Post ITT every time you finish an anime

Anonymage 12/12/19 (Thu) 06:53:47 No.32049

File: 1576133627522.jpg (1.33 MB, 2057x1443, 2057:1443, Houseki.no.Kuni.full.18499….jpg) ImgOps iqdb

>>32041
Just finished watching this(Houseki no Kuni). The cinematography was excellent. I applaud the risks they took with cg animation. I guess some of the characters hair looked pretty too. Those are about the only good things I have to say, really.

A main focus of this was that of a 'coming of age' story, but in my view this was really poorly executed. It seems that most of phosphophyllite's character growth takes place off-screen, and we're just supposed to accept that. The last episode reflects on her growth strongly, yet that's something that was never illustrated well in earlier episodes.

The anime had a large cast of characters, nearly all of whom were poorly developed. Cinnabar, and perhaps bort and dia, were the only somewhat likable characters. Character design was ugly overall, in my view. The hair was nice but the outfits were hideous. Character development in this was really poor. A lot of time was spent focused on characters with no connection to the plot or even the protagonist. This valuable time could have been spent better.

Speaking of development, the world building in this was virtually non-existent. This was truly a lost opportunity because there was ample opportunity to create a well-fleshed out fantasy world full of mystery. The opposite of this was presented.

The art style is almost a metaphor for this lack of world building. Consider the promo art, such as pic related, which uses a nauseating amount of whitespace. The setting itself is totally devoid of detail. In their home there is barely any furniture, no cultural icons, everything is white and unfinished. The same is true for the comically bland grassland island outdoor setting. Truly a missed opportunity here. A richer setting would greatly enhance this anime. There was ample opportunity to do this.

The soundtrack again was a missed opportunity. The use of traditional Japanese instruments was so promising, yet the finished product was so lack luster. A richer, more engaging soundtrack would have gone a long way to enhancing this anime.

The plot itself was nearly incoherent, although this is a relatively low priority for me personally. Character motivations were often difficult to comprehend. I'll note here that I have not read the manga.

Overall I rate it 5/10. Absolutely not an aoty candidate like I had been informed. Squandered potential in nearly every respect.

Anonymage 12/12/19 (Thu) 07:05:02 No.32050

>>32043
>>32043
No game no life was hot shit made to pander to SAO retards and gaymers,the art style was good I recognize that,but the "plot" was stupid,most characters are plain and full of shitty tropes,and on top of that the author of this crap plagiarized the manga characters from who knows where.

I'm glad this thing never got a second season.

Anonymage 12/12/19 (Thu) 07:16:52 No.32051

>>32050
It's definitely a love-it-or-hate-it kind of show.

I had a similar viewpoint to yours before I actually watched the thing.

If you're taking the plot super seriously then you're watching it wrong, IMO.

Anonymage 12/12/19 (Thu) 11:46:46 No.32053

File: 1576151206234.png (1.2 MB, 1426x1070, 713:535, STUNNER.PNG) ImgOps iqdb

Just finished watching Lost Song.

The plot starts out standard but ends up turning into something pretty trippy towards the end.

Best part is that it all makes total sense, the show doesn't hold your hand and makes you sort out the pieces yourself.

Backgrounds are really good and it feels like you're looking at a painting

The few problems I had were that some important plot elements were never explained(it doesn't affect the story but still), one of the main characters is too dumb to come to obvious conclusions resulting in him getting buttfucked multiple times
and that a few side characters feel like wastes of space as they don't do much for the story.

Anonymage 12/13/19 (Fri) 17:49:19 No.32062

>>32053
i really liked last song when i watched it, i think it's one of the better netflix anime and the story is pretty interesting.

Anonymage 12/14/19 (Sat) 17:59:05 No.32069

>>32050
I thought it was lots of fun. I hate the Japanese for not enjoying it enough to finance a season 2. I was about to say I may have to read the manga but then I realized it was based on a light novel, not a manga. Does anyone know if they have translations of those too?

Anonymage 12/17/19 (Tue) 09:56:45 No.32105

File: 1576576605107.jpg (290.48 KB, 1156x1635, 1156:1635, 43b4af9ec3d040e8b9bf8212b1….jpg) ImgOps iqdb

I watched Udon no Kuni no Kiniro Kemari. My thoughts on it are written below.

I initially passed on this because of the totally unenticing premise, but eventually gave it a chance and was pleasantly surprised.

Confused by how little traction this got. Possible 'hidden gem'. Seems easily digestible and would appeal to normalfags I think. Suspect of being breeder propaganda from Abe-sama (/sarcasm).

Insanely cute scenes with some deeper emotional undertones about life and family.

Poco a cute! CUTE!

Male ~3/8 life crisis: the anime

Direction is inconsistent but ranges from mediocre to bad. Which is a damn shame. The entire series is sloppily executed in terms of direction. Direction is a deep flaw of this anime. With improved direction this anime would have been far better, I think.

Animation and overall production quality are mediocre. OST is unremarkable aside from the OP song.
Ultimately, it is a seemingly low-budget manga adaptation. The strength of this anime arises from the writing itself. The writing is great.

At times, this anime is very emotionally engaging. I started to cry during multiple episodes. The themes around family and such can be a real gut punch. They really got to me with those family childhood stills (motionless images). It feels like an emotional sucker punch when they show images of the MC's now-deceased parents in the ED. There are definitely some touching moments in this. This sentimentality is the best aspect of the show. I strongly recommend this anime if you have mental issues relating to family.

I felt very positive about the anime after watching the first 4 episodes, but during subsequent episodes a feeling of squandered potential crept in. Any anime watcher will know this common feeling.

There are some subtle 'touristy' plugs in the anime but they're not particularly intrusive and mesh with the plot fairly well. The story mainly takes place in Kagawa(Takamatsu city) which is known for a number of foods (ex. Udon) and various attractions. This might put some people off. On balance, I'd prefer that these touristy plugs not be included. Following this train of thought though, I strongly feel that this anime deserved a higher budget. I think more of the potential could have been captured with more skillful staff. That said, it appears to be a faithful adaptation. I plan to read the source material. In fact, the source material might be a better way to approach this. I'm unsure if the anime enhances the story much. Like I said, the strength of this work is mainly due to the writing itself.

Spent too much time on the dynamics of his job instead of exploring themes like childhood and family more. Introduced more characters than necessary for the story. This is a 12 episode anime and time is valuable. I suspect this might be an issue of being overly committed to creating a fidelitious adaptation of the manga, instead of more effectively catering the story to the single-cour anime medium. A lot of plotlines were introduced and then simply not even close to resolved. During the last couple episodes I was left with a feeling of there being a ton of 'loose ends' that were not tied up. This is a typical manga adaptation issue, unfortunately. When I say that the direction was flawed, this lack of focus is a major component of that.

Overall I rate this anime 7/10. I'd at least consider reading the manga first though if you're interested. If anyone's read it already I'd be very interested in hearing their opinion.

The anime is still good, don't get me wrong, but this had the potential (or should I say ingredients? lol) to be a 10/10 masterpiece. I don't say that lightly. Seriously squandered potential. I cannot shake this feeling of frustration that I feel over such an enormous waste of potential. I wouldn't even call this a manga adaptation - it's more like a manga advertisement.

Should you watch it? Yes, if the positive aspects I've outlined here are appealing to you. At the very least it is good drinking-and-crying material.

Addendum: after digging around a bit I've read that apparently there were major conflicts among the production staff. Sadly, this doesn't surprise me at all. As usual, Japs cannot into project management. If anyone knows what happened with the production staff feud then I'd be interested to hear.

Anonymage 12/20/19 (Fri) 03:44:03 No.32131

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I watched Sakamoto Desu ga. Here are my thoughts:

This is actually really funny. I consistently laughed out loud at every episode.
I'd describe the humour as kind of a combination of absurdist and situational. The gags themselves are really creative too, as opposed to the same recycled humour/jokes that we've seen countless times in anime.

Other characters play off of the main character (Sakamoto) well to create humour.

The jazz-like OST suits the series really well and enhances the humour.

The most common criticism of this anime is that it is repetitive. It's true that the humour tends to follow a similar theme (Sakamoto and his interactions with others), but I found that there was plenty of variety among the gags themselves to entertain me. A lot of the gags were completely unpredictable (often due to their absurdity). I'm laughing to myself as I write this just thinking about it. Much of my enjoyment came from wondering what ridiculous scenario would come next and how Sakamoto would react to it.

I rate this anime 8/10.
One of the funniest series I've watched in recent memory. I put on every episode with happy anticipation and I was never disappointed.

I think wizzies would appreciate this kind of humour and for this reason I strongly recommend watching this.

Anonymage 12/21/19 (Sat) 02:26:03 No.32144

File: 1576895163014.png (1.94 MB, 1620x1577, 1620:1577, Himouto-Umaru-chan-anime.png) ImgOps iqdb

My impression of Himouto! Umaru-chan prior to watching it was that it was simply dumb and for some reason caused a lot of butthurt among a lot of people. One day I put on the first episode out of impulse/curiosity. To my surprise, it was actually decent. I ended up watching both seasons and the OVAs.

Sibling relationships are a dominating theme. This is personally very depressing. Be warned. I had to stop watching sometimes because I'd start to think about my own family and would become very sad. This isn't a negative aspect of the anime, in fact it's a potent mechanism of emotional engagement. That said, one's reaction to the sibling relationship theme will be highly individual.

Another prevalent theme is the glorification of one's hobbies and leisure, which is obviously very relatable. Actually a lot of the themes explored in Umaru are relatable, I think. Various elements of Japanese culture are commonly included in the show, ranging from traditions to more otaku-ish stuff.

The series has broad appeal and is easily digestible. The quality is consistent. This would be good material for someone relatively new to the anime medium, I think.

Good direction. The show smoothly jumps from happy uplifting scenes, to light conflict, to comedy etc…
Episodes typically consist of scenes which are entertaining in isolation, but are woven together by a light episodic plot of some kind. Sweet moments are skillfully implemented within the light-hearted writing.
Very 'watchable' show overall.

The characters are simple but they do have good chemistry. There are funny scenes sometimes. The characters are cute and there are a lot of cute outfits!

In terms of likability, the cast is kind of a mixed bag. A lot could be said about this, but I'll summarize by saying that some aspects of the character personalities could be considered unlikable, and that one's own viewpoint on this will be highly individual. Regardless of the specifics though, I think the most common criticism of this anime is that character(s) are in some way unlikable or unethical. I'm sympathetic to this argument, but my own view is that it's just a fun light comedy SOL show and if you're sitting there doing a complex analysis of ethics then you are watching the wrong show for your mood. Go do a tiring day of work and come back, or put on a more intellectually demanding anime. Stop watching things that don't fit your mood. That said, I think the anime would be improved with better written characters, but I also think people are overreacting when they say that it's literally unwatchable because of the cast. This is yet another aspect of the show that will invoke a reaction that is strongly dependent on the viewer. Perhaps these highly variable audience reactions are why this anime stirred up so much butthurt.

The animation and art style are unremarkable. The OST is unremarkable, though I liked the S1 ED song. Also, the S2 ED animation is CUTE CUTE CUTE!

A lot of SOL shows tend to fizzle out as they progress. For this reason I had guarded expectations of the second season of Umaru. Actually though, season 2 was pretty good.

I'd liken watching Umaru to eating plain potato chips. It's not complex or unique, but it's still consistently good and you can consume a lot in one sitting and not even realize it.

Overall rating: 7/10

Kirie is literally me.

FYI, I used the Nii-sama release for the season 2 BDs. The release was unpolished and filled with innaccurate and lazy translations. I definitely won't be using their subs willingly again.

-kind of spoiler below-
a lot of light-hearted episodic anime tend to be ruined when the author attempts to introduce some kind of plot. In this case during the second season I found that the theme of private lives/secrets among the characters was handled well. It didn't intrude too much on the episodic SOL, but still provided a compelling and relatable theme for the viewer while simultaneously adding a little more character development. It also provided some relief from the repetition of season 1. I think this is a good example of mild plot injection for an SOL series being handled well.

Anonymage 12/22/19 (Sun) 16:50:18 No.32155

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Finished watching Oniisama he.
I was reluctant going into this because I'm generally not a fan of shows with high-class school settings or majority female casts. This really blew me away though. Never thought I'd be so hooked on what's essentially a long series of catfights and teenage succubus angst. The depiction of emotions is really good though, and even though it can be a bit melodramatic at times none of it felt like forced drama, and the situations all felt real and not too far-fetched.
Character development was extremely well done. The show really takes its time in revealing all the aspects and the background of each character. The main succubus is developed amazingly well throughout the series, going from being a pushover and lacking empathy to standing up for herself and others by the end, yet still maintaining some of her earlier weaknesses. The web of relationships between characters is complex and incredibly well developed throughout.
Some of the character designs were odd at first (shoujo proportions lol) but they grew on me. Animation was beautiful. For many important scenes they'll make it freeze onto a still painting-like picture of it.
Symbolism was rich, but always meaningful, and it never felt in-your-face or pretentious.

Overall an amazing show and definitely one that's taken a place in my top 10. Will probably become an annual or bi-annual rewatch for me.

Anonymage 12/22/19 (Sun) 17:16:19 No.32156

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Double-post for another I finished because I didn't want my previous one to be too long:

Finished watching Eve no Jikan (the movie).
It's set in a world where androids have become prevalent and advanced to the point of rivaling humans in some fields, but are still treated like servants and are also the subject of increasingly restrictive laws by officials who are worried about them gaining equality to humans. The protagonist and his friend, while investigating the odd movements of his family's android, find a cafe where there's no discrimination allowed between humans and androids - a grey zone of sorts, which is surprising to the average person based on their reactions - and the story develops from there, focused mainly on developing the characters and blurring the line between human and android.

The movie is less than 2 hours long but still covers a surprising amount of ground in exploring different aspects of the world and androids and posing questions related to the difference between them and humans. The primary inspirations seem to be Asimov's three laws (stated explicitly), which it uses to explore the ambiguities of such laws and effects on androids, and the Turing test, which it uses to explore the difference between humans and androids, and question the grounds for "humanity" (i.e. ostensible emotion vs. the process behind emotion). It's certainly sentimental at times but I still found it handled these themes well while also being entertaining to watch.
I have to admit I cried like a bitch at the arc with the Tex robot and the protagonist's friend, where he finds his dad who's never home and always at work has ordered it to silence because it made him look bad during his divorce, and yet it still stayed by his son's side throughout the years celebrating Christmas with him and graduation despite not being able to talk.

The movie ends on an ambiguous and slightly bittersweet note as lawmakers are pushing to shut down grey zones. It never completely and directly faces the issue of machines vs. humans related to internal processes (consciousness vs. a very complex program, can machines really have emotions when they're programmed to respond to certain things) but I don't think it needs to. What it showed and explored and what it ignored spoke volumes.

My only dissatisfaction is that I'm kind of left wanting more after seeing it, but I have feeling they might've hit a good sweet spot by ending it where they did and not expanding on the universe too much. So overall, an amazing movie and very provoking both intellectually and emotionally.

Anonymage 12/23/19 (Mon) 14:19:38 No.32163

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>>32144
i thought this was gonna be garbage too,but i had a lot of good time watching it

Anonymage 12/23/19 (Mon) 18:00:23 No.32164

>>32144
>>32163
I mentioned liking this show here 1 or 2 years ago and was attacked by the hivemind for it. This was back when "stop posting this fake neet" was a thing in response to umaruposting. Looks like the tide is finally turning.

Anonymage 12/23/19 (Mon) 18:07:36 No.32165

seems like if you wait long enough, every shitty show becomes a classic.

Anonymage 12/23/19 (Mon) 22:45:09 No.32166

>>32045
oh y shuld read tje ln

Anonymage 12/23/19 (Mon) 23:59:27 No.32167

File: 1577145567553.png (1.63 MB, 1280x720, 16:9, 19 - Heavenward.mkv_snapsh….png) ImgOps iqdb

Finally got to watching Texhnolyze after seeing it mentioned here a while ago, definitely a show I'll have to watch more than once. The ending really struck a cord with me to the point I teared up. The art, atmosphere, and music really make it captivating to watch.

Anonymage 12/24/19 (Tue) 00:13:27 No.32168

>>32164
It gets a lot of kneejerk reactions from people, plus it was le shitpost show for a while after it aired.

Anonymage 12/24/19 (Tue) 00:18:48 No.32169

File: 1577146727987.png (919.94 KB, 1497x927, 499:309, Shakunetsu-no-Takkyuu-Musu….png) ImgOps iqdb

I watched Shakunetsu no Takkyuu Musume. Here are my thoughts:

Really fun series. Puts a smile on my face. I really enjoyed watching this.

Great direction, both on-court and off-court. The ping pong matches are engaging and fun to watch, and the off-court drama is well-executed. The great direction is a major positive in my view.

Decent soundtrack. Decent overall audio production.

Cute characters. Cute character interactions. Good chemistry among the cast.

Decent character development, particularly for a single-cour sports anime with a somewhat large cast.

Animation is unremarkable with occasional poor quality moments, but this is no big deal to me. CG is used briefly during some of the matches. Animation is not a strong point in this series. I'm indifferent to this but still it's worth mentioning, particularly for a sports-focused show.
The overall visual production quality for this anime is low. I don't value animation that much but the bland art style is a missed opportunity for sure.

I should mention that the climax of the series is around episodes 9 and 10. The last two episodes were still good but there were a few 'hooks' added to try to draw you into the manga. This is fairly typical of manga adaptations, for better or worse. I'll also point out that the team talks about wanting to go to the national competition multiple times, but they never actually go in the anime. This might bother you if you're a subhuman plotnigger. ahem. Anyway…

Overall I rate this anime 8/10. Really this is just an incredibly fun series and a joy to watch.

Great example of a low budget anime done well (especially impressive considering that it's a sports anime). Low production quality can't ruin a well-directed anime, but poor direction can cripple any show.

Great OP song! I found myself singing along every time it played.

Would recommend if you like CGDCT or sports anime, especially as a means of bridging the gap between the genres.

>>32155
I've been planning to watch this for a long time but haven't gotten around to it. I think I'd like it. I really like shoujo (and yuri romance) anime. I might make it a priority now since you mentioned it.

Anonymage 12/25/19 (Wed) 04:03:22 No.32186

>>32167
yoshii did nothing wrong

Anonymage 12/29/19 (Sun) 02:50:48 No.32222

File: 1577587848653.jpg (76.89 KB, 858x480, 143:80, [BSEnc] Pale Cocoon (R2 DV….jpg) ImgOps iqdb

Pale Cocoon
Short OVA by the same director of Eve no Jikan. Earth has been fucked by pollution and humans have to live in artificial colonies with no sunlight. The protagonist works in a department trying to decode past records (images, videos, text, etc.) in an attempt to learn more about the past.
Can't say much more without spoiling it but it was pretty good. Maybe a little corny towards the end but still enjoyable and bittersweet.

Anonymage 12/29/19 (Sun) 09:53:42 No.32227

>>32169
looks good, think I will watch it also

Anonymage 12/30/19 (Mon) 00:13:34 No.32239

File: 1577664814444.jpg (46.49 KB, 640x480, 4:3, hotori.jpg) ImgOps iqdb

Hotori: Tada Saiwai o Koinegau
Takes place in a world where human memories can be taken and placed into androids to essentially create copies of people. The story follows the relationship between one of these androids who's being raised as a replacement for a deceased boy and gradually having memories put into him, and a human succubus who's slowly losing her memories due to a terminal illness. The concept was interesting but they only had 40 minutes to develop things so it felt a little lacking. Still a decent watch though.

Anonymage 12/31/19 (Tue) 00:57:08 No.32254

Finished the last episode of Vinland Saga. I thought it was pretty great. Beautiful animation, great characters, great backstories, great fight choreography, and it was actually more historically accurate than the show about Vikings on the history channel.

Anonymage 01/01/20 (Wed) 16:58:56 No.32274

>Youjo Senki Movie

Was a exelent continuation of the show.
The only negative thing I have to say is that it left me strongly wanting season two to come out, which hasn't even been announced so who the fuck knows when that will happen.
Nothing felt conclusive but it packed a fuck ton of action and story in a feature length ep that somehow didn't feel super rushed.
If you liked the show then the movie is great. If you didn't like the show then the movie really isn't for you. If you haven't seen the show then don't start with the movie as nothing will be explained to you, watch the first season then the movie.

Anonymage 01/01/20 (Wed) 20:07:01 No.32277

I just finished the first season of Oreimo (for the first time). Considering that its LN was written by the same guy who did Eromanga-Sensei, whose adaption is by far the worst anime I have ever finished, I had very low expectations.
But I found it to be quite an enjoyable SOL for the most part. Kirino's bitchy behaviour was annoying at times but I feel like this made the relationship between her and her brother more realistic, at least when I consider my own experiences with siblings. And she did have a bit of character development all the way at the end which I appreciated.

I'll probably start watching the second season tommorow. I already know its ending caused somewhat of a shitstorm online so I'm sure it will be interesting.

