's no time to develop anyone outside of main characters, and even that isn't done exceptionally well, so they all have one personality trait and that's their character. This works for the show because in spite of taking its plot somewhat srsly, it's still a light-hearted affair at its core. On the other hand, the show would have been hot garbage if the cast interactions were terrible. You're not going to get any deep conversations here, but most conversations/skits/whatever are pretty damned funny, and in the end that's what you'll be watching for.
Plot is fairly bog standard. It has a few dumb contrivances like the infected mice things, and some fairly important plot points are easily cast away/ignored, but it doesn't torpedo the work. Sure, you know that the captain is going to get them out of the pinch they're in, but you don't know exactly how, and watching the Harekaze crew go about executing the plan and being cute/funny in the process is entertaining. It might not be great, but it also doesn't trip all over itself in an effort to be super serious/deep, which more shows could stand to do.
There's not really much to *say*. If you can deal with moe trash, you'll probably derive some entertainment from this show. I'll take moe over "gritty" every day and twice on Sunday. 7/10 sounds good enough for me.
Kiznaiver I know Trigger is really good at making Gurren Lagann. Kill la Kill was Gurren Lagann 2.0, and Luluco hits a lot of the same notes. Luluco can more accurately be described as an homage to Trigger's past, but you know what I mean. This isn't a bad thing; all of those anime are wonderful watches. However, I wanted to see Trigger make something good outside of their insane action-packed wheelhouse. (Does anybody think Inou-Battle was *good*? No?)
This show was going to sink or swim with its cast. It's a very character-oriented show. Luckily I like most of the cast and think they're decently-written characters. Kiznaiver is one of those cases where favorite and best girl are not one and the same. Nico is easily my favorite character (as always: I love her archetype), but Chidori is clearly the best-written character on the show. Nobody else is exceptional to me, but the rest of the cast works well enough, interacts quite well, and is likeable enough for me to care about and wish them the best.
We could have done without Hisomu. What does he contribute? He's the clear outsider of the group from the word "go". Despite the writers' best attempts to establish Maki as the outsider, it was obvious that she liked Yuta. I also thought she wanted to be Nico's friend but was reminded too much of her childhood friend to take the plunge. Hisomu doesn't move the plot forward at any point and he's a non-factor in the group dynamic. Why does he exist? The only reason I can think of is that he exists precisely because he is an outsider, but that shit's dumb. In a show that is predicated on emotional pain bringing people together and group dynamics, I'm also expected to care about a character who is almost completely divorced from them?
You know me: I always want more character development. I really do think this would have been an incredible series if everyone got the Maki treatment. As it is, we don't have a lot of insight into most of the cast. We know who everyone likes and some basics about their past, but I don't think we know what drives these characters/what made them the way they are. The Maki episodes were good for getting into the head of a character we had little to no reason to care for and gave us an idea as to who exactly she is. Episode 2 was one of my favorite episodes and a great way to learn about the cast early on, but I would have appreciated deeper dives at some point. Hisomu especially needed one; he's just there. This would have required another cour, but so be it. I'm more than okay with watching more of a good show.
I'm not keen on the ending, or even the plot in the second half. The Kizna system was always hovering over everything, like one of those damned Wallmasters in Zelda. Man fuck those things. I get that it's important, but it's not the most interesting aspect of the show. It just felt like we abruptly moved on from the tribulations of our seven member cast to an ending involving Sonozaki's abuse of the Kizna system, and a finale almost exclusively focused on Katsuhira and Sonozaki. They wanted me to care SO MUCH that Sonozaki was taking on everyone's pain because she felt alone, but... I didn't. I can't help but think "people would care about you if you could just open yourself up to them". It's not like she's a bad person or anything. It seems like such a dumb reason to take on all this pain, but I guess people do dumb things because emotions all the time. Probably wouldn't have stories without it. I also support the Chidori/Katsuhira ship more than the Sonozaki/Katsuhira ship, but either way a childhood friend "won", I guess.
The montage works for me though. Kind of like Erased, it's the best part of the finale. The Chidori/Tenga part, Nico being awesome, and of course all but confirming Sonozaki/Katsuhira, all of that stuff was great. A pretty solid 8/10. Did a lot right, but I still wish it were better.
Also next season stuff I'll... try and watch, anyway... because I don't want to double post.
Continuing: Jojo's Bizarre Adventure Re:Zero Food Wars Rinne Arslan Senki Ace Attorney (*sigh*)
Also have to catch up on Dragon Ball Super sometime. Heard it's getting better, which surprises me.
New: Orange ReLife Sweetness and Lightning 91 Days The Morose Mononokean Rewrite Handa-kun Tales of Zestiria Planetarian
|
|
|
| |
|
failureatlife
|
Aug 11 2016, 10:00 AM
Post #418
|
Indiscriminately discriminates
- Posts:
- 756
- Group:
- Members
- Member
- #121
- Joined:
- May 9, 2011
|
- Romanticide
- Jul 4 2016, 11:44 PM
Continuing:Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable After all I've heard about this part, I was pretty hype for it. Persona comparisons make sense, though I somehow doubt this show is going to get as in-depth with its characters as Persona does. The vibe of Persona 4 is kinda there, however. Yes, I know this came approximately forever years earlier. You get my point.