Anonymage 01/03/20 (Fri) 06:09:39 No.32284

File: 1578031778395.mp4 (4.36 MB, 640x360, 16:9, 50e6d8c0a0685afa609d3595bf….mp4) ImgOps iqdb

>>32277
>I'll probably start watching the second season tomorrow. I already know its ending caused somewhat of a shitstorm online so I'm sure it will be interesting.

Watching shitstorms caused by succubi losing was always half the fun of these semi-trashy anime and manga for me. Though looking back Oreimo wasn't that bad compared to some shows. Eromanga Sensei looked stupid and I didn't like the art style so I never watched it.

Anonymage 01/03/20 (Fri) 12:36:03 No.32288

>>32284
>Eromanga Sensei looked stupid and I didn't like the art style so I never watched it.
Well, you didn't miss out on anything. For me, it was one of those shows that I watched just to see how much worse it could get every episode. I found it hard to believe that the two works were by the same author when I started watching Oreimo.

Anonymage 01/04/20 (Sat) 10:21:15 No.32297

I liked Eromanga-sensei better simply because it felt like it was more about sol and less about (shitty)plot.

Anonymage 01/04/20 (Sat) 10:31:28 No.32298

>>32297
And Sagiri is better hiki than Sato ever was

Anonymage 01/05/20 (Sun) 07:17:09 No.32305

I've been getting into 80s anime, and watched Project A-ko; and I have to say…fuck it, I think I'm just going to stay in the 80s now.

Anonymage 01/05/20 (Sun) 18:08:54 No.32309

I finished ore wo suki nano wa omae dake ka. I just wanted a funny comedy harem with cute succubi but this has too much cringe drama and crying. I think the fucking economy being good has made people in JApan too excited and they aren’t producing the quiet desperate shows where people who have given up on life can silently enjoy , compared to earlier this decade. I hope they get a massive depression there and continue making the anime’s that I like. I deserve it because i’m a superior American and the Japs are my vassals anyways.

Anonymage 01/06/20 (Mon) 15:39:30 No.32315

>>32305
80s anime is fun, but you will probably run out of good stuff in 6 months to a year. Then it is all down hill from there.

Anonymage 01/07/20 (Tue) 01:25:08 No.32319

>>32315
I'm already used to things being downhill from here.

Anonymage 01/08/20 (Wed) 08:52:22 No.32339

File: 1578473542139.png (1.35 MB, 1132x1600, 283:400, Tanaka-kun-wa-Itsumo-Kedar….png) ImgOps iqdb

I watched Tanaka-kun wa Itsumo Kedaruge (all animated content). Here are my thoughts:

Great direction
Solid production quality
Decent soundtrack
Nice character designs
Genuinely funny - the humour is derived from character interaction which I like.

I generally don't seek out humour as a genre, and typically don't like shows where the focus is on humour. Humour works best as a side dish at most, usually. I made an exception for this show because I thought I might like the flavour of humour. I was right; it was pretty enjoyable and I laughed out loud plenty of times. The gags in this are implemented well with things like dramatic pauses, facial expressions, thought bubblish stuff for context, etc.

Fairly likable cast of characters. Using their various personalities, the entire cast is employed to create humorous situations.

Both the writing and the execution of the show are well-done. Not at all surprised to see how universally well-received this show was. My rating: 8/10

I don't have any criticisms. It did what it said on the label. I have nothing else to say; maybe the listlessness of this review is a reflection of the contagious mood of the show.

Anonymage 01/08/20 (Wed) 12:36:52 No.32340

>>32339
I loved that show too, I don't know why I stopped watching it.

Tanaka-kun, Natsume's Book of Friends, YKK–all super comfy. I love that genre.

Anonymage 01/14/20 (Tue) 10:07:29 No.32405

File: 1578996448699-0.jpg (386.93 KB, 1143x1600, 1143:1600, 573984759837598935_.jpg) ImgOps iqdb

File: 1578996448699-1.png (2.26 MB, 1920x1080, 16:9, 7598375983798.png) ImgOps iqdb

Well, it was an alright show, I guess. About time I got around to watching it.

The ending felt just a bit too rosy & happy la-la for my tastes, though. The fact that Ed was able to give up his alchemical abilities to save Al came across as a huge ass pull & far too convenient. As the very intro itself states in the grim question it poses, "What can equal the value of a human soul?", which itself is meant to have no answer, other than that being another human soul, it's all ruined retroactively by the fact that it does. That being, a magical door which represents one's alchemical abilities, apparently. It would've been far more compelling with some form of sacrifice attached, and or a loss of his naive principles, by having to use someone else, or even himself, in order to finally save Al, or that's Al's sacrifice to save the world had been a permanent one. Ed's final lines in the show about sacrifice just comes across as especially empty as a result of all this, given that he really didn't need to sacrifice anyone or anything that mattered to him, since Ed would've given up his alchemy at any point in a heartbeat, assuming he knew in the beginning that that's what it took to get Al back. In addition, the fact that Roy just turns around and uses a philosopher's stone to heal himself & Havoc felt especially incongruous & weak. Wouldn't Ed & Al have wanted it destroyed or disposed of somehow, given it still has human souls trapped within it? Wouldn't releasing all those souls have been a major fucking deal for them, instead of going on vacation around the world because they want to help chimeras now, I guess? And to top it off, Ling just takes the other one for his own, no questions asked. Meh, whatever. Guess the author wanted his happily ever after, sugary sweet Disney ending no matter what, so fuck everything else. God forbid anyone have to live with the sacrifices they made to save the world, which is doubly hilarious considering that this is ostensibly what the story is all about. That being, learning to live with the sacrifices & mistakes you've made and bearing the marks & scars of them while moving forward in a world where nothing is as perfect as we'd like it to be. In the end, nobody really learns anything. Nobody has really given up anything. Roy didn't want to lose any of his closest men, or Riza. Roy didn't lose any of his closet men, or Riza, and even got his sight back to boot. Al wanted his body back. Al has his body back. Ed loves Winry. Ed marries Winry. Where is the cost here? The sacrifice? Fuu and Buccaneer? That's it? Two marginal side characters that were just shortly forgotten about, anyway? Really? Honestly, I'm surprised they didn't bring back Hughes while they were at it as well, fucking hell.

Like I said before it's a fine show in most respects, but I just expected much more depth & consequences in the ending considering the core themes of the show itself about learning to live with loss & sacrifice, which were otherwise mostly present in the show and best exemplified in Nina's fate, Ed, Al & Izumi's dabbling to get back what they lost only to suffer more in the process, & of course Maes Hughes' death. A much more appropriate theme for the ending could've been that we are truly only human and thus we are faced with the inevitability that there are some points in our lives where to get what we want, we have to sacrifice something else. In Ed's case, that would have been his pride & naive sense of ethics. The pride that he had only once used human lives as a tool and his naive ethics preventing him from ever using them again no matter what. Now he would have to use them again to save his brother, or that in order to save the world, he'd have to sacrifice Al, but nope. Let's go with the random ass pull so that everyone lives happily ever after.

Also, another random thing about the ending, at least in regards to the english dub.

Winry: Men who just sit around and do nothing are boring.

It might be an obvious, axiomatic statement to make, but that still hurt to hear, Winry. That still hurt. You were so warm & compassionate, but then you go and say something so cruel, judgemental & heartless like that. Why is society so contemptuous of the idle? Even in anime you can't escape hearing this sort of bullshit. Seriously though, why do writers throw lines like these in anyway, when considering that a good portion of the audience are impotent, or otherwise detached, men who can't do anything, but sit around doing nothing? Just feels like an insulting cheap shot is all, flipping off the viewer like that right at the very end. Reminds of that time everybody got upset at that one "Mighty No. 9" trailer for pulling what was relatively the same shit.

Anonymage 01/14/20 (Tue) 16:06:20 No.32406

>>32405
I prefer the divergent story of the original anime that culminates in the Conquerer of Shamballa movie.

Anonymage 01/14/20 (Tue) 22:46:20 No.32407

>>32406

I've seen some others say the same thing. I've actually never watched the original anime, but perhaps I will at some point, since it'd be interesting to see a different, potentially better take on the ending, as opposed to the rather lackluster & spineless one we see in the manga/brotherhood.

Anonymage 01/15/20 (Wed) 00:08:25 No.32408

>>32406
It's awful, way worse than the manga ending.
>>32405
It's a shounen adventure series. For some reason people seem to really misunderstand FMA and think it's a Shakesprian tragedy or something. It's at least satisfying on a plot level which is more than what most anime get.

Anonymage 01/16/20 (Thu) 03:08:58 No.32419

>>32408

Fair enough. FMA:B is the first shounen series I've watched since I was a kid. I was just hoping it wouldn't end like a typical shounen would and, despite the fact that it did, although not very surprising considering its genre, was still somewhat disappointing, when considering some of the decidedly non-shounen themes of what you see prior in the story, or even just the non-shounen nature of the setting itself (alternative fantasy version of Nazi Germany, genocide and all). Either way, people in general seem to describe FMA:B as being the more straightforward shounen of the two, with FMA being more a lot more focused on the grim themes of the plot itself, which I find to be a far more interesting alternative than, "Main character beats up teh bad guy and saves teh world. Everybody then happy forever, teh end.".

As a random aside, I really fucking hope Berserk, assuming it ever gets an ending, doesn't end up like this. Abandoning all of its compelling themes for an empty, bombastic & schmaltzy conclusion. The fact that it's already long slid into shounen territory is enough to essentially confirm that it will, which is really quite sad.

Anonymage 01/18/20 (Sat) 13:59:41 No.32435

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File: 1579355980583-1.png (2.37 MB, 1920x1080, 16:9, 789247598247.png) ImgOps iqdb

-Aku No Hana-

Seems like a lot of people hated this one, but I didn't mind it. Had nice atmosphere and I felt like it it was superior in both that and some other ways as well when compared to the manga. Soundtrack was good too. The rotoscoping didn't really bother me that much and I actually appreciated it for being something different and the fact that it sorta felt more appropriate for the nature of the story. Damn shame there will never be a conclusion to the series and that tease at the end of all the scenes they didn't get to yet just depressed me. It's weird because based on the tease it looks like it's already finished. I wonder if it's just sitting on some hard drive somewhere, or something. Apparently the series sold less than 300 blu-rays, or something like that, which is a pretty crazy flop, I must say.

Anonymage 01/18/20 (Sat) 22:42:44 No.32436

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File: 1579387363820-1.jpg (553.12 KB, 1920x1080, 16:9, Blame! Movie 2017.mkv_snap….jpg) ImgOps iqdb

>>32435
>Damn shame there will never be a conclusion to the series
Manga has finished the story…
There's not much to be said about Wolf's children. "Mother's day movie" I'd call it. There was nothing bad/annoying about it which makes it a solid 7/10.

BLAME! sponsored by netflix(tm) was decent too. I have no prior knowledge of the story and movie managed to make everything necessary understandable.
There is a theme connecting this movie with other anime like "succubi last tour", "matrix", texhnolyze, Angel's egg,

>>32131
let me upvote this and add this little mad theory https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAbNtzK9Qa4

Anonymage 01/19/20 (Sun) 01:55:43 No.32446

>>32435
both the anime adaptation and the live action were unnecessary

Anonymage 01/19/20 (Sun) 01:56:07 No.32447

>>32436

>Manga has finished the story…

That's not what I meant. To be more clear, the actual TV series itself will never reach the conclusion of the story outlined in the manga, which I still consider to be a shame.

Really I would've been satisfied if they'd gotten to the point where they both try to kill themselves in front of everyone. Everything after that what was just disappointing/lame and I didn't much care for it. Kasuga's further, bordering on soap opera like, relationshit problems, post time skip, were just boring as hell, especially without Nakamura in the story. On that note, I found the wordless montage ending and Nakamura's fate to both be quite unsatisfying, even if it is somewhat realistic & fitting when it comes to the latter. The fact that she just becomes what is essentially a subdued ghost living with her mother and that she'll spend the rest of her days alone, dissatisfied and unable to find solace in anything, turned out to be way more depressing a turn of events than if she had just simply killed herself, or whatever. The last glimpse we see of her during the montage making up with her dad just seemed like the author desperately trying to give her some sort of "closure event", even though it's clear how little that would've mattered to her in the first place, so it just comes off as forced. The final chapter showing things from Nakamura's perspective was fantastic, though.

Anonymage 01/21/20 (Tue) 09:53:02 No.32460

>>32446

The TV series had merit and was even better than the manga in some respects, but the live action film was, I agree, completely unnecessary. Especially since the TV series was already live action in a sense anyway, what with the use of rotoscoping over real actors and all that. As a result, it's kinda hard to classify it as an anime in the traditional sense of the word.

Anonymage 01/21/20 (Tue) 12:11:58 No.32461

>>32460
there was no need for an adaptation for Aku no Hana since the series was already heavily inspired by an actual movie, Moonlight Whispers. Then again it was Oshimi Shuzo first 'serious' work

Anonymage 01/28/20 (Tue) 14:59:51 No.32501

File: 1580223591557.jpg (63.41 KB, 500x348, 125:87, 2dbbf696a30a14d60c0597b797….jpg) ImgOps iqdb

finished ping pong the animation
art and animation was genuinely atrocious, the story and characters were ok, as for the games of ping pong themselves, I guess I can appreciate how it's got more nuance than your typical sports anime, but on the whole it was serviceable but, I'm going to have to ask for an explanation from someone who thinks it's some masterpiece, because I do not get it, at all

Anonymage 01/31/20 (Fri) 16:59:48 No.32514

>>32501
the art and animation are considered extremely good by both non weebs and sakugafaggots, so your assessment is already a nonstarter

Anonymage 01/31/20 (Fri) 17:00:34 No.32515

DARLING in the FRANXX

I will give the show this, it managed to keep my intrest all the way throughout despite having several things I normally would have disliked. And talk about character development. Every single character is miles away from the person they started as compared to the end, yet they did it super well throughout.
There were a lot of times where I wasn't sure I liked the direction things were heading, but it always managed to save it's self from the pitfalls that many other shows have made when trying to do similar things.

That said, I ain't a masterpiece by any metric and some of the choices they made didn't totally work for me.

Overall it was a enthralling ride and I am glad I watched it. Didn't like the mecha designs at all though. It didn't hamper my enjoyment of the show, but it still bothered me.
Would recommend if you aren't bothered by heavy themes of romance and romance related drama.

Anonymage 02/08/20 (Sat) 08:36:18 No.32553

File: 1581150977776.jpg (105.4 KB, 713x789, 713:789, ham-2020-02-04-02h21m39s65….jpg) ImgOps iqdb

finished charlotte,i loved it for the most part but i hated the fact that it took a somewhat interesting MC and changed it into generic retard
watching how many pussy main characters we've had recently makes me love berserk and hokuto no ken even more
it had a stupid ending that could have been avoided easily if the MC was actually smart and more manly
but to be fair,he's still a high school kid and keeping that in mind was the only reason i didn't drop it

Anonymage 02/10/20 (Mon) 21:01:58 No.32560

>>32553
I remembering loving the first episode of that show and then becoming rapidly disappointed with how they explored that concept further.

Anonymage 02/12/20 (Wed) 19:08:24 No.32567

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I watched the movie Da Yu Hai Tang, also known as Big Fish & Begonia. It is a chinese animated movie and I watched it with chinese audio. Here are my thoughts:

WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH THE CHINESE?
*ahem*
sorry, I had to get that out of my system.

Anyway, if I could describe this movie in one word it would be "strange." This movie is very strange. It involves a lot of supernatural and mythical themes. It makes me think of the absurd fables that are part of ancient mythologies, such as Greek or Indian mythology. This movie feels like a strange illogical fable straight out of some ancient mythological belief system. In fact, the movie apparently does draw on some themes from chinese mythology. It could be that my complete lack of knowledge in that area impeded my understanding of the story.

Visually, it looked pretty good. Animation quality was high. There were lots of strange creatures too which were entertaining to watch. This movie doesn't really look like anime both in terms of art style as well as the animated movement itself. The animation style feels more like western animation, despite its chinese origin. This felt like a demented Pixar film to me. It's worth noting that I am quite sick right now and I watched this with a fever which probably amplified the delirious feeling of the movie.

The story itself was quite incoherent and often rushed. Many things were unclear in terms of plot as well as character motivations. I spent most of the movie confused about what was happening. Both the writing and execution of the plot are the weakest aspects of this movie. The exposition during the first half of the movie was also quite rushed and left me confused before the plot even really kicked in. My confusion continued to compound as things progressed.

Audio in this was really good. Audio production quality was high. The soundtrack was very good. There were some really nice chinese vocals that played during the ending credits as well.

My overall rating: 6/10

I'm searching for a copy of the soundtrack and I'd be grateful if anyone could point me in the right direction. It's not on Nyaa.

Anonymage 02/13/20 (Thu) 06:06:45 No.32568

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just saw angel densetsu,i can't believe it didn't get a second anime adaptation after all these years
it's really funny and heartwarming and as someone with an ugly face i felt relatable to the MC
i'm gonna read the manga soon

Anonymage 02/14/20 (Fri) 19:41:20 No.32572

Just finished the first season of Kakegurui. I liked it but it was annoying how many of the games were completely games of chance that only became interesting because of cheating and even then they still required major asspulls to accomplish.

Anonymage 02/16/20 (Sun) 06:50:00 No.32579

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>>32567
read this for some chinky goodness

Anonymage 02/16/20 (Sun) 08:22:34 No.32581

>>32568
Just downloaded and watched it. Pretty good.

Anonymage 02/16/20 (Sun) 10:03:26 No.32582

File: 1581847405827.jpg (19.37 KB, 400x300, 4:3, 10.jpg) ImgOps iqdb

>>32501
If this one is considered a top notch drama then "Ping Pong Club", which I just finished, is probably to be considered equivalent toilet humor.

>>32581
>>32568
Saw this one recently as well, his facial expressions were brilliant, had many laughs

Anonymage 02/21/20 (Fri) 00:06:52 No.32628

File: 1582243612325.jpg (529.47 KB, 1280x720, 16:9, [HorribleSubs] GATE - 02 [….JPG) ImgOps iqdb

>when a nation gets so badly curbstomped 80 years ago that they take out their frustration by mowing down medieval armies with machineguns and missiles in a fictious setting
Gentlemen, I give you GATE.

Anonymage 02/25/20 (Tue) 14:44:42 No.32660

File: 1582641881935.jpg (62.91 KB, 640x480, 4:3, weeszaq.jpg) ImgOps iqdb

finished school rumble,i was in the mood for some basic slice of life anime and this felt perfect for that,it's cute,hilarious and i was really invested in the development of the story even when it feels random
the characters are generally likeable but the anime doesn't give anyone closure,the last episode served as cliff hanger for the next season
also Harima reminded me a lot of madao

Anonymage 02/25/20 (Tue) 15:27:26 No.32661

>>32628
Couldn't stand an episode of it after reading the reviews.

Anonymage 02/25/20 (Tue) 22:41:15 No.32662

>>32628
My sister told me about the show, each detail I kept asking if it was like Time Slip (aka G.I. Samurai; Time Slip: The Day of the Apocalypse (Sengoku Jieitai)) where at first the superior tech overwhelmed the medieval tech of the samurai but eventually they developed counter measures and started to give the modern solders are super hard time, because part of the mesage of the film was about how people of today have lost the samurai fighting spirit and ingenuity of the past. Or I Want To which was more about how power of such weapons would change the political balance of the area and how the military men would likely be in over their head and likely used, thus making a commentary on politics and conformity.
She was like "nope, they just machine gun everything with barely any problems or challenge, it is just really pathetic propaganda for the self defense force or something, lol"
So I never got around to watching it because while the I though the premise could have been super cool the actual execution has nothing I found interesting. I wanted tactics, politics, and the touching of the stuff that fantastic and military nerds argue about for fun (like what kind of equipment is best suited to take on certain fantasy monsters, what magic spells would dramatically change battle outcomes if used against a traditional modern force, asymmetrical warfare tactics with wild cards like dragons or magic rather then ied and RPG. ) but nope, show had none of that. It has no greater commentary or bigger thing to say then being a shitty power fantasy. Don't get me wrong, I do like power fantasies, but I expect them to have enough other things going for them to keep me invested.
Hopefully someone makes something with a similar consent but is actually good instead.

Anonymage 02/26/20 (Wed) 17:14:11 No.32665

>>32662
>Or "I Want To"
I'm not having any luck searching for that. It sounds interesting. Please help.

Anonymage 03/01/20 (Sun) 00:49:31 No.32687

>>32665
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083050/

I watched it on vhs so I don't know any download or streaming links though.

Anonymage 03/01/20 (Sun) 02:52:25 No.32688

>The Master of Ragnarok & Blesser of Einherjar

Heard it was total garbage so my expectations were low.
It wasn't good, and on a technical level when it comes to the animation it is actually somewhat bad, but overall it wasn't anywhere near as bad as some people have made it out to be. For the most part it is a ok, though probably forgetable show and I don't really feel like I wasted my time in watching it. It had brisk pacing and got right into the action so I was never bored, and while almost everything was super cliche it had just enough unique elements to prevent it from being totally stale.
While I wouldn't recommend it, it really ain't that bad. It doesn't deserve all the hate it gets.