Much like part 3, this is a slow burner thus far. I think it took until Avdol's "death" for me to feel like Stardust Crusaders picked up/the group coalesced and became an actual group as opposed to five men fighting against Dio. What was that, episode 14 or something? Point is, nothing has happened to make me think this is a fighting force. They haven't had any sort of event that makes me feel they're more than just three teenagers (and Jotaro, but he's not going to be in the "group", as it were) looking for a bow and arrow. The Chili Pepper fight could have been that, but it was highly anti-climactic. The fight itself was pretty short, didn't have any awesome action sequences, and it failed to make me feel like "yeah, they could actually lose". And this was supposed to be the main villain of this arc. I really hope whatever the next arc is is better.
Joseph being written back in... I don't know. On one hand, I like anything that isn't hyper-masculine; it serves as a good contrast compared to the rest of Jojo and I tend not to respond to super-masculine things anyway. Jojo goes over the top and knows it's over the top, so I'm okay with it. Then again, hyper-masculine (and FABULOUS) is kind of Jojo's thing. We're not watching Jojo to see a budding relationship between Josuke and his absentee father, are we? No, we're watching for awesome Stands, fights, and FABULOUSNESS. The time they spend on Joseph is time that could go towards another character, one that would easily be more relevant to the main group/the story at large because odds are they wouldn't be senile half the time. Joseph is my favorite Joestar thus far, so to bring him back and basically shit on how badass he was in part two doesn't sit well with me. He didn't do much in part three when you think about it, but they didn't spend the entire time reminding you Joseph is super old either. That and we got some of the best Engrish ever.
This point about hyper-masculinity is why I appreciate Koichi's existence. Not everyone in a Jojo cast needs to be so ripped they could medal in a Mr. Universe competition. I think he needs some kind of push to go from meek and slightly cowardly to the badass we know he's capable of being. I get that every Jojo character is afraid at times, and that's how it should be, but Koichi feels more afraid than most and it makes me want to shake him sometimes. I have faith you can be awesome, fucking do it already kid.
Stands are getting more creative, which is nice. More Stands in this part are lending themselves to things that aren't combat, which allows for more storytelling possibilities. The restaurant episode was probably my favorite so far this part, in part because the Stand is unique, but in larger part because it subverts everything you know about Jojo. It uses the usual "tells" (the music, the exaggerated faces, etc) to make you believe the chef is actually an enemy Stand user, but in the end he turns out to be a chef with a Stand, one that makes his customers healthier. Maybe I should have figured it out after the first time Okuyasu felt better, but I'm a cynic and fully expected the PLOT TWEEST at some point. I think long-running series need these episodes, where things don't happen as you'd expect. It'd get stale if every episode of something like this stuck to the same tropes, or had minimal deviation from them.
I think I'd need more context for a proper rating, meaning "more Jojo". Maybe it'll become better in retrospect, I don't know. As it is, I'd probably say a 7. I enjoy it, but there are a number of "buts".
Read the mango tho.
|
|
|
| |
|
Romanticide
|
Oct 2 2016, 04:44 AM
Post #419
|
- Posts:
- 3,887
- Group:
- Bitchin' in Purple
- Member
- #95
- Joined:
- May 8, 2011
|
Summer thoughts will come... When I feel like it. *If* I feel like it. Which tbh I don't, so I might just update MAL and be done with it. Not like a lot of people here read this thread/keep up with simulcasts anyway, and if I were at a more active anime board, there'd be more discussion. /shrug
Could also pare it down but that sounds like effort or something.
Also Sound! Euphonium looks incredible and y'all need to watch it.
Continuing whenever this fucking harvest ends: Sound! Euphonium Bungo Stray Dogs (I better not regret this) Jojo's Bizarre Adventure
Watching: Natsume's Book of Friends (I'll probably just start this over, it's easiest to do so.) March Comes in Like a Lion Izetta: The Last Witch Kiss Him, Not Me Keijo! Yuri on Ice (these last two are going to be really dumb or really good, there is no in-between)
I don't fucking know. Not much this season jumped out. This will probably be a backlog season, unless I hear things are better than I thought. I got tons of backlog anyway. Well, that or a Civ VI season because the 21st isn't that far away now. If it's as good as the previews are implying, I'll probably put in like 200-300 hours this season.
|
|
|
| |
|
Romanticide
|
Nov 26 2016, 04:49 AM
Post #420
|
- Posts:
- 3,887
- Group:
- Bitchin' in Purple
- Member
- #95
- Joined:
- May 8, 2011
|
Thinking I'll shift my buying priorities to anime. PC games get so cheap so fast that buying most anything at >$10 is just pissing away cash. Not sure I'll upgrade to gen eight (or nine, in the case of Switch) any time soon either, if I do at all.
But yeah, starting my collection the right way.
Posted Image
|
|
|
| |
| 1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous)
|