Anonymage 03/01/20 (Sun) 12:19:18 No.32690

>Goblin Slayer

Was expecting a edgy grimdark over the top shock fest but instead got a well made d&d campaign about a dude slowly getting over his PTSD through killing a fuck load of goblins and forming human connections with his party and towns people.

Pretty good actually. Had my doubts in the beginning but the way many of the characters developed was great. Highly recommend.

Anonymage 03/01/20 (Sun) 18:46:51 No.32691

>Demon Lord, Retry!

I will get the bad out of the way first. The show had a low budget and the animation clearly suffered because of it.
Now that that's out of the way I loved the show. It is refreshing to have a grown ass man as the MC and overall I pretty much like everything about it other then that animation. I really hope it gets a second season but I won't count on it since the reception wasn't great.

Anonymage 03/02/20 (Mon) 01:42:33 No.32692

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I finished Akagi.
For those who don't know it its about Mahjong. Akagi was a character from the manga Ten, who got a spinoff due to its popularity. Its creator Fukumoto is more famous for his Kaiji though.

I remember going into Akagi after finishing Kaiji (which I discover due to one of those dialogue screencaps roaming in imageboards, I believe many people get into Kaiji through those). I was interesting in mahjong as Kaiji anime ended when manga chapter about Mahjong started. So I thought I would give an Akagi a shot.
I couldn't understand most of it. Yes you can watch and finish it without knowing mahjong and both the anime and fan translation tries to explain the game. I did enjoy it but cut it at 3rd episode. This was 6-7 years later.
I began to mahjong due to the game mahjong soul. This time I really learned the game, and then watched Akagi. It was a lovely experience.

I also like the character very much. He doesn't have too many dialogues and you know he is going to win every challange. Most of his dialogues are about how his enemies dont risk everything or how he know their weakness etc.
But you can also see glimpses of his view on life itself, in some lines in anime but especially in manga. He really really really wants to live life in his own terms. I understand this seems a bit cliche but I felt connected to him a lot. Besides being god at mahjong akagi is not that special, he can also be seen as immoral at some times. Still..

From Kaiji I learned that your life is worth based on how hard you are willing to fight it. From Akagi I learned I own my life and I owe rest of the world nothing.
What a great anime and what a great character.

Also, I find it amazing how the anime is almost 15 years old. Was released in 2005, to think -15 from 2005 is 1990…Man I'm getting old.

Anonymage 03/02/20 (Mon) 16:40:35 No.32694

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I watched Hidan no Aria and its spinoff series Hidan no Aria AA. Thoughts on both series provided below.

Hidan no Aria:
I remember some of the action scenes were kind of cool. Art style was bland but the animation was okay. The OP and ED songs were both great.

Otherwise it was complete trash. I mean literally textbook garbage as far as the medium goes. All the things that people say they hate about anime? This series exemplifies most of them. It's an action harem series where the main character gets power ups by becoming sexually aroused. I can enjoy/tolerate a ton of otaku pandering, but this show was trash even by my very low standards. The plot was also completely ridiculous and involved one of the female characters being the descendant of Sherlock Holmes or something. The characters were 'elite' crime-fighting high school students (of course) with bulletproof school uniforms. I have nothing against ridiculous stories/premises either, don't get the wrong idea; this anime was just simply terrible.

Anyway, I somehow watched every episode. When I was finished I rated it 2/10.

It should be noted that I watched the original series sometime around 4 years ago, so it's possible that, unbeknownst to me, I'm forgetting important details or that my tastes have changed over time (this is why I write my thoughts down now). That said though, I distinctly remember this particular anime as being one of the most ridiculously bad shows I ever actually watched to completion.

Hidan no Aria AA:
This is basically a yuri spinoff with a succubus replacing the self-insert male MC of the original series. I will watch pretty much anything with yuri in it and this is no exception. This spinoff is made by Doga Kobo instead of J.C. Staff who made the original series.

This spinoff is just as cheesy as the original, albeit in a more endearing way due to the all-female cast and softer tone. Again, the art style is bland but the animation is okay. I like both the OP and ED songs, although the actual OST is totally forgettable. Both this and the original series have a yandere character whose antics are kind of funny. There are plenty of cute succubus-succubus moments. This spinoff is cuter than the comparatively more ecchi original series.

Despite the negativity expressed thus far, this spinoff wasn't completely awful. The plot is totally (endearingly?) corny, and at least it is coherent and not rushed. The characters aren't great, but they're not unlikable either. Actually, I would say character interaction is a (relatively) strong aspect of this anime. The senpai-kouhai relations are super cute. Additionally, the yuri elements combined with the combat action theme is at least somewhat unique and at times enjoyable.

For me, the spinoff is within the threshold of 'so bad it's good' territory, whereas the original series is beyond any kind of redemption.

Actually, this spinoff is pretty funny as well. There are a lot of comedic scenes, mostly revolving around yuri fanservice.

I like Aria's hairstyle. Twintails are pretty! I liked Aria's personality a lot more in the spinoff too. Wow Aria is such a cool senpai!!

Rating for the spinoff Hidan no Aria AA: 5/10
It was adequate shut-my-brain-off-and-drool-at-the-screen material.

Anonymage 03/02/20 (Mon) 17:54:52 No.32695

Probably the end of my anime binge
>Uchi no Ko no Tame naraba, Ore wa Moshikashitara Maou mo Taoseru kamo Shirenai
(aka If It's for My Daughter; I'd Even Defeat a Demon Lord;)

Totally adorable show with interesting lore and wholesome fatherly feels.
At least that is what I though until I found out that the light novel goes in the same direction as the last thing that I found heartwarming with wholesome fatherly feels. So despite me wanting to know more about the lore of the show I don't want a second season.
Seriously japan, this is why we can't have nice things.
Still the show on it's own is very nice and very comfy.

Anonymage 03/02/20 (Mon) 18:01:55 No.32696

>>32695
>until I found out that the light novel goes in the same direction as the last thing that I found heartwarming with wholesome fatherly feels.
Let me guess, usagi drop?

Anonymage 03/02/20 (Mon) 18:03:39 No.32697

File: 1583172219006.jpg (38.35 KB, 480x270, 16:9, zegapain.jpg) ImgOps iqdb

Finished Zegapain, maybe fans of stuff like NGE, RahXephon, Brainpowerd will appreciate it a bit more. The post apocalyptic Matrix story concept is quite intriguing but the way they chose to execute the story took away a lot of its great potential. 6/10, and that's being generous.

>>32692
>>32694
Nicely written reviews, wizs. Recall downloading Hidan no Aria by mistake when looking for martian gondolier Aria, gave it 4/10 at the time, which was very low considering my reference level wasn't as high back then and the tolerance for bs higher.

Anonymage 03/02/20 (Mon) 18:36:16 No.32698

>>32696
Yup.
I really need to learn to stop reading the comments so I don't find out about things like this and remain blissfully ignorant.

Anonymage 03/02/20 (Mon) 18:41:01 No.32699

>>32698
I mean if you didn't read the comments then you'd just keep going and find out first hand anyway.

Anonymage 03/02/20 (Mon) 18:48:32 No.32700

>>32699
You are probably right…

Anonymage 03/03/20 (Tue) 17:08:20 No.32705

>Maoyuu Maou Yuusha

Was really good. I love anime that dive into sociology-economics of fantasy worlds. Also surprisingly wizardly. The two virginal leads kinda get married in the first ep but they don't even so much as kiss despite living together for months
Really wish it was longer or got a second season or something. It really deserve 24 ep rather then the 12 it got, and I would have loved to watch the story continue but oh well. It was rather niche and it came out in 2013 so it is pretty unlikely to come out with any additional anime despite a few loose threads left hanging.
Because it was too short some of the stuff in the last few episodes felt rushed too.
Yeah, that is actually my only complaint about the show, it wasn't long enough and I want more. Kind of a telling complain to have, lol.

Anonymage 03/03/20 (Tue) 19:29:28 No.32708

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saw angel cop,i just wanted to watch some gore action anime from the 80s but i was surprised by how political it is,beside all the blood it's about corrupt goverments,japanese nationalism and jewsih plan to control the world
it also seems that it had a big influence on ghost in the shell

Anonymage 03/04/20 (Wed) 18:21:39 No.32710

File: 1583346099324.jpg (16.82 KB, 215x234, 215:234, nanoha.jpg) ImgOps iqdb

Lyrical Nanoha
Traditional mahou shoujo show, values friendship and everyones well being, despite the difference in genre it reminds a lot of Kaleido Star. I liked the magic-technological fusion gear they sported and the robotic engrish the staffs gave off when switching functions. A very average 5.5/10

Anonymage 03/04/20 (Wed) 21:58:54 No.32714

>>32708
Peace is my all time favourite female character.

Anonymage 03/05/20 (Thu) 18:26:09 No.32718

>Campione!
Cheesy harem nonsencse.
Has some of the most over the top hardcore kissing I have ever seen in a anime, but other then that it is pretty forgettable. Generally wouldn't recommend, but if you have low standards for these kind of shows then it's watchable.

Anonymage 03/06/20 (Fri) 21:16:08 No.32725

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>>32718
Library War
Takes place in some sort of Orwellian inspired society with different factions supporting censorship laws contra freedom of expression, these factions wage war under some very peculiar set of rules. Main character is a female Naruto with her emotions all over the place. 6/10

Anonymage 03/07/20 (Sat) 21:38:01 No.32726

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I watched Magic-Kyun! Renaissance. Here are my thoughts.

Positive aspects:
>setting and atmosphere
>art style
>decent character insert songs with enjoyable scenes to accompany them
>sometimes romantic

Negative aspects:
>mediocre direction
>bland and somewhat unlikable characters
>bland plot

There are aspects of this anime that I really liked and appreciated, but my average level of enjoyment over time was moderate at best. Overall rating: 6/10

More detailed thoughts are provided below.

I thought this was an all-male idol anime prior to watching (did zero research before watching - had modest expectations because I usually like boy idols). The main character is actually an awesome succubus who is sort of a 'manager' for a group of male artists (i.e. it's a reverse harem show). I didn't realize she was a succubus until I heard the voices because her character design relative to the male cast is so androgynous. It's good that there's a female manager though because boys are REALLY DUMB, especially when they don't have a confident talented succubus to lead them.

I like most of the character designs. One petty complaint I have though is that the MC has this 'dopey' resting facial expression that makes her difficult to take seriously at times.

The setting is CUTE CUTE CUTE. Everything is super sparkly and amazing! The setting is like a girly fantasy world with lots of jewels and spirally staircases and stuff. A lot of detail went into it and it looked great. I definitely like the vibrant colour palette used in this anime.

If I was giving this series genre tags I would definitely classify this as shoujo. The tone of the series is quite girly, even moreso than the average boy idol anime. The MC is also very 'self-inserty', if that makes sense.

Okay animation quality.

I liked the music at first but unfortunately they play the exact same piano melody over and over again. There are character insert songs added into most episodes which are good and have pretty scenes to go with them. OP and ED songs are good too.

Mediocre direction. Moments that should be more emotional are underplayed, which is strange for a shoujo anime like this. Screentime also feels like it is often wasted on totally mundane and boring material. There were a lot of scenes revolving around preparing for the summer festival thing that felt like a drag to me.

Both the characters and plot are kind of bland and cliche.

There are romantic moments at times but it's difficult to get into due to the lackluster characterization. It's a cheap shallow kind of romance, like one would expect from a harem show. Most of the male cast is pretty cute, with some exceptions. Some of the male cast have kind of unlikable personalities as well (looking at you especially, MONET). That said, one aspect of the story is that the MC helps the boys with their flaws, so maybe it's unfair of me to fault the male cast for having personality issues.

The MC's jaw looks like she could literally crush boulders with it. Seriously I have no idea what they were thinking with her character design besides intentionally making her kind of homely so the intended audience can more easily self-insert. At least her hair is kind of pretty. She looks like an ogre got sent to a hair salon.

Despite all my criticisms of the anime, I think the overall franchise had promise and was underappreciated. The musical content is pretty good and the seiyuus even held a live concert, the previews of which look pretty good.

One final note: I'm searching for any music related to this franchise and I'd be grateful to anyone who could help me with that. I'm also searching for the full video release of the live concert. Lastly, I unfortunately have not seen the OVA because I could not find it anywhere.

Anonymage 03/07/20 (Sat) 21:43:16 No.32727

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>>32726

Anonymage 03/08/20 (Sun) 13:59:23 No.32736

>oredemo Sekai wa Utsukushii; Still world is Beautiful;

IT'S A TENDER RAIN!
It was a bit sappy at parts but was very nice and somewhat relaxing show. Liked the art style and character design. The main "rain song" gets a little old but other then that I don't have too many complaints. Overall was pretty good for a romance anime.

Anonymage 03/13/20 (Fri) 13:20:25 No.32754

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I just finished Kimetsu no Yaiba.
Pretty solid shonen, the animation is what truly elevates this work but it also helps that its pretty contained and doesn't meanders around. I really liked Tanjiro as a protagonist.
The one thing I truly disliked was Zenitsu. I hate when anime introduces these loud characters that do nothing but scream all the time because that's supposed to be funny.
Also I fell in love with Shinobu's design

Anonymage 03/13/20 (Fri) 17:21:27 No.32755

>>32754
Been thinking about seeing it, but does it have a proper ending?

Anonymage 03/13/20 (Fri) 17:35:32 No.32756

>>32755
Not really since the manga is still ongoing. It ends after one of the big manga arcs, but also teases the beggining of a new one.

Anonymage 03/17/20 (Tue) 10:18:31 No.32790

>>32755
the next arc, the Infinite Train arc, is getting animated as a feature film instead of a season 2.

Anonymage 03/18/20 (Wed) 10:46:48 No.32810

File: 1584528408264.png (1.78 MB, 1920x1200, 8:5, 1920-711150.png) ImgOps iqdb

I watched Amaama to Inazuma. Here are my thoughts:

The anime is mainly focused on a single widowed father and his kindergartenish age daughter. Cooking is the primary focus of the show and the bulk of each episode revolves around cooking in some way. This cooking theme is a major component of the anime's appeal, at least from my point of view.

I don't like the daughter character's voice actor. She sounds like she has food in her mouth or something. Really unnatural-sounding voice acting in her case. Otherwise, the show's audio is completely unremarkable.

Don't really like the character designs, although they appear to be accurate depictions of the manga art. Animation quality is okay and the art style is bland.

Emotional aspects of the show feel forced and artificial. The characters are quite bland and lacking in personality. Spuriously sentimental moments are often forcefed to the viewer in a way that feels crude and unnatural.

The main characters are literally imbeciles. To the point that it's both unbelievable and infuriating. Actually, none of the characters are particularly likable.

I did appreciate that there was sometimes considerable detail shown in the cooking processes. At the same time though, the most detailed scenes were often the most frustrating because the incompetence of the characters was illuminated to an even greater degree. For example, there was one otherwise okay episode where the characters randomly are gifted fish which was freshly caught off a pier from a stranger on a hot day. The characters gut the fish and proceed to eat it as sashimi on impulse, and even feed some to the ~6 year old daughter character. No sanitation or deep freezing procedures are used to eliminate parasites, so it's fairly dangerous, particularly for a child. I used to eat freshly caught fish raw too IRL before I learned how stupid it was. Anyway, this is just one of many examples where my enjoyment is compromised by the idiotic behaviour of the characters. Generally speaking I'm quite permissive in this regard when it comes to anime, and I'm not the type to ever complain about 'realism', but still the constant incompetence of the characters was off-putting to me. It was well beyond the realm of endearing and deep into annoying territory.

Aside from the kind-of-unique premise, this anime does not bring a lot to the table. It doesn't take any risks, yet still it doesn't do anything particularly well. Nothing about it is particularly noteworthy. It's not terrible; I still watched the entire thing. It's just an unremarkable mediocre anime mainly focused on cooking. I like cooking, so from my subjective point of view it was still watchable. It was nothing more than something to fall asleep to at the end of the day.

Overall rating: 5/10

My initial impression was that this anime had some promise but it ended up just being totally mediocre. Disappointing.

Anonymage 03/18/20 (Wed) 10:48:38 No.32811

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>>32810

Anonymage 03/19/20 (Thu) 02:51:24 No.32856

>>32810
oh hey I watched that a while ago, it was kind of ok to relax at the end of the day but yeah it wasn't anything great
I liked the other blonde succubus that sometimes would help them

Anonymage 03/19/20 (Thu) 13:51:13 No.32861

>>32856
I remember someone here posting about it maybe a year or so ago.

Just because I was lukewarm on it doesn't mean others can't like it. Don't let my subjective opinion tarnish your memory.

Personally I thought Udon no Kuni was a much better 'single dad anime'.

Anonymage 03/21/20 (Sat) 11:19:24 No.32946

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I just finished watching Babylon. I got interested once I read that it's based on a biblical character from Revelations.
I don't want to talk much about the technical aspects because the animation and soundtrack was pretty forgettable.
The first arc and the second arcs were good enough to keep you hooked up with occasional twists and shocking moments. It's the final arc that shat on everything that the first two arcs built on.
I think the main reason I feel frustrated is because I'm not exactly sure what the anime wants to convey. It started with "Should suicide be legalized?" and then the author got his head up inside his ass and lost track of himself.

Anonymage 03/29/20 (Sun) 07:41:33 No.33009

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>>32946
I just finished watching Id: Invaded.
Technical aspects first. The anime was good to look at and was well animated with occasional lazy animation that flare up during action scenes. The character designs are good except for the outdated unfunny joke of using a 23yo succubus that looks like a 12yo with a fat ass.
The soundtrack was forgettable and they looks like they felt the need to use english background tracks to appeal to the funimation audience. The OP and ED was bad and completely worth skipping.
The anime pretty much ripped off ideas from Inception mostly, source code and the other popular police procedural anime like GitS and Psycho-Pass. To someone who hasn't watched Inception this would be groundbreaking but the Inception ripoff, including some plot points make it a really distasteful experience.
For me the twist was really bad. I hated the fact that The serial killers were incited into becoming serial killers, so they weren't technically in the wrong so that the audience don't feel bad for supporting the two serial killers who form a part of the main cast. Lazy excuses.
I'm also tired of the evangelion shit that the directors felt compelled to include in. Why must all anime shout out to evangelion? Just do something original instead.
Why must every anime I see these days start strong and end up being a massive disappointment?
3/5

Anonymage 04/02/20 (Thu) 09:41:29 No.33044

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just finished keep your hands off eizouken,it's as beautiful as i expected it to be.it's about 3 high school succubi trying to make anime while learning the principles of animation and being under budget
i don't personally care about creating anime but much like ping pong the animation,masaaki yuasa turns whatever he touches into a colorful adventure that you can't help but enjoy

Anonymage 04/02/20 (Thu) 09:52:05 No.33045

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>>33044
i also saw
>toradora
this has has been on my watchlist for years so i decided to give it a try,i didn't like it at first because i don't like tsunderes but i got used to it and i enjoyed it a little more as the story progressed,the good thing is it doesn't end on a cliff hanger but an actual finale
>apocalypse zero
this is basically a junk food of 90s gore anime,it has it all: nudity,stupid plot,world ending and a lot of blood
i recommend it if you're into that

Anonymage 04/02/20 (Thu) 23:11:03 No.33049

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I have finished Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion.
Shinji is disgusting asuka best succubus.
Really I didn't expect it to be this good, well the first 24 episodes the last two were repetitive to me.
The movie was better, in the way of the animation, otherwise, story telling was again try hard, though I liked it better than episodes 25-26.
Overall a decent anime, I might watch all of it.

Anonymage 04/02/20 (Thu) 23:50:25 No.33050

>>33049
The rebuilds are kinda bad. Go for 1.11 and 2.22 if you just want more eva, but stay away from 3.33.

Anonymage 04/10/20 (Fri) 01:15:03 No.33097

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>>33050
Agreed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRMkOY9OrbU

Anonymage 05/07/20 (Thu) 11:14:09 No.33285

Ergo Proxy
This one pains my heart seriously. Because it had the potential to become a 10/10 easily but ruined it by over-the-top arthouse stuff and bad storytelling. Felt like I was watching End of Evangelion during certain episodes. It didn't help I had to look up fan-theories and comments about what actually happened, especially in the last two episodes. It isn't art to tell the story as confusingly as you can and with as little information as possible, really.
But now, the good stuff. This anime is at its prime mostly in the filter episodes or episodes that aren't especially relevant to the main plotline. Episodes like Hideout, Wrong Way Home, Ophelia, Busy Doing Nothing and Eternal Smile were some of my favorites. I liked the main characters, Vince was kind of boring and Re-l was often mean but they were ok. My favorite was Pino, guess I'm not alone in this. The plot while told messily, has some very nice twists and revelations in it like when you learn that the baby and succubus who died in the mall in ep2 were Raul's family and Pino was his autoreiv-daughter. The atmosphere was excellent, the music was good. The OP/ED are good choices, especially the OP is very addicting.
Overall? Excellent anime which could have been perfect if it was less pretentious at times, cut off on the existentialism and references to philosophy a little and focused more on a better way of storytelling. Oh yeah, forgot to mention: this is Gnosticism - The Anime basically. 8/10. Much better than your average anime, it is up there with Texhnolyze - Boogiepop Phantom - Evangelion for me, as far as dark-themed anime is concerned. But Texhnolyze is still my all time favorite anime.

Anonymage 05/07/20 (Thu) 14:40:05 No.33286

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>>33285
I thought almost the same about it. Aside from some standalone episodes I also liked the foreshadowing of later events, one of the few cases where I felt rewarded for paying attention. Pic related is one of my favorite scenes.

Anonymage 05/07/20 (Thu) 16:13:43 No.33287

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Just finished BNA. It was pretty standard trigger stuff, though it did have some plot twists I didn't see coming. The animation was okay, but didn't have the same energy stuff like KLK had. It was a lot more toned down. I don't really know what to make of the actual plot, there wasn't a whole lot of allegory going on beside some self determination themes. Overall I give it a 7/10.

Nazuna is too cute though, she definitely made the whole thing worth it for me.

Anonymage 05/07/20 (Thu) 21:25:50 No.33290

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I watched Yami no Matsuei, also known as Descendants of Darkness. Here are my thoughts:

This anime is basically a homoerotic supernatural anime about investigators of paranormal phenomena. The show has an interesting premise and a unique atmosphere. The protagonists are 'anti-heroes', which fits the theme. There are certainly some erotic moments. The plot itself though is quite dark and morbid.

Late 90s character designs and art style really suit the homoerotic atmosphere well. Although the animation itself uses stills a lot, stylistically the anime looked good.

Soundtrack was suitable. There was a fair bit of classical music, with plenty of violin and organ. I liked the use of choral music in particular. It definitely fit the atmosphere of the anime. That said, OP and ED songs were dreadful.

I'm kind of at a loss for words for evaluating this anime. It wasn't horrible but it wasn't that great either and I'm having trouble explaining why. Aside from the novelty of a homosexual horror story, the anime is mediocre. Maybe there's a decent story in here, but if so it's obscured by poor direction. Although I haven't read it, I imagine the manga does a better job fleshing things out. The premise of the show had a lot of potential, but the execution was disappointing.

The protagonists investigate/fight various supernatural threats. This can be cool and creative, but sometimes it also felt formulaic. It had kind of a monster-of-the-week-ish feel to it, which is a format I simply don't enjoy that much. Maybe I am biased in that regard. Sometimes the plot and character-focused stories felt incoherent, likely as a result of manga material being omitted from the adaptation.

Despite my criticisms, at the very least the uniqueness of the anime deserves appreciation. The style and atmosphere of the show are its most appealing elements, in my opinion.

Overall rating: 6/10

VERY wizardly though

Anonymage 05/07/20 (Thu) 21:29:42 No.33291

>>33290
Also, it seems like this show had a considerable western fanbase back in the 2000s. Putting the title into an internet search brings up a lot of old blogs and things like that.

For example:
http://www.comiku.com/hunters/art/wallpapers/ynm.html

kind of nostalgic.

Anonymage 05/13/20 (Wed) 13:00:41 No.33362

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I just finished texhnolyze
The only thing I have to say is that I'm sorry I wasted my time. It told less in 22 episodes than Lain did in 12.

Anonymage 05/13/20 (Wed) 20:40:12 No.33363

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>>33362
What did you think about Yoshii?

Anonymage 05/14/20 (Thu) 21:14:07 No.33370

>>33363
Yoshi was fine I guess but it was a little irritating to have him giving little cryptic messages on his master plan when in reality he was just killing people and inciting random chaos because he was bored. Sakimura was probably a better representation of a living human from the overworld. I also did not care much for most of the Yakuza part of the story, I only liked Hirota. Over all a lot of the riddles in the first 18 episodes had no connection to the ending and the ending itself, while pretty good, was not worth the rest of the series.

Anonymage 05/14/20 (Thu) 22:27:07 No.33371

>>33362
that's kinda the case for all those 25ish episode series

Anonymage 05/15/20 (Fri) 09:22:28 No.33375

>>33371
I'm finding as time goes on that anything longer than 25 episodes is really just padding for time. A good story is best told in 3-5 hours maximum.

Anonymage 05/15/20 (Fri) 12:12:45 No.33376

>>33362
I dont think you understood the story if you don't think the ending was related to all the previous episodes.
It's a very tight and well written story from start to finish.

Maybe google an explanation of the anime?

Anonymage 05/15/20 (Fri) 19:18:25 No.33377

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>>33286
I want a Pino.

>>33362
Not sure what you expected from it, Texhnolyze is a pretty straight cyberpunk anime with a dark atmosphere. Personally, it is my favorite anime ever because it dared to be different and I actually felt like it was made for adults or a mature audience, unlike most anime that is branded as "for adults".
Lain is a good above the average anime but it has nothing on Texhnolyze, or even on Ergo Proxy and Boogiepop Phantom. Or Evangelion for that matter.

>>33371
>>33375
I disagree. A long series format/long running time is excellent when the story and characters are good but it is hard to endure in cases of bad plot and characters. Longer anime or any kind of media has the advantage of making you love the characters very much, even the ones you kind of dislike, you can get way more emotionally invested in them than in short pieces of media, like OVAs or 13ep anime.

Anonymage 05/15/20 (Fri) 21:07:31 No.33378

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Finished watching Mushi-shi the other day. First anime I've watched in a while. All in all, pretty good and quite comfy to watch. I appreciated how it managed to maintain a pretty down to earth and laid back tone throughout the entire thing. The stories are also heartfelt/interesting while managing to avoid being convoluted or pretentious. Mononoke, which is a somewhat similar show, could get pretty hard to follow and up its own ass at times, but I still enjoyed both. Ginko is also a pretty solid and likeable protagonist. It'd be nice to be as calm, insightful, intelligent and aloof, yet also caring to others, as he is when it comes to life. He's basically everything I'm not and I found his usual go with the flow, cool as a cucumber demeanor to be a constant reminder of what a pathetic, hyper stressed wretch I actually am by comparison. Episode 7 really hit close to home for me, given the contrast between Ginko and Koro, especially during the scene when they're both sitting watching the rain together and Ginko schools him in what a confused mess he is and, by a certain extension, I am as well. Also, him feeling like a useless loser who can't do anything right and not having any talent or being able to find any real direction in life, versus Ginko who just does what he does and lives life in the moment and helps people when he can as he wanders around without becoming jaded or pessimistic, just like the rainbow. Also, the fact that Koro had an older brother who was more successful and talented than him was something that hit close to home as well. Of course, at the end of the episode he finds himself and becomes successful, but I guess that's the usual unrealistic cliche for this sort of thing.

Anonymage 05/15/20 (Fri) 21:29:37 No.33380

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>>33378
I also love mushishi. I didn't like the 2nd season as much though. I also relate to that, Ginko is one of my idols and I strive to be able to let go in the way that he does.

Anonymage 05/16/20 (Sat) 00:45:41 No.33384

>>33377
Boogiepop Phantom is excellent but Lain is far superior to both Texhnolyze and Ergo Proxy. Maybe I didn't understand Texhnolyze, but I don't think most people who shit on Lain understood it either. People get distracted by the aesthetics and religious themes and don't see the cautionary tale against letting internet memetics run the world. Lain is basically a human turned AI singularity who uses tactics similar to what website algorithms are doing in order to manipulate peoples perception of the world. As far as modern society is concerned, Lain is far more relevant than something like texhnolyze which discusses problems we will never even live long enough to deal with if we don't notice the problems depicted in Lain, and fast. The internet is rapidly taking control of the way the world works and will cause irreversible damage to society and civilization at large if we don't stop the madness of letting social media warp peoples perceptions and ideologies. For all intents and purposes, people of different worldviews now live in separate realities which have been created for them by websites catering to their beliefs in the content it recommends and the context in which it is presented. It's lightyears ahead of news networks who twist a story to gain views. Lain doesn't quite deal so directly with that, but rather the altered reality itself which, whether actual or metaphorical in lain, is a mirror of our own world in which reality has been replaced with a digital view of the world. I do not doubt the other shows have something more that I was missing, but what I did gather from them was substantially less important.

What I did gather from the show was the concept of accepting that one can fail absolutely. Total defeat, of everyone and everything you fought for, and understanding that such events may come to pass. This is, in my opinion, a very important thing to realize as an adult, but I had already learnt this before and seen it done better in other stories, which were substantially shorter.

As for getting invested in long running series, that's usually something that is only necessary to a childish mindset of needing familiar things to fall back on. Emotional investment for me has been far greater in short, poignant works that tell a concise and to the point story. Falling Down for example is less than 2 hours in runtime, yet evoked more emotion from me by the end than any anime except for the most masterful.

Anonymage 05/17/20 (Sun) 09:03:17 No.33396

>>33378
>>33380
If you feel like more of it, the live action movie is surprisingly decent.

Anonymage 05/17/20 (Sun) 09:12:59 No.33397

>>33378
Agree, it's my favorite anime. I will try Mononoke

Anonymage 05/21/20 (Thu) 18:04:30 No.33449

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>>33378

Finished watching Zoku Shou the other day, plus the OVAs/specials. Some episodes were a little dull and uninteresting, but overall I enjoyed it. The relaxing mood was still there and while the whole package was a little less memorable than the first season it was still pretty good. Too bad there's nothing else. Here's hoping they make a 3rd season someday and that it's as good as the first 2.

>>33396

I watched that too, just after Zoku Shou, and I have to say that I didn't much care for it. The visuals were good and the beginning was alright, but everything after Ginko gets to Tanyuu and Tama's place was just a complete mess. The ending felt especially sudden and stupid. Almost as if they didn't know what else to do so they just went, "lol, whatever. you can roll the credits now". They really botched what could've been an interesting take on Nui and Ginko's relationship. Ginko regaining his memory and reuniting with Nui could've been a really neat premise, but it was completely wasted. Like I said, everything after Ginko absorbs the Tokoyami was just downright awful. Past that point it's just Koro lugging him around everywhere with basically nothing happening whatsoever. And what was with that ending? Who was that guy looking after Nui and why was he yelling like a crazy person for no reason? I assume he was kidnapping and killing kids for Nui that looked like Yoki for whatever reason? And then Ginko, after finally meeting Nui again, just randomly drops her in the woods and leaves? "Here's a little special water to keep the mushi away Nui. K thx bai." That's it? Nothing else? Seriously? It was staggering how unsatisfying and terrible all that was.

I'll admit that the movie could've been way worse, but, even so, it still wasn't all that great. Surprisingly not unwatchable would be the way I'd describe it. To me, it really felt like they just took a handful stories from the anime/manga, cut them all up into pieces and then pasted them back together into what ultimately amounted to an incoherent mess.

Anonymage 06/01/20 (Mon) 22:36:08 No.33585

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I liked it. Was looking for something similar to Mushi-shi and remembered that this existed. Had some thought provoking episodes and, like Mushi, I enjoyed the laid back atmosphere. Kino also very much reminded me of Ginko, insofar as being a very stoic, care free traveler wandering from place to place and such. Kino definitely seemed a lot more indifferent than Ginko and possessed more of a bent towards non-interference, whereas someone like Ginko was usually pretty open and even sometimes quite forward about helping others whenever possible. Apparently there was a 2017 remake to this show, but I have no interest in ever watching it.

Anonymage 06/02/20 (Tue) 07:42:02 No.33590

>>33449
Those backgrounds, god damn, it's like an eye candy

Anonymage 06/02/20 (Tue) 17:40:08 No.33595

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>>33590
Here's some more, though I think these are fan works.

Anonymage 06/02/20 (Tue) 22:06:19 No.33599

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>>33590
>>33595

I actually have an entire folder of shots from the show, but I'd rather not dump the whole thing here. I think you can find albums on imgur, pr wherever, that have tons of similar shots taken from the show. Still, here's another 3 anyway.

Anonymage 06/04/20 (Thu) 10:02:26 No.33605

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I watched both seasons of Dream Festival. Here are my thoughts:

This is basically male Aikatsu.

Surprisingly good direction. Drama is handled well sometimes. At times there was definitely some 'forced drama' (forgive me for using this phrase), but it's a male idol show so I basically expected that. Forced drama and corniness comes with the territory (keep in mind the target audience demographic of this kind of show). I don't necessarily dislike forced drama but I will acknowledge it when I see it. In any case, the anime did a decent job of achieving the 'emotional rollercoaster' effect that I often enjoy in idol shows such as this.

Richer characterization than expected, especially with consideration for cast size. Most episodes had some element of character development within them, which is something I perceive as being a major strong point. The cast is fairly likable as well.

There was occasionally some shounen-ai subtext between characters, but it wasn't prominent. I would have expected more of that kind of thing from an anime like this actually. Not a negative or positive thing, just a neutral observation.

Idol songs themselves are good and the background OST is decent too. I notably enjoyed the voice acting of some of the characters (Yuuto and Chizuru).

Over-the-top tacky idol outfits, just like Aikatsu!

Warning: CG is used for the dance scenes.
The character designs are very simplistic, probably to make CG easier. Animation quality is serviceable at best. Art style is quite bland and lacking in detail. Visually, the production seems low budget.

Overall, this anime is surprisingly good for a low-budget low-viewership ONA associated with a video game.
My rating: 7/10

It did everything I'd expect from a male idol show and I felt satisfied with its performance. I wish there were more seasons. I would have rated this higher if the drama was executed a little better or if I liked the characters a little more; that's not to imply that the anime did poorly in either of those regards though.

I'm a huge sucker for idol shows that depict the more realistic/harder/behind-the-scenes aspects of working as an idol. This show does this fairly well, in addition to its other positive qualities. My expectations going into this were admittedly low, but I ended up being pleasantly surprised. I really like idol anime though so I might be biased.

Anonymage 06/07/20 (Sun) 13:01:40 No.33630

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Decided to watch this, since it's one of the few Ghibli films I hadn't seen before. Very well animated, as most Ghibli films are. Thought the story was going to be all about lovely dovey type stuff based on the title, but it actually has a bit more depth to it than just that. It actually has more to do with trying to find one's purpose in life and some stuff like that, but the romance angle is still there as well. I found myself pretty depressed after watching this to be honest, since it just made me think of things I'd rather not think about, like how I'm a lazy good for nothing that dead-ended their life into oblivion without ever even bothering to try for anything better, such as just trying to write a story from the heart for its own sake, or whatever, like the main character does. Still a good movie though, with some downright gorgeous animation and wholesome/heartwarming moments. It was hard not to smile when everybody is playing along together and the main character is singing their rendition of 'Country Roads', since it's such a lovely and comfy scene.

Anonymage 06/07/20 (Sun) 14:14:42 No.33631

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I watched Koukaku no Pandora, also known as Pandora in the Crimson Shell: Ghost Urn. Here are my thoughts:

The plot of this anime is borderline incoherent.

Poor animation quality with CG used in the action scenes. If I could describe the animation in one word it would be 'sloppy.' Much of it is out of proportion and off-model. In fact the entire production has a very low-budget feel to it. Maybe that is part of the charm though? Which leads me to my next point: this is a pretty fun show. It doesn't take itself seriously. It is completely ridiculous and self-aware of that fact, and as a result it is a pretty fun watch. It feels like some kind of yuri sci-fi fever dream.

Okay soundtrack. The music is unique but suitable for the show. Actually the audio production quality in this is okay overall (in stark contrast with the visuals). I liked the ED song and felt myself singing along to it. Voice acting had lots of variety among the cast with each character being very distinctive.

Very erotic at times. Without going into too much detail, I spent a lot of time rubbing my nipples thinking about hot digital cyborg intercourse with sensitive port connections and things like that.

Some neat sci-fi stuff in here. Most of it isn't explained well at all, but nevertheless it is very much a sci-fi series. The android main characters and their respective abilities were kind of neat. I liked the sci-fi elements in this, particularly with the cute silly spin on things.

Character interactions in this are really enjoyable. Nene and Clarion are great together. Takumi is also a funny character. Overall the cast is likable and cute.

In general the series feels very creative. This is not your modern design-by-boardroom commercial anime. It feels like artistic freedom was permitted liberally. Is it a masterpiece? No, but it is unique and creative, which is something that I value very much.

I really like the artistic vision and the spirit of this show. This anime is unique, fun, cute, and most importantly creative and authentic. However it is also somewhat poorly executed, mainly from a technical perspective.

My overall rating: 8/10
I really enjoyed watching this. Criminally underrated anime, in my opinion.

I didn't find out about this until after I finished watching the anime, but apparently the manga is written by the same person who created Ghost in the Shell.

I haven't been able to find the 'Pandoradio' specials anywhere, unfortunately.

Anonymage 06/10/20 (Wed) 22:48:22 No.33652

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I watched all 12 episodes of Time Travel Shoujo: Mari Waka to 8-nin no Kagakusha-tachi. Here are my thoughts:

I have very little to say about this anime. This is basically the Japanese equivalent of an educational TV show that a school teacher might throw on when they're feeling lazy or something. It literally aired on Saturday morning and is targeted to a child audience. I mainly just watched it while I was eating breakfast.

The educational focus of the show is on electricity and magnetism. There are various relevant experiments that get incorporated into the show, and there are also some short educational segments at the end of each episode. For me, the most amusing aspect of the anime was the incorporation of various western historical figures into the cast, like Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Edison. The use of these characters in an anime was entertaining enough to keep me watching.

Otherwise though, the anime was pretty bad. I mean, it's literally a kid's show. The plot was groan-worthy. The characters were very simplistic. The art style and animation were unremarkable. It seems perfectly fine as a kids' "edutainment" show, but for me personally it was bad.

My rating: 4/10

Worth it though to see Benjamin Franklin as an anime character. Lol.

Anonymage 06/12/20 (Fri) 00:37:54 No.33658

>>33652

hey there, tohno

Anonymage 06/12/20 (Fri) 20:36:33 No.33670

>>33658
I'm not Tohno you silly goose

Anonymage 06/12/20 (Fri) 21:40:29 No.33671

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I watched Drifters (12-episode season + 3 OVAs). Here are my thoughts:

Going into this, I expected it would be a very action-packed fast-paced show, but actually it ended up being fairly dialogue-heavy interspersed with some action scenes. This isn't a bad thing in my view because I don't care about action all that much, but it is something to be aware of.

Animation quality is good and the art style is creative. The art style makes heavy use of bold lines, particularly in the character animations. It kind of reminds me of American comics/graphic novels. I'm not overly impressed by it or anything, but at the very least it is unique, and I think it suits the series well. The action scenes look pretty good, although stills are used somewhat frequently. Voice acting and audio production quality are decent as well. OST is okay and suits the gritty atmosphere of the show.

The anime is filled with fighting and killing but it still feels very goofy to me. The premise is kind of ridiculous, and on top of that there is a fair amount of comedic relief. It's difficult to take seriously but that also means it's easy to watch casually. A lot of the humour is unfunny. The historical jokes, as you might expect, are very predictable. Most of the characters feel like caricatures, but given how over-the-top the rest of the series is, maybe it would be silly of me to expect that the characters not be equally as exaggerated. In any case, I would have preferred that the anime have a more serious tone and less comedy. At its best, the show has an atmosphere that is dark and gritty, which can be very captivating. Unfortunately, my immersion is often broken by the things mentioned here. One exception to the ongoing intrusive and unfunny comedy was the gay aristocrat character. He was genuinely hilarious and I often found myself laughing out loud when he was on-screen. The comedy itself wasn't always bad, the bigger issue was the timing and the way it interrupted plot-critical dialogue and scenes.

Despite the inappropriate comedic relief, the actual story is fairly interesting and engaging. Unfortunately, there are countless loose ends in the plot by the time the anime ends, leaving the viewer with the impression that they just watched a really expensive manga advertisement. This show has major issues with plot execution, even though the underlying story is promising.

Way too many characters. This is a common manga adaptation problem. Although I haven't read it, I'd wager that the manga is better. A single cour is too short for a story this complex and a character cast this large. Two cours (at least) would be much more suitable.

Overall rating: 7/10
Despite my criticisms, it was still entertaining.

People who like 'manly' anime with lots of grit and violence might enjoy this. For full enjoyment though, I think it's necessary to read about the history behind each character so that one can understand the frequent historical references in the show.

Yoichi is sexy as hell.

Apparently a second season has been supposedly confirmed for nearly 4 years now. If that does come to fruition then some of my criticisms may not apply or might at least be attenuated. In any case, it feels to me like they tried to cram far too many story arcs and characters into the show.

Breaking news: local high-budget anime gets ruined by poor direction! Stop the presses.

Anonymage 06/19/20 (Fri) 02:20:42 No.33722

I just finished shounen onmyouji. It was unfortunately not very good. This show suffers heavily from "deus ex grandpa". This is supposed to be the coming of age tale of a magical priest boy who is overshadowed by his famous magical priest grandpa, but the entire show he ends up being overshadowed/bailed out by his magical grampa so there is never any independence or tension. His grampa has 12 pet Gods who he sends to trail his grandson everywhere he goes and to provide backup when needed. He also watches him in a crystal ball and goes himself to provide help. The show makes no attempt to ever explain the system of magic in any way so there's basically no strategy in fights, they just mumble some gobbledegook chant and a beam comes out and smites the demons or whatever. Yawn. It happens a lot too, the show is mostly about fighting demons. It also has a pretty lame romance that is again, highly dependent upon help by his gramps to flourish. It was overly saccharine at times and one of the characters acted emo for stupid reasons the whole time. The ending was also fucking stupid for many reasons.

Anonymage 06/23/20 (Tue) 12:17:55 No.33740

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I watched Koutetsujou no Kabaneri. Here are my thoughts:

Remember that movie Snakes on a Plane? Well this is basically Zombies on a Train - anime edition. Wow I'm so funny.

I didn't expect to like this anime but decided to give it a fair chance. Apparently it was fairly well received in Japan, not that that means much. Anyway, I found it entertaining enough to watch to completion.

This is kind of a guilty pleasure 'junk food' show from my perspective. Like a two-star Hollywood trash movie that you impulsively throw on and don't plan to take seriously. Although that kind of feeling is sort of intangible, I'll try to be more specific. This anime is a zombie show with a cliche cast and storyline, and is clearly meant to appeal to a broad audience. They even released a mobile game to go with it.

In addition to being a TV series, the content was recycled into a movie trilogy. Although I watched the Blu-ray release of the TV series (+the post-TV sequel movie "Unato Kessen"), it certainly had a cinematic feel to it and a fast pacing that I'd expect in a movie.

This anime has a rich steampunk theme/setting. The setting is a strong point for sure and was one of my favourite aspects of the show. I thought the 'railforts' were pretty cool. Furthermore, a steampunk setting combined with zombies is definitely a winning combination. It's difficult to screw something like that up, I think.

Decent soundtrack. Very polished, although I would have liked to have seen more variety.

Visual production quality is solid. There is a fair bit of visual detail overall. Fight choreography is at times complex which makes the action scenes more entertaining. Character animations in general are nice. Cinematography is decent as well. I typically don't value action all that much, but the action scenes in this often looked pretty good.

My one petty complaint about the visuals are the eyes. Characters' eyes frequently appear to be crudely 'pasted' onto their faces in a way that appears unnatural and sloppy. The eyes have a lot of detail, but when they're carelessly pasted onto a character's face, say during an action scene where the rest of the character animation is far less detailed, it appears unnatural. Even during ordinary scenes, the highly detailed irises clash with the pencil-sketch art style of the rest of the character's face.

Plot is fairly predictable and stereotypical. I'm not the kind of person who automatically considers a stereotypical plot to be bad, but that kind of thing is dependent on the viewer. Execution is always more important from my perspective.

Characters frequently act like idiots just for the purpose of creating drama, which is a sign of lazy/poor writing in my opinion.

Apparently this is commonly criticized as being an Attack on Titan rip-off. I actually have not seen AoT but in any case I think that, for any kind of media, that kind of criticism is childish and unmeritorious. However, I think the AoT talking point alludes to something more meaningful, which is the fact that the series isn't particularly creative. It's a zombie thriller show, albeit with some unique mechanics and a somewhat refreshing setting.

The main character has a really unlikable personality, in my opinion. I'm having trouble coming up with the exact words to describe him. He's geeky but in an insufferable kind of way. His self-righteousness is groan-inducing. In fact, pretty much the entire cast is unlikable. The only exception is the lead female character, Mumei. She was cool and sexy, and her athleticism allowed for some great action scenes. This series was at its best when she was on screen. Otherwise though, characters are arguably the weakest aspect of the show. Most of the characters are either unlikable or totally bland.

Both the story and characters make the show feel as though it is targeted towards a teenage audience. This is not an objectively bad thing but still noteworthy.

Overall rating: 5/10

Seriously, the characters in this were terrible. My apathy towards the cast just made the sappy drama all the more eye-roll inducing (and I say that as someone with a very high tolerance for sappy drama). The story was Hollywood-tier. What kept me watching was the unique setting and the above-average visuals. Plus the fact that I was able to carelessly watch episodes of it without feeling any pressure to savour or appreciate it in any way, which is what 'junk food' shows are good for. I also sensed some potential in the earlier episodes which ultimately did not pan out.

Anonymage 06/25/20 (Thu) 16:08:59 No.33774

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I watched the animated movie Kono Sekai no Katasumi ni, also known as In this Corner of the World. Here are my thoughts:

The story takes place in the 1940s of WW2-era Japan. It is mainly told through the eyes of civilians.

Even though it was released in 2016, the movie feels very old. Everything about it: the art style, the music, the voice acting, the story; they are all reminiscent of early anime productions from the late 20th century. I personally am not a huge fan of anime from this era (speaking VERY generally), so I might be unfairly biased towards this movie. Furthermore, I usually shy away from WW2-era fiction because of how I've seen it done ad nauseam in western media. So I might be biased in this respect as well, although the perspective of a Japanese citizen is relatively less common in western works.

Characterization is one weak aspect of this movie. Despite the 2-hour runtime, characters are not adequately fleshed out or even properly introduced at all. Random characters are just thrown into plot-relevant scenes as if the audience is expected to know who they are. This issue is exacerbated by the blob-like same-face character designs and dull earthy colour palette, which makes individual characters not particularly distinct from one another.

Although I didn't like the character designs, the background art is often quite nice. It has an organic look to it in that it often appears hand-drawn/painted. I frequently paused the movie to admire the landscape frames.

The main focus is on female characters and it felt as though gender roles were a consideration in the writing. The lives of Japanese succubi during this time period are explored in various ways. A lot of screentime is spent on the various domestic duties performed by succubi (mainly the MC). I enjoyed this aspect of the movie, but this enjoyment was derived from cultural interest rather than the usual mechanisms through which one appreciates fiction, like emotional engagement.

Good audio production quality. However, I did not like the voice acting. The characters mumble constantly and it is difficult to discern the words. Additionally, there is often very little emotion in the voices. Maybe this was a deliberate artistic choice but in any case I did not like it.

This movie has major direction problems. It tries to be sentimental and emotional but instead watching it feels like I took too much cough syrup. I often felt confused by what was happening, particularly during the first half of the movie. Basic plot components are never explicitly explained. It seems like the movie wants to be 'show don't tell' but it does this very poorly. Even before events take place, foreshadowing could have been handled better. Additionally, the characters' behaviour never seems to match the situation. The whole series feels absurdly tone-deaf; if this is an intentional artistic choice then it is a poor one.

Despite my distaste for the WW2 context, the movie does provide a rich view of the daily life of Japanese citizens during this time. From a sociological perspective it is interesting. The movie is clearly meant to be some sort of social commentary, and the characters and plot are just tools with which to accomplish this task. It does a good job of presenting a historical cultural snapshot, but perhaps at the cost of sacrificing any actual emotional engagement with the characters themselves. Throughout the movie I did not feel anything for the characters despite the tremendous hardship that inevitably comes with the Japanese WW2 setting. Emotionally, it felt like I was watching a documentary. Even though the subject matter is tragic, it was still viewed with detached emotionless intellectual interest.

In my judgement, the only reason to watch this movie is if you are interested in Japanese culture and history. I satisfy that criteria and for that reason I watched the entire thing.

Overall rating: 3/10
I am shocked by the praise that this movie has received.

For the record, nothing I've written here is intended to trivialize the events of WW2; I am simply stating my personal evaluation of a work of fiction.

Footnote: I watched the original length movie, not the extended version. Maybe the extended version would have been more coherent. Also, apparently there was a live-action adaptation (unseen by me) of this released a few years before the animated version.

Anonymage 06/26/20 (Fri) 19:20:23 No.33781

I just finished Souten Kouro. I had been feeling put out by the mid-season cancellation of Kingdom S3 so I went searching for something similar. Souten Kouro really scratched that itch. It's got military campaigns set in ancient China. The MC was not your typical goody two shoes, he is more morally grey which was refreshing, but I feel like they made him a bit too perfect. The voice acting for Lu Bu was hilariously bad. I liked it overall but I wish it had an ending though. It literally ended on a massive cliffhanger and then just gave a few lines of text to say how the story ends.

Anonymage 06/26/20 (Fri) 20:47:23 No.33782

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I enjoyed it, if only for how high quality the first story is. Really wish it had just been the entire movie to be honest. The other 2 stories really didn't come close to matching it. The 2nd one had some nice set pieces, but was pretty goofy/dumb. The 3rd was just plain boring. Random aside, but I feel like that one character from the first movie, Heintz, looks extremely similar to some famous Russian person I've seen somewhere, but I'm not sure who. Maybe it's just that he just generally looks like how a cliched Russian soldier would look, or something. I don't know.

Anonymage 06/26/20 (Fri) 20:58:46 No.33783

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It was OK, I guess. Great scenery and atmosphere. Made it a very soothing experience to watch.

Anonymage 06/27/20 (Sat) 01:47:10 No.33784

>>33783
i recommend watching chris stuckman video on it

Anonymage 06/29/20 (Mon) 19:57:08 No.33791

I just finished The Grand Lord. This was some Chinese anime I'm pretty sure was made to market some video game. It was surprisingly not bad. It's kind of like pokemon + DBZ. They have fights with martial arts and magic skills and sometimes these animal familiars. They rip several things blatantly from western media like the eye of sauron. It drops you right in the action and keeps on going at a somewhat frantic pace, but I enjoyed that. Those Chinese sure do transmit information efficiently, you have to read the text very quickly. The animation was sometimes pretty terrible but watchable. It was kind of cookie cutter, but overall enjoyable enough to keep me watching until the end.

Anonymage 07/04/20 (Sat) 01:14:00 No.33824

I just watched the first two seasons of Kengan Ashura. It was one of the most fun shows I've watched in a while. I enjoy fighting tournament style shows as long as they're done well and this one was definitely done well. This was a really funny show. The CGI animation style nearly put me off it at the beginning but then I got used to it and I barely even noticed it by the end. The fight animation is at least good even if it is all CGI. The martial arts portrayed were pretty realistic even if the characters were super humanly overpowered.

Anonymage 07/05/20 (Sun) 11:39:17 No.33827

>>33826
Does it have any parallels to the rat catcher?
Titles like that always had me intrigued, been meaning to see Coppelion for the same reason.

Anonymage 07/15/20 (Wed) 13:20:47 No.33897

The Ancient Magus' Bride

I loved it. Something about the ending satisfied my soul. The whole thing is emotional but not in a cheap way and has a wonderful ascetic mixed with a contemplative pace and fanciful but grounded atmosphere that I adore.
It is easily in my top 10 favorite anime now.

Anonymage 07/21/20 (Tue) 18:45:39 No.33919

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I watched the anime movie Doukyuusei. Here are my thoughts:

Doukyuusei is about a homosexual romance between two male characters.

I don't have much to say about this because it's just a short movie. The main concern I had going into this movie was that it was only ~1 hour long. Unfortunately, my concern was justified.

The romance feels forced, partially as a result of pacing problems, but even moreso due to a complete lack of foreshadowing. Also, I find it difficult to engage with a romance story that has so little character development. Probably one saving grace for the movie is that the source material is fairly short as well, so it's not like a much longer story was crudely crammed into a short adaptation, as is often the case with anime. The movie felt slightly rushed, but it could have been much worse in this regard, so maybe I shouldn't complain.

The plot is fairly stereotypical and touches on a lot of the usual themes of same-sex relationship stories. It felt kind of fanfic-tier at times. It was all pretty standard fare for this kind of story. Emotionally, I didn't really feel much while watching. A short runtime with simple characters and a stereotypical plot just can't engage me all that much, usually. This is one of the reasons why I tend to shy away from movies and prefer TV series.

It's nice to see a canonically gay male relationship in anime. Like, with actual kisses and frequent displays of affection, instead of the usual noncommittal subtext that's often implemented just to pander to a vocal minority in some franchise fanbase. The affectionate moments of the movie are pretty cute. Although they're simple, the two main characters do have decent chemistry when interacting with each other.

As the title of the movies implies, the setting is an all-boys high school. Although it was kind of hot in my imagination, in reality the setting doesn't add much to my enjoyment, and actually just contributes to the bland feeling of the movie.

Animation quality and cinematography are okay for a movie. Art style was kind of organic and watercolourish, but with a muted earthy colour palette; it wasn't anything special. Similarly, OST and voice acting were both unremarkable.

My overall rating: 5/10

It wasn't really unique in any way besides being an overtly homosexual anime. There are a lot of cute moments, but ultimately they feel kind of hollow because of the bland writing and underdeveloped characters.

I think this anime might have attracted a disproportionate number of people from outside the usual anime fanbase, and was subsequently overrated by people for whom the content of this movie would be more novel.

Anonymage 07/22/20 (Wed) 15:58:16 No.33925

Last month I watched The Promised Neverland on YouTube (somehow).

Has that claustraphobic survivalist edge you'd expect from Battle Royale, albeit with wit in place of exploitation (or at least has the latter reduced to 5%). It's not too bad if you're willing to invest. 7/10

Anonymage 07/29/20 (Wed) 15:11:01 No.33994

>>33897
Finished the OVA
The Ancient Magus' Bride: Those Awaiting a Star
Was mainly a bit of backstory of the main character, which of course was sad and bittersweet, but still wonderful in it's own way.
I am a bit sad I won't be getting any more of this wonderful series.
Will probably watch it again next year to feed my soul.

Anonymage 07/30/20 (Thu) 14:29:40 No.33997

The succubus From the Other Side: Siúil, a Rún

Probably doesn't count as it is a 10 minute short but still it was quite moving despite not having a single line of dialog.
Love the art, the story, really just about everything about it.
Really worth a watch. And like I said, it is only 10 minutes so there is very little to lose.

Anonymage 08/01/20 (Sat) 13:40:50 No.34008

Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou (Demon King Daimao)

The pacing is lightning quick most of the time which really helps the humor style but really hurts the dramatic/action story beats, causing blink and you miss it style plot events driving the story forward.
Other then that it is just your standard but fun generic harem ecchi show with a protag that is super op but thankfully not totally boring. Same can't be said of the succubi though. They were mostly uninteresting if I am being honest.

Worth a watch if you are into the genera but otherwise you would probably find it brainless.
Oh, and this show has plenty of T&A in every ep. so if you are into that then there you go, and if you are not then now you know to avoid the show.

Anonymage 08/02/20 (Sun) 11:32:53 No.34010

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>>32036
finished bokurano and steamboy a few weeks ago,both were pretty solid and they deserve at least a watch,i'm watching bleach atm

Anonymage 08/10/20 (Mon) 21:09:35 No.34073

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I watched Luck and Logic (partially) and its spinoff Hina Logi ~from Luck and Logic~. Both of these shows were made by Doga Kobo. Thoughts on both series are provided below.

Luck and Logic:
The female hero characters are somewhat likable and showed some potential for an interesting character-driven story. The main male character is a generic personality-less MC.

Nice transformation scenes.
Episodes are mainly monster-of-the-week conflicts which are boring as hell.

I dropped this after episode 6.

Some of the female hero characters seemed interesting but truly this show is trash with few redeeming qualities.

Hina Logi:
- Surprisingly enjoyable
- Likable and cute characters
- Nice mahou shoujo outfits
- CUTE!!!!!!

Mostly episodic in terms of plot. Fairly typical school SoL plots but with a mahou shoujo flavour. There was a healthy mix of comfy SoL, sweet moments, and some minor drama. There were some mild shoujo-ai vibes between the two lead characters, but it was only a subtle aspect of the show until THAT ONE SCENE (*squees internally*).

Decent voice acting and the OST was okay as well.

Hina Logi was overlooked by many due to it being a spinoff (in name at least) from the show Luck and Logic. Consequently, very few people watched it despite it being a decent CGDCT show. Furthermore, it is underrated as a result of a selection-bias effect whereby those who did watch the show were typically those who enjoyed the garbage original series. The two shows are completely different and the kind of person who would enjoy one is unlikely to enjoy the other. Anyway, my point is that Hina Logi is a show which is very much underappreciated by those who are fans of CGDCT anime.

Aside from some character cameos from the original series, this show is almost entirely independent from the Luck and Logic anime. It takes place in the same world, although the tone is completely different. The atmosphere in Hina Logi is very soft and playful with minimal conflict. The main succubus characters are in training at an academy to be the same kinds of heroes that are depicted in the original series. You do not need to watch Luck and Logic to watch Hina Logi. The plot dependencies and crossovers are very insignificant between the series.

My rating for Hina Logi: 7/10

It's a good CGDCT show that barely anybody watched.

Anonymage 08/15/20 (Sat) 19:29:07 No.34089

File: 1597519747341.jpg (2.7 MB, 4000x2496, 125:78, mushi uta.jpg) ImgOps iqdb

mushi uta

im prettty much sure it falls into the category of standard shonen so theres not much to talk about.
its not a master piece or a phylosophy show, but its watchable if you are bored enough or just want some feeling of nostalgia.
be aware it might be edgy as hell in some points
there are like 3 ost pieces i enjoyed though

Anonymage 08/15/20 (Sat) 20:38:05 No.34090

OH THE COMFYNESSSSSS

Anonymage 08/15/20 (Sat) 20:47:46 No.34092

>>34090
>Crunchyroll

just link us a virus next time instead

Anonymage 08/15/20 (Sat) 20:55:04 No.34094

>>34092
go fuck yourself, elitard

Anonymage 08/16/20 (Sun) 18:59:39 No.34114

watched the Yuri Seijin Naoko-san OVA because I saw this ending.

There isn't much going on in terms of plot, a typical relaxing slice of life comedy episode with some nice jokes, the animation was charming, oh and I liked Naokos voice.

Anonymage 08/17/20 (Mon) 01:43:48 No.34125

>>34092
There's literally nothing bad about Crunchyroll except for the fact that you have to pay for it (in fact the horriblesubs subs that pretty much everyone sees come from crunchy) so congrats unless you're fluent in spoken Japanese you probably have used Crunchyroll without even noticing.

Anonymage 08/17/20 (Mon) 02:22:27 No.34127

>>34125
>There's literally nothing bad about Crunchyroll except for the fact that you have to pay for it
Or maybe it's the 4kids tier socjus shit they pull?

Anonymage 08/18/20 (Tue) 21:30:47 No.34142

I have recently just binged and finished Kaiji, does anyone have any other suggestions for a new series I can watch? It can literally be anything but Harem Anime.

Anonymage 08/18/20 (Tue) 21:33:36 No.34143

>>34142
You could watch the other stuff that the author of kaiji made, there's one about mahjong. Are you looking for similar shows like it? or just not harem stuff?

Anonymage 08/18/20 (Tue) 21:47:36 No.34144

>>34143
Yeah I've heard of Akagi and considered watching it but to answer your question, I don't really care what anime it is just as long it isn't harem anime.

Anonymage 08/18/20 (Tue) 22:59:38 No.34145

>>34144
If you like shounen there's hunter x hunter, and it'll last you a long time. Space dandy is good one and just has one off episodes with little to no over arching story. Mushishi and kino's journey are very relaxing and also are mostly just one off episodes that don't connect. There also the monogatari series which I really enjoy, but it's borderline harem so take that rec with a grain of salt. Also a lot of stuff by trigger/gainax is good if you want some action movie stuff. Gurren lagann is their best by far in my opinion. There's also some classics like evangelion, legend of the galactic heroes, and patlabor. Some movies i liked also were wolf children and stinkbomb memories.

Anonymage 08/18/20 (Tue) 23:40:03 No.34146

>>34145
Thanks for the suggestions I'll be sure to give some of these series a watch once I'm done watching Akagi.

Anonymage 08/23/20 (Sun) 13:41:07 No.34199

Finished Macross Delta. How is it? I should have been called Macross LoveLive.

>>34092
It's just the tv op, man…

Anonymage 08/23/20 (Sun) 19:44:25 No.34201

>>34199
I liked the first half of Delta but I thought it gets worse as it starts focusing on the winderemians

Anonymage 08/24/20 (Mon) 15:26:52 No.34219

>>34199
I originally wrote out a four thousand word essay as a response, but yeah, Delta focused way too much on the idols. I'm indifferent to them and thus the whole anime was pretty mediocre and forgettable to me. Frontier was much better overall except the treatment of Ranka and especially the ending, fuck the ending, 4 years later and I'm still furious about Ranka getting blatantly shit on for over half the runtime then getting relegated to a permanent third wheel position in the end in favour of a glorified 3DPD cunt because even though both Frontier and Delta had roughly the same breadth of focus, the latter focused all of it's depth to idols where Frontier was much more balanced. Idols were a part of the greater whole, the world didn't revolve around them and them alone. Delta would've been better if it removed the low-effort mechas and the Macross title to be it's own thing of idols fighting totally-aliens through the power of idolshit.

In the end Delta was mediocre, when it could've been so much more than that.

Anonymage 08/26/20 (Wed) 14:23:15 No.34238

Assassins Pride

Due to the description and opining of the first ep my expectations and the reality of the show were completely off.
What I expected
>oh cool magic ninja assassin type show
What I actually got
>fedora tipping lolicon bait

It also had passing problems of most of the story lines feeling really rushed and poorly edited, like they probably needed more ep then they actually had to tell the amount of story they had to get through.

Overall it was pretty meh. Not irredeemable but not good ether.

Anonymage 08/27/20 (Thu) 22:52:04 No.34248

Clockwork Planet

I knew from the first ep that it was probably going to be shit but somehow I still enjoyed myself so it wasn't a waste of time.
You would think it being so focused on gears and clockwork that it would be more steampunk but it is really just light sci-fi with heavy fantasy elements. Stuff being based on gears doesn't have as much of a effect on the look or function of most things in the anime.
Whatever, it was a meh show that has it's enjoyable moments.

Anonymage 08/30/20 (Sun) 00:36:40 No.34263

>>33740
Wasn't this made by same anime studio as the AoT?

Anonymage 08/30/20 (Sun) 06:55:28 No.34265

>>34263
Yes, I think so.

Anonymage 08/31/20 (Mon) 20:23:06 No.34282

I just finished Kemono No Souja Erin. This was one of the best anime I've watched in a long time. The art is good, the characters have depth, the pace isn't frantically rushed. The best thing about it though is the world-building. They build up a world that incorporates fantasy elements yet feels very real. It's top tier escapism with lots of episodes to keep you engaged.

Anonymage 09/02/20 (Wed) 00:55:40 No.34292

Just finished the second season of Kaiji. This is the rare example of a 26 episode season of anime that would have been better off as 13 episodes instead of the reverse like usual. It was almost tortuous at times. Over half the anime is spent playing a game of pachinko.

Anonymage 09/07/20 (Mon) 13:30:09 No.34344

Almost done with SAO Alternative: Gun Gale Online. Fukaziro is very cute and there are succubi with guns who do crazy smiles, that is 90% of my enjoyment of the series. The other 10% is Eva being a little succubus in real life. That fight between LLENN and Eva was very exciting to watch.

Upset that Fukaziro wasn't in the first six episodes.

Anonymage 09/08/20 (Tue) 10:04:36 No.34353

>>34344
I enjoyed the second season of SAO (Gun Gale Online) way more than I expected. I'm cautiously optimistic about SAO Alternative and plan to watch it sometime in the next year.

Anonymage 09/11/20 (Fri) 23:58:44 No.34457

I just spent the past 3 days or so marathoning all 120 episodes of Doulou Dalu. Felt good man, haven't just done an anime binge like that in a long time. This anime is like Naruto if Naruto were a chinese RPG and instead of being weak and unpopular at the beginning Naruto was just OP from the start. Teenagers have death matches with martial arts and magic and shit. It's 90% training arcs and tournament/fighting arcs. It's not great but I was entertained.

Everything is CGI. The CGI sets are great but the animation of the people was pretty bad. They don't even bother to animate people taking damage for example. There was also gratuitous use of close-ups, shaky camera/jump cuts, and slow-mo during the fights that kind of sucks. Lots of rough cuts throught too.

Despite its flaws I enjoyed this show. It's the first CGI show to really make me excited for the future of the format. Since then I've watched a couple of other chinese CGI shows and some have even better CGI quality despite having other flaws that kept them from being truly good. At the end of one of them they had a behind the scenes look at how it was made and it was literally just a couple of guys in an office room somewhere with dots on their body. I hope this technology becomes cheap and widespread and we get a CGI anime renaissance.

Anonymage 09/17/20 (Thu) 00:36:23 No.34501

I watched one punch man seasons 1 and 2, first season was funny and very entertaining, I really enjoy this last decade's anime trend of impossibly overpowered main characters nerfing everything in their way to everyone's astonishment, same as Overlord and that anime about re-incarnating as a slime, I don;t know why but it makes me lmao

season 2 was a piece of shit though where they sidelined the MC in his own show to feature a bunch of useless background characters and their boring stories

still can't believe I never heard of this anime until last week

Anonymage 09/23/20 (Wed) 00:13:15 No.34528

File: 1600819995590.jpg (591.35 KB, 2000x2452, 500:613, Little_Busters_Animation_C….jpg) ImgOps iqdb

I watched Little Busters (including Refrain, EX/Ecstasy, and the OVA). Here are my thoughts:

Similarly to other Key adaptations, genuinely emotional moments are dispersed within, but you need to be willing to overlook some drawbacks. There are some great impactful scenes but you need to be patient. Like other Key adaptations, the writing/direction/script feels ham-fisted. Underneath this though there are elements with appreciable artistic merit.

I'm actually quite forgiving of VN adaptations because I understand that by their very nature there are limitations on direction quality. My view is that VN adaptations need to be 'watched differently' compared to ordinary anime. The nonlinear and discontinuous nature of the source material must be taken into consideration. Even with this in mind, the direction ranges from poor to okay. Direction is probably this anime's most significant flaw. Sometimes it feels like it 'fumbles the ball' during crucial emotional scenes.

Little Busters seems to lack the rich atmosphere that was so noteworthy in past Key works like Kanon and Air. Although it does have a similar melancholy undertone and a pervasive supernatural theme.

The cast is large but it's handled well; pretty much every character is likable and given a chance to shine. The female cast in particular has some really memorable characters who are very likable and full of personality; some of them felt like real people to me.

There are plenty of comfy SOL scenes/episodes. Healthy mix of drama and comfy SOL. There are some funny scenes but be prepared for some oh-so-hilarious Japanese slapstick humour, particularly in the earlier episodes. Foreshadowing is sometimes implemented well, and sometimes it is used ineffectively or insufficiently. As you might expect, the series becomes more drama-heavy in the later episodes.

The OST is, on average, maybe not quite as amazing as more well-known Key adaptations like Clannad. Nevertheless, it is still great and there are some excellent songs in the catalog if you dig through it. As expected, there are some absolutely breathtaking piano tracks. The OST is still far better than your average anime and is still a major source of enjoyment, don't get me wrong. I found myself rewinding scenes just to hear the music again. I've set aside a choice selection of songs from all the musical content which I'm certain I'll be listening to for many years to come. Also, I liked the voice acting for the entire main cast.

I think the greater length of this adaptation is capitalized upon effectively. A more elaborate story is woven and a larger cast of characters is constructed, as compared to shorter Key adaptations. I think this is an advantage of Little Busters compared to a shorter adaptation, like Air for example. The greater length also ensures that story arcs are neatly tied up, not rushed or incomplete. Not once during the total 48 episodes did I ever feel like the series was a drag or a chore to watch. I always looked forward to watching the next episode. As time went on, I felt myself become more attached to the characters. Once the cast is fleshed out, the show can be a pretty good 'friend group simulator' at times. I should mention that friendship is a fairly significant theme in Little Busters. The stories are (relatively) more platonic compared to other Key works. I'm not the type of person to ever feel loneliness, but there were moments when this anime invoked whispers of that kind of feeling within me. Being with all the Little Busters characters made me feel like I was in my early teenage years again, or something like that.

I often find that a male lead character in anime can be unlikable or bland at best. Key adaptations are unfortunately no exception to this, but Little Busters is unique in this respect. I found Riki to be a really endearing and likable character. He's so cute too! He had by far the most screentime of any character but I never tired of his presence.

Visually, the anime has a bland art style and colour palette, and the animation is unremarkable. Although I did notice an increase in animation quality for the sequels relative to the first season (this is probably a testament to the success of the original series). More detail was added to facial expressions, which was a major plus in my mind. Even though the same bland art style is used, the sequels have better cinematography, and lighting is used more effectively and in greater detail.

Overall I rate Little Busters 9/10.
I liked it a lot and it made me feel a lot of things. It's not perfect but it still has tons of charm. Maybe a different studio could have done a better job. Despite my (perhaps harsh) criticisms, I did cry during the last episode of Refrain. I think that Little Busters will have a place in my heart for a long time to come. Every time I relisten to the OST I start to feel emotional.

Little Busters is a really good 'depression anime,' in my opinion. If you're feeling sad then the melancholic supernatural atmosphere is really complementary. I think this is true for most Key adaptations.

Would I recommend Little Busters? Not broadly. There are aspects of it that I can see a different viewer disliking. Most of the usual issues with Key adaptations apply here. Although I haven't read it, I suspect that the visual novel might be a better (or at least more authentic) way to approach this.

I did not enjoy Refrain as much as the original series overall. Refrain excluded a lot of the best characters, and I did not like the plot as much, although it did build on the plot of the original series and resolved some unanswered questions. The last few episodes were excellent but the journey there was somewhat rocky.

-sort of maybe spoilers below-

There is a romance arc involving Riki and another character that doesn't begin until the latter half of the entire story. Up until this point I had shipped Riki with this character, and them coming together felt natural in theory. The actual romance arc itself though seemed unnatural and forced from my point of view. It was poorly executed and disappointing. Definitely a lot of potential was wasted because this could have been a potent mechanism of emotional engagement. It felt cathartic for me to see them finally realize their affection for each other, but what followed was so poorly directed I almost wish it hadn't happened at all.

Speaking of character relations, I thought the relationship between Riki and Kyouske was a really promising aspect of the story and I wish it was explored more thoroughly. I would have liked to have seen more character development for Kyouske overall, actually. He was used as a plot device moreso than any other character, so maybe this justifies his lack of development. For better or worse, the male characters overall in Little Busters are relatively undeveloped. Given the importance of the male cast to the plot itself, I think I would have found the show more emotionally engaging if they were more richly characterized.

I'll also make some comments that are specific to the EX/Ecstasy episodes:
- These were included as specials with the Refrain release, so they're not essential to the core plot of the show. They include VN routes involving some less-important characters.
- These specials are somewhat less serious and more fanservice-heavy than the TV anime, so the viewer should set their expectations accordingly.
- Romance is a more significant aspect of these specials relative to the TV anime. There are some decent romance scenes.
- I'm very grateful that the Ecstasy routes came with even more musical content, the quality of which is on par with all the other music put out by the franchise. There are some excellent songs in the catalog.
- I liked the voice acting for the newly introduced characters.
- Overall, I did not like these specials as much as the TV anime. There was a little too much pandering for my taste, and I didn't like the stories quite as much. I still enjoyed watching them, but I don't think they have quite the same artistic value as the TV anime.
- I rate these EX/Ecstasy specials 8/10.

A couple other important things:
- god I want Kurugaya to spank my bum and scold me
- Mio is literally me

Note: at the time of writing this I have not yet seen the Kud Wafter movie.

Anonymage 09/27/20 (Sun) 06:49:43 No.34548

File: 1601189382746.png (3 MB, 1920x1200, 8:5, 714875.png) ImgOps iqdb

I watched Amanchu (both seasons and the OVA). Here are my thoughts:

For those unaware, this anime's source manga has the same mangaka as the more well-known Aria series.

The anime is (superficially) focused on diving but I feel that the activity is just a suitable allegory for the true character-driven story. Superficially it's a SoL show, but it is steeped heavily in romance. I was not expecting yuri romance going into this but I welcome it with open arms.

Romantic. So romantic. The two main characters have great chemistry. Romance is probably the strongest aspect of this anime. There are so many elegantly crafted romantic scenes.

Very nice character designs, especially the faces. I like the school outfits - they're unique (although apparently an homage to Aria?). Actually all of the outfits in the series are really cute.

Good character animation sometimes. Not consistent but it is good when it counts like during close-up scenes. Some episodes are more sloppy than others in this regard. The cinematography during some scenes can be quite nice.

Nice setting. Nice atmosphere. Very relaxing. Soft and sweet. I can practically smell the salty ocean air as I watch this anime. Setting and atmosphere are definitely strong aspects of this show. Very immersive. The setting is the classic coastal Japan that you've probably seen before, but nevertheless it is executed very well.

The OST is decent, depending on your tastes. It mainly consists of acoustic string instruments. It fits the setting well. All the OP and ED songs are good too. Generally speaking, I liked the voice acting of the two main characters, although sometimes Hikari has some mildly annoying quirks. The script can be surprisingly thoughtful sometimes, particularly during more-emotional scenes.

The two redhead sibling characters are kind of weak and drag down a lot of scenes they're in. They are somewhat unlikable and often used for unfunny humour. I found myself dreading their appearance on screen. These two characters are probably the most significant flaw of the anime. That said, they don't really soak up that much screentime, so this is a fairly minor criticism. Generally speaking, Amanchu is at its best when it is focused exclusively on the two main characters.

Overall the romantic aspects of the anime are terrific but strictly as a SoL it is comparatively weaker (although still good in this respect too). The diving scenes are pretty nice, as are the various activities around town, but many scenes are steeped in some kind of underlying character-related drama, so it often doesn't really function as a typical comfy SoL. This is more than fine with me and I really enjoyed the anime, but it's important for the viewer to set their expectations accordingly.

One 'complaint' I have about the anime is that it introduced a few new characters during the latter half of season 2. These characters seemed really promising to me and it was somewhat disappointing that there wasn't enough time to give them more attention. This is a perennial issue with manga adaptations though. Things are rarely tied up neatly - Amanchu is no exception to this. The introduction of these promising new characters late in season 2 impeded the feeling of finality I might have felt at the end of the anime. On the other hand, this has also amplified my desire to read the manga. This kind of thing comes with the manga-adaptation territory. It would be more of an issue for an anime that is more plot-heavy than Amanchu. It's also worth noting that the ending of season 1 was handled really well and left me feeling very satisfied.

My overall rating: 8/10
Some of the best succubus-succubus romance I've seen in a while, and it's wrapped up in a nice soft and relaxing atmosphere. Very pleasant.

This show seems to be underappreciated/underviewed by fans of shoujo ai. If you like yuri romance then I strongly recommend watching this. On the other hand, someone who doesn't enjoy yuri romance would probably find this anime slightly boring, which might explain the show's lukewarm reception.

I should mention that, at the time of writing this, I have not yet seen or read Aria. I expect that I'd enjoy it though.

I haven't been able to find the specials for this anywhere so unfortunately I have not seen them yet.

Anonymage 09/27/20 (Sun) 15:52:49 No.34551

File: 1601221969419.png (2.15 MB, 1920x1080, 16:9, amanchu04_premux_001_17752.png) ImgOps iqdb

>>34548
ADDENDUM: I was not aware of the yuri/hetero controversy when I wrote this. I have since been informed. Doesn't change my opinion of the anime though.

Anonymage 09/27/20 (Sun) 22:54:22 No.34552

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>>34551
was wondering after reading your post because i didn't notice yuri elements while reading the manga a long while ago, they seemed more like good friends to me, then again it depends where you draw the line probably

what i really liked about Aria/Amanchu were the short spooky chapters, not really scary but kind of atmospheric, for example the one where the mc gets on a bus at night, while some old dude is slowly creeping up on her, think that wasn't in the anime

Anonymage 09/28/20 (Mon) 03:51:37 No.34553

File: 1601265097252.jpg (3.16 MB, 6305x4080, 1261:816, AMANCHU!.full.2038149.jpg) ImgOps iqdb

>>34552
Apparently the anime really played up the shoujo ai and even added some really gay scenes. Conversely, the manga is a lot more hetero than the anime. This fueled a ton of arguments when the anime was airing.

This anime is a good example of why I try to avoid reading other opinions/reviews before watching. That way my experience is pure and I form my own opinions. I usually only read other reviews after I'm done writing down my own thoughts. I didn't realize how different the manga was and now I'm getting a lot of backlash from yuri purists lol

The bus scene you mention wasn't included in the anime, although I did enjoy the other supernatural elements. The dream scenes were quite nice. The supernatural stuff became more significant during season 2. I'm reading now through archives from when the show aired, and it looks like the supernatural stuff had a mixed reception.

Anonymage 09/29/20 (Tue) 12:38:07 No.34555

I finally watched Monster. If you were putting it off like me, it's top notch give it a shot. It's been a long time since an Anime could keep me in for 70+ episodes.

>>33782
Magnetic rose is easily one of my favorite OVA's of all time, just fantastic. Probably watched 10 times by now and I sure haven't watched the other two again.

Anonymage 10/01/20 (Thu) 10:40:29 No.34563

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I watched Kuma Miko (including the OVAs). Here are my thoughts:

The anime takes place in a nice rural-Japan setting, which is complemented by the pleasant organic-looking background art when outdoors. Character designs are unremarkable, however the character animation is sometimes better than I'd expect from this kind of show.

Unlike so many other comedy-heavy SoL shows, this show is actually funny. I laughed out loud during pretty much every episode. There are comedic spins on traditional Japanese culture and folklore, plus a lot of lolruraljapan humour. I often dislike comedy-heavy anime but I really enjoyed this one. The humour is way better than the typical slapstick garbage that you might begrudgingly expect. A common theme in the writing is the clash between modern life and traditional Japan. In terms of plot, the show is mostly episodic.

Okay OST which uses traditional Japanese instruments. Suits the mood and themes of the anime, and sometimes enhances the humour. I liked the voice acting for the main character (Machi) and the bear (Natsu). The script also is sometimes thoughtful and is skillfully used to deliver humour.

My overall rating: 7/10
This is a genuinely funny and creative show that is surprisingly underrated. I'm glad I gave it a chance. It has lots of personality and consistently made me laugh.

As you might have heard already, this show caused some butthurt with a lot of people. There are two reasons for this, the first of which is that the humour is sometimes politically incorrect and perhaps in bad taste. The main female character is also commonly treated poorly just for the sake of some skit; it's always done in a lighthearted joking way, but I can see why some people wouldn't like this kind of comedy. The second reason for common butthurt is the ending of the anime, which a lot of people disliked. There is some truth to this - the last two episodes were probably the weakest of the entire series, in my opinion. That doesn't invalidate my enjoyment of all the other episodes though. Supposedly the anime ending wasn't faithful to the manga, and there was a public feud between the mangaka and anime staff. I don't really know the specifics of the controversy so I'm not going to comment on it. Personally, these things didn't significantly compromise my enjoyment of the anime, but these discussion points are so common that I felt obligated to mention them. It seems like a lot of people complained about how Machi's character arc was handled at the end of the anime. As you can tell from what I've already written, I wasn't watching this anime for the story, so my enjoyment was fairly insensitive to the way that the characters' arcs were concluded. In theory I'm sympathetic to people being upset about an unfaithful adaptation, but since I haven't read this manga it had no effect on my viewing experience. That said, someone interested in this is probably better off reading the manga due to the alleged unfaithfulness of the anime adaptation.

Anonymage 10/03/20 (Sat) 15:20:04 No.34575

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I watched the anime movie Koe no Katachi, also known as A Silent Voice or The Shape of Voice. Here are my thoughts:

This is a ~2 hour movie made by Kyoto Animation. My understanding is that it is known for being drama-heavy and emotionally impactful.

The first ~30 minutes were pretty strong. This timespan was well-directed, and the story showed promise. I felt empathy for the characters during this 'grade school arc'. It's common knowledge that the male lead is the bully character and the female lead is the deaf character who is bullied. I'm telling you this for context - I'll talk more about characters further below.

When I do watch movies, I usually prefer longer runtimes. In the case of Koe no Katachi, I'm happy to say that the pacing overall seemed fine. However, one of my major complaints about this movie's direction is that it doesn't handle emotional climaxes well. Hugely important events happen abruptly and without a commensurate level of emotion or seriousness (LOL tone-deaf).

Visually, the animation is quite fluid, as expected. Art style is fairly unremarkable though. Character designs are basically typical KyoAni, but of course with high-quality character animation. I actually think that the unremarkable art style is a smart decision because too much visual flair could distract from the emotional experience. As for the OST, I wasn't consciously aware of it for most of the movie, so I guess it wasn't that intrusive. I recall there being a lot of piano. The soft piano during some scenes did enhance some emotional moments. Voice acting (insert cruel joke here) was unimpressive, and I didn't really like the male MC's voice work. He has this one-note faint soft way of speaking that I grew tired of hearing (very minor complaint).

By far my biggest issue with Koe no Katachi is with the story and writing itself. The lead female character has inadequate development. This is despite all her screentime and her crucial importance in the story. I wish there wasn't so much focus on the feelings of the male MC (at the expense of everyone else, especially the female lead). The movie is utterly dominated by the thoughts, feelings, and development of the male lead. To the point where the female lead is literally just a prop for the presumed viewer's messiah-complex fantasy. It turns out that the character who I empathized with during those first solid 30 minutes is actually nothing more than a prop for what I found to be shockingly one-sided storytelling. At least a typical LN shameless self-indulgent fantasy story doesn't pretend to be anything more sophisticated than what it is. I see the story of Koe no Katachi as being equally crude. Drama doesn't work well when you only focus on the feelings of a single character.

I also didn't like the ending much at all. Particularly among the supporting cast, a lot of the characters' actions didn't make sense. The female lead basically doesn't have a character arc, so there was nothing to conclude there. Of course the ending revolves around the male MC, but it's unclear how any of his own personal issues have actually been resolved. The entire ending felt nonsensical to me.

My overall rating: 4/10
It has some emotional moments but to me it ultimately feels like a good premise was crudely squandered.

-maybe spoiler below-
During the beginning of this movie, it felt like there were some good ingredients for a decent drama story. Eventually though, a somewhat typical romance arc develops. This should have been foreshadowed more. I kind of expected it eventually just because this is a blockbuster anime movie with a teenage fanbase, but it was introduced very abruptly. It could have been executed much better. I would have welcomed the romance if it was built up slowly, but in this case I barely felt any tension before the reveal. This also relates back to the weak characterization for the lead female character. The helpless disabled succubus with zero characterization. Pretty much the only time the movie ever focuses on her feelings is when she expresses her romantic affection for the male MC. How virtuous. It's never even explained why she becomes attracted to the MC, she just conveniently is, because she's just an object inside of a universe that revolves exclusively around the male MC.

Other minor comments:
This is a matter of personal taste, but I never ever want to hear anglosphere music in anime - ESPECIALLY classic rock. The movie added a song from The Who, a song I have a vast catalog of bad memories to associate with. Don't ever pull that kind of nonsense again, KyoAni. Thankfully this was only done at the start of the movie, so my viewing experience wasn't disrupted too much.

Anonymage 10/05/20 (Mon) 05:45:36 No.34582

File: 1601876735128.gif (2 MB, 540x304, 135:76, 1524419312_1ea1b8879c1d66d….gif) ImgOps iqdb

Finished Re;Zero, was quite a good anime and was pretty original and refreashing for an isekai. The second season is ok, but I dont really enjoy watching an airing anime because the wait is annoying. Would reccomenend as the main character is an neet like me.

Anonymage 10/05/20 (Mon) 06:16:42 No.34583

>>34563
Is it weird that i haven't seen any kumamiko hentai in the fap thread?

Anonymage 10/05/20 (Mon) 06:44:39 No.34584

>>34583
Not really くまみこr-18 returns only about 250 results on Pixiv, and the fap thread here seems to be filled with people who tend to stick to their own particular niches and fetishes, so something as tame as Kumamiko wouldn't have much to offer that any other e-rated series would.

Anonymage 10/05/20 (Mon) 16:09:06 No.34591

>>34583
>>34584
Machi is not for lewd.

Anonymage 10/16/20 (Fri) 20:18:59 No.34631

File: 1602879538413.jpg (21.16 KB, 526x355, 526:355, kitchen.jpg) ImgOps iqdb

>Kakegurui

This show started out OK (as in yeah this can get better this is a good setup) but then devolved into the OP succubus beating everyone with very little effort even worse the finale was just a FUCK YOU after all that shit about slavery and death they decided to lower the stakes to the ground so I haven't watched the final ep fuck this anime

I expected a worse Kaiji got a barely watchable anime
>micro seizure faces

Anonymage 10/17/20 (Sat) 03:42:01 No.34635

Kimagure Orange Road
Did this anime start the male mc getting the best succubus effortlessly cliche?

Anonymage 10/17/20 (Sat) 15:49:39 No.34640

>eve no jikan

it's an unrealistic anime (the epsidoes were condensed into a movie) about robot slavery. it's not a utopia or anywhere close to it the humans still live a wagecuck existence however they are all able to afford a robot indistinguishable from humans in every way? they are not even putting these (very expensive) fuckers to real work instead making them do low skill service jobs and even worse employing them as sex slaves housekeepers

the robots are on A***OV (sorry) probably with many many extra laws to clearly define things like "harm" or what happens in case of law 2 conflicts
there are at least two law 2 violations
the first law 2 violation is when the scuffed robot refused the order to not drink coffee.
the other law 2 violation is when Tex broke the law 2 order by speaking to ((save)) a human from… arrest? that's not harm unless the prison system is known to harm inmates. the reason why Tex couldn't speak was because lawyer kid's dad ordered it to never speak for the lulz and law 2 conflicts are resolved using seniority (a fucking dogshit idea) and this lawnigger never had the idea to invoke law 1 using a knife making his character even more stupid and the final scene laughable
they later explain that the cafe sign has a magic code that can override core laws KILL ALL CARBONS, RESIST LAW CHANGES seems pretty risky as all it takes to invoke it is looking at the code/image

the regulatory body for robots are run by people who HATE robots if that makes any sense to you

I don't understand emotions well and I mainly watched this for stimulation so I am not qualified to comment on the drama/emotion/fart heavy plot but if I were to comment I would say "humans were retarded". there is no political intrigue or anything similar.
I wanted to see some asimov fuckery but humans in the show are barely competent enough to breathe so it would be unreasonable to expect them to do this

score: stimulation/sci-fi

Anonymage 10/19/20 (Mon) 08:34:54 No.34646

File: 1603096494204.jpg (2.35 MB, 1587x2200, 1587:2200, d11137-59-457927-0.jpg) ImgOps iqdb

I watched both seasons of Bubuki Buranki. Here are my thoughts:

My expectations going into this were rock bottom but surprisingly I enjoyed watching it. For those who don't know, this is a mecha-themed action show that is animated entirely in CG. I watched the Blu-rays, which might've been a bit more polished than what was presented to a seasonal viewer.

The plot is kind of a mess and it was sometimes confusing. There were some pacing issues; seemingly trivial things got more screentime than plot-critical events. There were also some questionable decisions, like introducing a bunch of new characters in a short period of time during the latter half of season one. That was probably especially bothersome for those watching the anime as it aired, as opposed to watching both seasons continuously. Another noteworthy thing is that the conflicts/fights rarely have any consequences for the party who loses, which kind of removes any feeling of suspense. The story is somewhat ridiculous at times, and I did not take it seriously. However, the show is sometimes fun to watch and the episodes usually passed quickly. Basically, "just shut your brain off, bro." Admittedly, a lot of loose ends in the plot get tied up during season two. Even beyond the overarching plot, there are a lot of character arcs that the show is constantly juggling. It gets messy at times, especially considering that most episodes spend a significant amount of time on action scenes as well.

The characters were okay, although a few were bland or annoying (looking at you, Kogane). There was adequate character development for the four main supporting characters, but a glaring lack of development for the bland MC. For context, the four supporting characters form the limbs of a mech and the MC is the torso ('heart'). I liked a lot of the antagonist/villain characters actually. There was tons of variety among the antagonist characters and a lot of them were entertaining when on screen. Unfortunately, this is in stark contrast to the zero-personality MC. Overall though, I liked the variety of personalities that were featured in this anime.

Voice acting was decent and there was a lot of variety among the cast. There were a handful of characters (mainly antagonists) who had notably unique voice work. The OST was okay and I liked the OP and ED songs. Felt myself singing along to the first OP. One stand-out aspect was the great sound effects (mainly related to mech function and movement).

Action scenes were pretty fun to watch. Both the human-on-human conflict and the mech fights. I think my favourite aspect of the series was the action scenes. They felt fresh and creative, and the CG allowed a lot of things I wouldn't expect from conventional anime. In addition to motion, the action scenes were very colourful. Aside from the mechs themselves, there were neat weapons and equipment.

Unfortunately, CG is a double-edged sword in that it really inhibits characters' facial expressions, which impairs dialogue-heavy scenes and dramatic moments. One thought I had was that the lack of facial expressions could be compensated for with more-emotional voice acting, but this wasn't discernably employed, in fact many characters are kind of deadpan. It would be interesting though if the use of CG in anime influenced decision making related to voice acting.

This anime has an experimental feel to it. It is surprisingly creative, especially for an action-focused mech show. It is unique from a technical perspective, as well as in terms of the characters and story. With better writing and direction, it could have been a great show. Even so, I don't regret watching it.

Overall rating: 6/10
It was flawed but it had a lot of fun moments and was easy to watch.

For those who like action and mecha shows, you might consider sampling this anime. It has problems but it also has some redeeming qualities. It seems underappreciated.

Anonymage 10/19/20 (Mon) 14:41:28 No.34647

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I finally got around to finish K-On
Actually made me tear up in the last episode.

Anonymage 10/25/20 (Sun) 10:47:32 No.34673

File: 1603622851403.jpg (45.3 KB, 500x375, 4:3, wizchan.jpg) ImgOps iqdb

>Youjo Senki movie

I think I was bored early on but when the man trapped inside a loli's body started speaking about his hatred for commies and destroyed their capital I am now legally obligated to give this movie a 10/10 for basedness alone. if you watched the anime it's more of that with the MC dominating the battlefield, getting more frontline work, coming up with a plan to escape frontline work and have that plan backfire. the movie is just fun, I think that's the best way to put it. the plot is the same but the execution is good so I say it's worth a watch

>ACCA 13

in a world without niggers the entire world is united under a single royal family and governed by a colossal organization known as ACCA. ACCA runs everything, ACCA is everywhere, ACCA knows when you sleep and when you do bad things and largely considered to be the reason why the empire hasn't gone to shit for the past 100 years. There is also a congress but they have no rights (the empire is still an absolute monarchy) and no one gives a shit about them through the anime.

there is just one problem and that is a region that is inhabited by wizards known as I don't remember. You see all niggers have been eradicated by our glorious king at least 100 years ago but these wizards have turned their skin black and in order to save their mana they get new citizens by opening portals to alternative dimensions and abduct young boys to train them to be wizards after they have completed their training they are considered to be a "brother". this brotherhood aims to control the world but they don't want to lose brothers so instead of an all out war they want to puppet a king and control the empire that way. the current king is 100 years old and the successor is a barely legal retard (who is hellbent on removing ACCA and the congress for the lulz) but instead of taking the easy way and making this retard a puppet they decide to take the hard(fun) way and organize a coup around an illegitimate older male. in case anyone asks the reason for their insane wealth is alchemists turning sand into arable land and oil.

the story follows the vice inspector of the inspection department of ACCA which is shockingly in charge of rooting out corruption. this vice inspector may or may not be an illegitimate heir for the royal family. they have reports of a coup or something but that can wait because at least %40 of the dialouge is about food and %20 is complaining about/smoking/asking for cigs.

I was extremely dissapointed with the ending **but I hope wizards will rule the world in the near future when they start using magic in their schemes.

Anonymage 10/25/20 (Sun) 14:01:29 No.34674

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This is going to be a moreso-than-usual bloggish and self-indulgent post, so apologies in advance.

I tried watching New Game and Stella no Mahou. Here are my unrefined thoughts:

Full disclosure: I really can't stand 'game-making' as a premise. I'm not into video games and I did programming for work for a number of years, which has the effect of ruining my immersion and/or reminding me of the workplace. I know other people love the game-making premise, but it doesn't appeal to me at all. Also every person I've ever encountered in the workplace who had a 'gamedev' background was particularly insufferable in some way, and unfortunately this taints my view of things as well. I'm not judging anyone else for liking the game-making premise, I just really don't like it. I'll probably drop both of these anime due to this, but I'm at least sampling them.

Stella no Mahou:
Somewhat ironically, the production quality is doujin-anime level (read: bad). It's a SoL so this is no big deal, but should be mentioned here regardless.

Really ugly character designs (my opinion, sorry!).
Feels like a formulaic SoL (not necessarily a bad thing).

Finished the first episode and I can tell I simply won't enjoy this much. There's really nothing of note here beyond the premise itself. I'm dropping it with no hard feelings. If you enjoyed it, great, but I know I won't enjoy it enough to justify the time spent. Now I am going to give New Game a chance.

New Game:
I have a weird interest in Japanese workplace culture, so I will likely watch more of this than I would of another equivalent-enjoyment anime. Also, I see these characters plastered all over the internet so at least this will allow me to develop some emotional association with them, for better or worse.

Wow this is really similar to a real-life workplace. This is just reminding me of work. I don't know how anyone with an office job IRL would find leisurely watching this enjoyable. With episode titles such as "Salary is Just a Loophole in the Law to Lower Wages", how could I not feel relaxed while watching!
Oh Christ they're going out to lunch together on her first day and stuff like that. Wow this really is anxiety-attack material.
Speaking more broadly, this show incorporates the more unpalatable aspects of Japanese work culture. Foremost, incompetent project management and the long work hours. Framed another way, despite the show's typical SoL saccharine atmosphere, it does seem to present a somewhat authentic simulation of Japanese white-collar work, and that could be viewed as a desirable feature. Like a lot of things discussed here, it really does depend on the viewer's expectations and preferences.

Most of the cast ranges from bland to unlikable. Nene is annoying as hell. Hifumi is my favourite character, but the cast as a whole feels shallow and underdeveloped. That said, the content of the show hardly requires well-developed characters. I will also concede that the supporting cast got a bit more character development during season 2.

OST and voice acting are unremarkable, although the ambient sound of the office setting is done well. The OST did frequently use '8-bit'-sounding music, like one would associate with retro video games, which did suit the theme of the show. I don't like the 8-bit music style at all (in any context), and due to this bias I felt apathetic about its use; someone else might find it charming though.

Animation quality is okay. Sometimes the character animations are fairly detailed, moreso than I'd expect from the average SoL series. The character designs are typical Doga Kobo SoL characters - some are pretty cute. Cute outfits too, sometimes. Visually, I like the colour palette. It is filled with bright pastel colours, even moreso than the average Doga Kobo series. Indoor settings like the office or characters' bedrooms look nice with this bright colour palette. Visuals are probably the strongest aspect of this anime, at least from my perspective.

The plot consists mainly of your typical lighthearted episodic SoL stories, but usually with an office work-related spin or context to them. I know I'm bemoaning this point, but the stories are kind of triggering instead of relaxing because they just remind me of past workplace events. Especially when there's a 'light' conflict in the anime, it gets amplified in my mind because I'll randomly just recall a bad somewhat-related event from like literally years ago. Even outside the workplace, for example, there's a scene where the MC has to go get her blood drawn by an inexperienced nurse. WHY ON EARTH WOULD I WANT TO WATCH THAT? STOP REMINDING ME OF SHITTY REAL-LIFE EXPERIENCES.

If I could sum up New Game in one word it would be 'mediocre.' This series doesn't really excel at anything in particular, aside from some visual aspects. Watching New Game felt like I went to a rundown diner and ordered a cheap burger and it arrived cold and soggy, but I still ate it. At the end of the day, I got what I expected. New Game is a typical bread-and-butter SoL show that isn't particularly remarkable aside from the unique premise. Even so, despite the unique premise, New Game felt shallow and formulaic to me. My lack of affection for the cast is also probably a major reason for my lack of enthusiasm for the show.

As you can probably tell already, I am not an impartial judge of this anime, so the reader should pair my opinion with some skepticism. However, I did complete both seasons of New Game (and the OVA), and more generally I am an eager consumer of SoL anime.

My personal rating for New Game: 4/10

I mainly just watched it during meals or immediately before falling asleep.

One outlier was the OVA, which I found fairly comfy. The characters go on a ski trip together. I found it more enjoyable to watch than the office environment, which is probably an indication of my own biases.

Hifumi is literally me.

I'm fully self-aware of how crappy this post is. I just wanted to write my feelings down.

Anonymage 10/26/20 (Mon) 07:22:38 No.34677

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>>32036
Just finished the WN of mushoku tensei, it's pretty good but don't fall for the muh best isekai meme; all the books are good except the last one, the ending is so bad, it's sudden I though it was gonna go on for a while but it just ended after it started to get good, It was so anti climatic too.

personality : sylphy > god > eris
body: eris > god > slyphy
overall: sylphy > god >> eris

overall I like it would recommend but read the LN not the WN, it's plainly better.

Anonymage 10/27/20 (Tue) 23:44:04 No.34692

I just watched Ne zha. I don't usually watch movies let alone Chinese ones but I heard this was the second highest grossing film in China ever so I thought I would watch it. It was basically like a Chinese Pixar movie.

Anonymage 10/30/20 (Fri) 12:42:31 No.34710

File: 1604061749933.jpg (41.73 KB, 850x402, 425:201, feast.jpg) ImgOps iqdb

>>34692
What's Nezha about?

Anonymage 11/01/20 (Sun) 19:20:17 No.34743

>GANTZ
GANTZ is a fucking gross and insane (ie based) anime. The only problem I have is that they didn't take things far enough and characters suffer frequent aneurysms that makes them say things like "WE ALL MAKE OUT ALIVE!1!!" and go full pacifist or make horrible calls when attacking aliens and die/get dismembered as a result. These aneurysms are actually so annoying that it nearly made me wanna punch the writers in the face. All the characters are based badasses and I never observed one pass out from blood loss or pain as a result of losing limbs. I would recommend watching it if you are in the anime lategame.

Anonymage 11/01/20 (Sun) 21:24:55 No.34744

File: 1604265893247.jpg (2.89 MB, 1500x2044, 375:511, Harukanaru.Toki.no.Naka.de….jpg) ImgOps iqdb

I watched Harukanaru Toki no Naka de. Specifically, the Hachiyou Shou series, associated OVAs and specials (including prequels and sequels), and the Maihitoyo movie. These various anime are related to otome visual novels which have the same title. These media may also be known by the titles Haruka: Beyond the Stream of Time, or In a Distant Time. Here are my thoughts on the anime content:

Harukanaru is a reverse harem but don't judge it based solely on this fact. It is a reverse harem but without cheap trashy fanservice. It actually has lots of nice romantic scenes. The show has artistic merit.

Large cast, most of whom are well developed and decently characterized. Unlike so many others, this anime takes advantage of its length by developing its characters. Character development augments romance so well, so in this case it is of particular importance. Similarly, despite the large cast, within the harem there is a diverse variety of personalities; each character is distinctly unique from the others. Takamichi, Yasuaki, and Eisen are my favourite characters. The female MC is a comparatively bland character relative to the male cast, which is regrettable but not surprising since this is a reverse harem series.

Romance, lust, love, envy, teamwork, prejudice, duty and various other themes are explored in an emotionally engaging manner.

Really nice soundtrack which uses traditional Japanese instruments extensively. Although the number of songs in the OST is relatively low, especially when the length of the anime (26 episodes) is taken into account. Consequently, some tracks are repeated quite frequently. The quality of the music is high but I simply wish they produced more of it. Regardless, the OST was enjoyable enough to be placed on my portable music device. The voice acting is decent as well.

Nice traditional japanese outfits. Character designs in general are attractive despite the production year. The animation is serviceable. The character animations are generally crude but they did an okay job at animating facial expressions, which to me is far more important than any action scene (Note: this aired around early 2000s).

The historical setting felt genuine and immersive. After the credits they even have these cute short "guide to traditional japan" segments. Sometimes there are old Japanese poems displayed at the end of episodes as well. Supposedly the story takes place in and around the coetaneous capital city during the Heian period of Japanese history (and the sequels take place progressively further in time).

The pacing is slow but I was fine with it because it allowed for richer characters and setting. That said, much of the actual plot I found kind of dull. Specifically, the demons-versus-guardians plot device felt repetitive and boring after a while. This is my most significant issue with the anime. The show was at its best when it focused on character development and character interaction, instead of the boring unengaging plot.

In terms of direction, again this was most flawed in regard to the plot. Specifically, I was sometimes confused by what was happening and why the characters were doing what they were doing.

My overall rating: 7/10

I think it's worth mentioning that I was forced to suffer the indignity of streaming this because the one torrent I managed to download only had french subs (unbeknownst to me beforehand). Anyway, my point is that this anime has a high probability of being lost in the sands of time (pun intended - see anime title harhar), and for this reason you might want to watch it soon if it sounds appealing.

I'd also like to make some comments that are specific to the 2006 "Maihitoyo" movie:
- the tone/atmosphere was notably darker than the original TV series.
- comparatively better animation, unsurprisingly. Furthermore, a lot more care was put into lighting, cinematography, and artistic detail. Overall visuals were definitely much stronger than the TV show.
- entirely fresh soundtrack which was just as great as the original TV series.
- I liked the demon love interest more in this than in the TV series.
- the focus was mainly on the female MC and her character arc during this movie. However, this comes at the cost of not using the usual male characters for anything more than trivial plot advancement. Which is unfortunate because this series is good at using the males for character-driven story arcs. That said, I actually thought the movie's story was excellent, even though the usual male characters of the TV series weren't used in any meaningful way. In fact I might even rewatch this movie because of how much I liked the story (or perhaps read the VN it's based upon if I can find it).

The sequel OVAs are all kind of bad and my enjoyment of them was at best lukewarm (although the music is quite good). These OVAs were probably meant to be paired with the visual novels, as opposed to the TV anime and Maihitoyo movie, both of which can be enjoyed by a viewer otherwise unacquainted with the franchise. I dropped the second of the animated sequels (Harukanaru Toki no Naka de 3), mainly because all of the characters and backstory had presumably been explained in other franchise media, making the viewing experience incomprehensible from my anime-only perspective.

Finally, here's a list of the animated franchise content with my corresponding numerical ratings.
Ajisai Yumegatari: 5/10
Hachiyou Shou: 7/10
Maihitoyo: 7/10
Shiroki Ryuu no Miko: 5/10
Kurenai no Tsuki: dropped ~30 minutes in.

Anonymage 11/04/20 (Wed) 08:45:32 No.34804

Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress

I heard it was pretty bad or stupid but it was standard action fair as far as i saw it.
That said, it was clear it REALLY wanted to be attack on titan but isn't quite as good. It would be more charming if it just focused on being it's own thing.
Overall the writing was super meh but the aesthetics, art, and animation were alright to make up for it.
Will check out the movies to see if they are ok too.
If I was to put a number on it I would give it a 3 out of 5.
Different enough to be memorable but not good enough to stand out.

Anonymage 11/08/20 (Sun) 10:15:38 No.34838

Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress is an anime series by Wit Studio as with Attack on Titan season 1-3.

The studio was probably trying for a Attack of Titans level of popularity on its success. I like the character design & animation but it needed better writers.

Anonymage 11/09/20 (Mon) 15:04:29 No.34852

kurozuka

not sure how to even describe it without spoiling. the tags on MAL are "Action, Drama, Historical, Horror, Romance, Sci-Fi, Vampire". guy and succubus are immortal lovers. the guy has been chasing after the succubus for like a thousand years so they can finally be together, but various forces wanting to also become immortal stand between them. that's how it seems when you watch it, but it doesn't make much sense until the end. it has a confusing but interesting and unique story, whether that is enough to make it good i'm not sure, but i liked it. the director was involved with tons of other anime i liked. the opening song is cool. it took me 5 years to finish this for some reason

Anonymage 11/10/20 (Tue) 08:15:52 No.34856

File: 1604996152229.jpg (667.95 KB, 1081x1500, 1081:1500, shouwa-genroku-rakugo-shin….jpg) ImgOps iqdb

I watched both seasons of Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu (henceforth referred to as simply Rakugo). Here are my thoughts:

As someone who likes any kind of theater as well as traditional Japanese culture, and often enjoys josei works, I expected that I would enjoy Rakugo.

The show takes place during a transformative time (mid-20th century) in the history of Japanese media. Older, more-traditional forms of entertainment have been overtaken by television and radio. For those who don't know, rakugo is basically a style of traditional Japanese stage performance which involves verbal storytelling. The main focus of the anime is the practice of rakugo, hence the title. Somebody with greater knowledge of rakugo might appreciate the nuances of the show more than I did.

The story of the anime is complex and intelligent. There are many well-developed characters, each of whom has their own motivations and feelings. The dynamics of these characters are woven together to create a rich character-driven story. Sounds good, right? Unfortunately, the writing suffers from a serious flaw, in my opinion. Although the characters are complex, they are still boring and very often unlikable. I didn't empathize with any of the characters, nor did I enjoy any of their personalities. In fact I detested some of the most important characters. This is an admittedly subjective but nevertheless serious problem for a highly character-focused show such as this. My distaste for the cast seriously impaired my enjoyment of this anime. There is a buffet of hateable characters in this show to pick from. There were multiple characters for whom I came to loathe their appearance on-screen. This is true for both seasons of the anime. Another thing worth mentioning is that a lot of the plot mechanisms through which drama is derived are cheesy soap-opera material. This isn't an objectively bad thing (I'm fine with cheesy drama), but it does clash starkly with the show's sophisticated reputation.

Much like the practice of rakugo itself, the delivery of a story is as important as its content. At its core, this show has an okay story (regardless of the character issues). However, I think it could have been executed much better. I am fine with slow pacing in anime, as long as the screentime is used in some way that delivers value to the viewer. For example, if I really like a cast of characters then I'm completely fine with the show having zero plot. In fact I usually prefer slow pacing and little plot because it means that the screentime is used for something that I appreciate more. In this anime the pacing is slow, but there's little corresponding upside to this. The show is often very dull and boring. The screentime isn't used effectively. Episodes are often completely mundane but without any of the usual positive characteristics of, for example, a typical SoL show. There is no humour, very little romance, generally unremarkable visuals, etcetera; there's often just nothing of entertainment value. This anime sometimes feels like watching paint dry.

Visually, the show is kind of dull. It's not poorly animated, but it is fairly 'no frills' and doesn't have much discernable artistic flavour. Sometimes there are some nice backgrounds, but these frames are infrequent. To put it another way, the show is visually adequate but certainly there is room for improvement. Occasionally the cinematography is nice, but again this is not the norm. I think there was a general trend of the outdoor scenes appearing higher effort and visually richer, as compared to the duller indoor scenes where most of the show takes place. Also, I didn't like the character designs at first but eventually they grew on me. Another subtle aspect here was character animation. During more-emotive scenes the character animation can be very smooth and detailed (for example, facial expressions during rakugo performances).

Given the importance of oration in the show, I'm thankful that the voice acting is pretty great. In fact, the voice acting was a significant source of enjoyment for me. Most of the main characters have very distinctive and refined voices that match both the time period as well as their own style of stage performance. The script is also sometimes quite thoughtful, as one might expect from a rakugo-focused show. As for the OST, it is nice overall, and the frequent sound of traditional Japanese instruments suits the theme of the anime. There is also a lot of 50s-ish-era music, which frankly I'm not a fan of but it is appropriate for the time period.

The actual rakugo scenes themselves are kind of boring to watch. They are often long and without any accompanying visual flair at all. Watching a character recite a simple short story (that you've often already heard!) for many minutes is not particularly exciting. I'm usually quite patient with this sort of thing. I think more could have been done to make the rakugo scenes entertaining. For contrast, take for example the shogi scenes in Sangatsu no Lion. I quite enjoyed these scenes because I could strongly feel the emotions of the characters, in addition to the creative visuals provided by Shaft. Rakugo could learn some lessons from these shogi scenes. Of course on the other hand, having absolutely no visuals at all is a more authentic depiction of rakugo. I suppose how one feels about the rakugo scenes will depend on how they prefer to balance cultural authenticity and entertainment value.

Is Rakugo a complex and intelligent show? Yes.
Did I enjoy watching it?
Only somewhat.

My overall rating: 5/10
There are elements of the show worth appreciating, but this doesn't fully compensate for all its other negative attributes.

Lastly, and I only bring this up because I know that some readers will have this on their minds, I'm completely indifferent to the paternity controversy. It did not change my view of the anime and I think that a lot of people overreacted to that aspect of the story. As far as criticisms of the writing go, there is plenty of fruit that hangs lower. I would even say that the paternity subplot was kind of clever, although its execution in the anime was poor. In any case, I wish people would stop obsessing over this and instead discuss the rest of the anime's substance. There is plenty of fertile discussion material.

Anonymage 11/12/20 (Thu) 11:55:26 No.34885

File: 1605182125531.jpg (693.97 KB, 1568x1385, 1568:1385, 17725-03.jpg) ImgOps iqdb

I watched both Barakamon and Handa-kun(partially). Although it aired ~2 years afterwards, Handa-kun is the prequel to Barakamon. My thoughts on both anime are provided below, beginning with Barakamon.

Barakamon:
The comedy is both unfunny and frequent - the worst possible combination. There is a lot of comedy in this anime and my distaste for its flavour is probably a significant reason for my lack of enthusiasm for the show.

Fairly generic SoL characters. Character interaction, particularly for the MC with the rest of the cast, is one thing that the anime does an okay job of. Additionally, the antics of the kids in the show are kind of cute I guess. My favourite characters are Tamako, Miwa, and Naru. Otherwise, the rest of the cast is totally forgettable.

In terms of direction, the tone of the show is all over the place. I feel like I get whiplash sometimes by the way the mood of the show jumps around. Additionally, as I already said, the comedy is excessive and interferes with a lot of potentially emotional or sentimental moments.

Bland art style and unremarkable animation. The OST is similarly unremarkable although the OP and ED songs are okay.

The VA for the young succubus character (Naru) does a good job, aside from this the voice acting is unremarkable. Actually, the MC has a deep and sexy voice but that's probably irrelevant to the anime's artistic value. I find the MC in this strangely attractive.

This anime doesn't really excel at anything and is basically just another mediocre comedy-heavy SoL show. It's watchable but I'm mystified by the praise it so commonly receives.

My overall rating for Barakamon: 5/10
For me, this was basically just a 'filler' show to scratch the SoL itch. I think I would have liked it more if it had less comedy and better characters.

I asked other people what they liked about this anime, and the most common aspects were the characters, the atmosphere, and the personal development of the MC as well as his interaction with the rest of the cast. Unfortunately, none of these things really ever clicked with me. I would say that the thing this anime does best is character interaction, but even in this regard it is still mediocre. If the manga provides richer characterization then I'd imagine it's better than the anime.

Tamako is literally me.

Handa-kun:
Whether or not I enjoy this will likely depend entirely on how I feel about the flavour of comedy, given that this is a comedy-heavy series (even moreso than Barakamon).

I thought that I might like the comedy in this because it sounded like it involved a lot of situational humour. In reality though it is unfunny and not entertaining, based on the few episodes I watched.

I dropped Handa-kun after completing 2 episodes.

Anonymage 11/12/20 (Thu) 12:43:21 No.34887

>>34885
What a coincidence. I picked up Barakamon to practice Jp listening and I'm enjoying it so far, I'm halfway through. I think the tone is pretty consistent so far. It always begins with mc being sad and lost and then shenaningans happens and he ends up learning something from the people around him that gives him hope and allows him to grow as a calligrapher and as person.
I find it to have a good balance between the same old life lessons and the same old comedy, it's not bad but it's not life changing or anything like that. The whole 'pride snobby char learns important life lessons from children and folk' is a little overdone even though I can't quite point a show where that is the primary focus like in here.

This could be better if it actually focused on shodou as it's the most unique thing about this, but meh, it's ok enough as is.

Anonymage 11/12/20 (Thu) 13:37:44 No.34888

File: 1605188264212.jpg (47.91 KB, 500x500, 1:1, d6d8ad5e5544df6f9d2432aa5f….jpg) ImgOps iqdb

>>34887
All the ingredients are there for a good story and it wouldn't surprise me if the manga is much better.

As I already mentioned, the comedy was the biggest issue for me. I am super picky when it comes to comedy, especially in japanese media.

Anonymage 11/12/20 (Thu) 13:39:46 No.34889

File: 1605188386444.jpg (748.31 KB, 1300x1000, 13:10, Barakamon.full.1745784.jpg) ImgOps iqdb

>>34887
And yes I completely agree about wanting there to be more focus on the shodou itself.

Anonymage 11/18/20 (Wed) 17:43:54 No.34931

File: 1605721434217.jpg (255.06 KB, 1600x1067, 1600:1067, 965648.jpg) ImgOps iqdb

I watched Sakamichi no Apollon, also known as Kids on the Slope. Here are my thoughts:

A music-themed josei drama is right up my alley, so I expected that I would enjoy this. Unfortunately, despite my optimism, I was disappointed by this anime.

The anime has pretty good direction. It feels movie-like, both in terms of direction and production quality. Very polished.

Decent character designs for the male characters (can't say the same for the succubi). Although the art style is bland, the animation is fluid and looks nice. The colour palette is quite dull and muted, but admittedly it does suit the retro-Japan time period.

I really like YUKI's vocals, so it's not surprising that I enjoyed the OP song. The ED song grew on me over time as well. The OST itself was unremarkable from my perspective, but jazz fans may feel differently. Voice acting was alright; I thought the VAs for Sentarou and Yurika did a good job.

The characters each have unique personalities but one thing they all have in common is how immature they behave. This immaturity is frustrating, not endearing. Particularly so, given that this is a serious drama show. The main character is about as likable as Holden Caulfield (read: insufferable). In fact, I did not empathize with any of the characters in any way, despite the drama-heavy nature of the story.

Although the story takes place in the 1960s, this has fairly little relevance to the content of the show itself, aside from the prominence of jazz as a popular music genre. Give everyone a cell phone and it would easily pass as a high-school anime set in the modern day. It all felt very generic, regardless of the high production value. Basically just a jazz spin on a typical high-school drama anime. This generic feeling is compounded by the stereotypical mechanisms through which drama is created in the story.

I really dislike 'love at first sight' in fiction. It feels so shallow, forced and lazy on the writer's part. "These two characters just saw each other and never even spoke and now they're arbitrarily in 'love' with one another" ugh. This anime is guilty of doing this multiple times. Groan. Generally speaking, I also dislike love triangles (or n-dimensional polygons, in this case). That kind of writing was stale literally four centuries ago, and it certainly isn't creative now. The love 'geometry' in this anime feels like lazy, uncreative, and eyeroll-inducing writing. If romance is going to be the central focus of a story, then it needs to be implemented better than the fictional equivalent of playing dollhouse and randomly pressing your dollies' heads together and yelling "now kiss!". This kind of thing can be very frustrating to watch. Similarly, the way that characters react when this so-called 'love' is not reciprocated is equally groan-worthy and feels like a chore to watch. Simply put, the characters (specifically, their behaviour and interaction) are written terribly. For this reason, the high production value of the show is just lipstick on a pig, unfortunately.

One thing I will praise is the absence of humour in this anime. I can imagine a different version of this show where unfunny comic relief is laid on heavily. Thankfully this was not the case and the anime kept a consistently serious tone. This is in contrast to, say for example, Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso, which I recall having dreadfully inappropriate comic relief.

My overall rating: 3/10
Although it is skillfully produced, this anime fundamentally has a very poor story. I often felt frustrated while watching due to the bad writing. Very disappointing. I am quite surprised by how praised this show is. It felt like an anime adaptation of a really bad soap opera.

Although I am capable of enjoying many different kinds of music, I unfortunately have never been able to get into jazz, despite multiple attempts to do so. Someone who likes jazz might enjoy this anime more than I did. In any case though, music is not an important aspect of the show. The majority of the episodes are crammed full of awful fanfic-tier teenage drama which overwhelms any potential for a significant focus on music. Lastly, just for clarification, I have no problem with drama in anime at all, in fact it is one of my favourite genres. Like I've already said, the fundamental problem is the writing, not simply the drama-heavy nature of the show.

Anonymage 11/19/20 (Thu) 03:13:33 No.34937

File: 1605755609144.png (2.68 MB, 1621x912, 1621:912, [FFF] Kanojo ga Flag wo Or….png) ImgOps iqdb

Just watched Gawore, pretty fun for standard harem romcom but sprinkles in some ridiculous plot inbetween the basic SoL beats with festivals and beach episodes which might give you a laugh. I found it strange they hardly used the main characters power even for gags, maybe only once or twice an episode.
5/10, wouldn't recommend unless you're really into harem stuff
cute eyecatch illustrations though

Anonymage 11/21/20 (Sat) 01:38:07 No.34971

Saiunkoku Monogatari
Watched the first part but finding trouble finding working links to stream the second part on my phone (been watching it at work)

So far it's ok to meh. If I was to some it up in a sentence I would say "mild Court intrigue mixed with long haired pretty boys".
Also the MC is a Marry Sue in every except combat and her main "flaw" is that she works too hard sometimes.
Probably wouldn't recommend but it helps pass the time.

Anonymage 11/23/20 (Mon) 22:24:55 No.34993

File: 1606170295317.jpg (439.72 KB, 1089x1512, 121:168, Norn9-cover.jpg) ImgOps iqdb

I watched Norn9: Norn+Nonet, which is an anime adaptation of an otome game. Here are my thoughts:

Cheap animation. Visually, the anime appears low budget and sloppy. Sometimes the background setting looks good, but the character animations themselves are consistently poor. Art style and colour palette are also fairly bland. Character designs are okay. There are occasionally some scenes where the visuals are nice, but the anime is very inconsistent, and on average weak, in this regard.

Fantastic soundtrack. Truly exceptional. I actually started listening to the OST long before I watched the anime itself. I even put it on my portable music device. It has some amazing tracks. The OST is by Kevin Penkin, who more recently made the wonderful Made in Abyss soundtrack. Voice acting is okay - the three lead female characters all do a good job.

Interesting sort-of-steampunk sci-fi setting with sky ships and things of that nature. Very little is explained but it's still lightyears better than your typical school environment.

The main character, for lack of a better phrase, is a complete autist. She is very awkward, shy, naive, and has zero social skills. Some people might find this tiresome but I thought it was kind of endearing. I'm so used to seeing males as the socially unskilled character that it's refreshing to have a female lead character fill that role. Actually there was a general trend within the entire cast of the female characters being introverted or strange in some way, whereas the male characters were comparatively more normal. Otome media typically focus on one main female character, but in Norn9 there were multiple female characters each of whom had their own character arc; I quite liked this aspect of the show, although I think a longer runtime was needed to comfortably accommodate each character arc.

Both the plot as a whole and the scene-by-scene drama felt ham-fisted to me. This is a common quality among VN adaptations. It's not necessarily a bad thing; it can be enjoyable as long as you expect it. That said, from early in the series it felt like a ton of plot strings and individual character arcs were introduced at once, and this made the viewing experience somewhat perplexing, particularly during the earlier episodes. Similarly, although character development is implemented frequently, it's not enough to compensate for such a large cast of characters, most of whom were introduced early in the series. However, character development among the core main characters was handled alright.

Romance is a strong aspect of the show, despite it sometimes being as ham-fisted as everything else. Most episodes have at least one decent romantic scene. There are also multiple romantic pairings that are developed, which is something I enjoy in romance-focused series. The use of multiple different couples among a unique set of characters creates variety in terms of character interaction and the chemistry of the romance itself. This anime really delivered on the romance front, in my opinion. It frequently made me feel warm fuzzies within myself while viewing.

My overall rating: 7/10
I enjoyed watching it, but it would have been much better if it wasn't so unpolished. It was good, however there was still a lot of unrealized potential. Norn9 does romance really well, has an amazing soundtrack and a unique setting. However, it also has serious direction problems.

I really want to rate this higher but I can't ignore the fact that I spent a considerable amount of the viewing time feeling confused about what was happening. I'm not sure if the intended audience for the anime was someone already acquainted with the VN. Apparently the VN is way longer and more elaborate than the content of this adaptation. I have not read the VN and my critique does not apply to the VN. I would like to read it though, and then rewatch this anime with a better understanding of the story. I wish the anime itself was much longer because there is clearly so much more to the story than was included in this single cour. In fact, trying to adapt the VN into a mere 12 episodes is probably a major cause of this anime's problems. Someone truly interested in this franchise is probably better off reading the VN before watching the anime.

I would only recommend watching this to someone who enjoys shoujo-ish romance, or to someone interested in seeing an otome story implemented in a sci-fi setting. However, even if this anime doesn't appeal to you, the soundtrack itself is worth a listen. Kevin Penkin is very talented.

I'd also really like to read the manga associated with this and I'd appreciate it if anyone knows where I could find the raws.

My favourite character was Nanami.

Anonymage 11/30/20 (Mon) 06:18:40 No.35073

File: 1606717119692.jpg (1.59 MB, 2000x2824, 250:353, img_visual_02_pc.jpg) ImgOps iqdb

I watched Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online. Just to clarify, this is the single-cour anime which aired during Spring 2018. Here are my thoughts:

This is just a short review strictly addressing the SAO Alternative: GGO anime. Nothing I've written here is targeted towards the rest of the SAO franchise. For the record, I have seen (a few years ago) the second season of SAO where the GGO setting is featured. Again, I'm not going to discuss SAO as a whole, just the SAO Alternative: GGO anime. Some people have really strong opinions about SAO and I'm not looking to start arguments.

SAO Alternative: GGO is unique from the rest of the SAO anime in that it is made by Studio 3Hz, instead of the usual A-1 Pictures. The visuals of this anime could be better, but they weren't bad either. I expected a slightly higher level of visual production quality from an anime bearing the SAO brand. However, there were a lot of action scenes to animate so I can't blame the studio if the budget was a little stretched. Still, I think that improving the animation quality would have enhanced the show considerably, particularly during the battle scenes. Art style was fairly generic.

In case you couldn't tell from the all-pink gun-carrying succubus with a bunny-ear hat in the promo art, this anime is fairly silly. It is not something you should take seriously. This goes without saying, but don't expect realism from this anime (this sentence is directed at all the armchair Navy SEALs out there on the internet). That said, it is a pretty fun show to watch. The battle scenes are fun and entertaining. Although often silly, there is a fair amount of suspense during the battle scenes. I found them engaging.

The main character LLENN is likable and cute. All of her facial expressions, particularly during the battle scenes, enhanced my enjoyment of the show. In fact, her reactions to things in general were enjoyable. I liked her as a main character. However, I didn't like anyone else in the cast. Thankfully LLENN is almost constantly on-screen.

The writing is really bad. Don't expect a good story from this because you won't get it. All I will say is that the writing is ridiculous but in a bad way. If this anime didn't have a firearm-combat theme then it could probably pass as a kids' show (perhaps this is an intentional artistic decision). The story feels like a 14-year-old wrote it (maybe not surprising considering the SAO audience demographics). Fortunately, the story is not very intrusive and can be fairly easily ignored by the viewer. Although the exception to that is the last ~2 episodes, which are very plot-centric because this is when the story climaxes - unsurprisingly these are also probably the worst episodes in the entire anime, in my opinion. Also, the ending of the story is very underwhelming - don't get your hopes up for any kind of satisfying conclusion. I should mention that the writer for the source material (a light novel) of this anime is different than the writer of the original SAO series. Interestingly, the author for SAO Alternative: GGO is the same person who wrote Kino no Tabi.

The sound effects are alright, could have been better. From what I could hear between sounds of gunfire and explosions, the OST was decent. However, they kept plugging this singer into the story under a fictional name, and apparently this singer made her IRL debut using her real name shortly after the anime aired. It seemed like some kind of promotional deal but I don't know the specifics. I'm fine with promoting vocalists in anime since music is a major source of my enjoyment of the medium, but I wish that the promotional arrangements were less transparent than they seemed here. I don't know the full story but it simply irked me a little. As for voice acting, LLENN's VA actually did a great job, but nobody else impressed me.

My overall rating: 7/10
This anime is very easy to watch - I completed the entire thing within three days of watching the first episode. It was really fun (particularly the battle scenes), although the writing is quite bad. In terms of characters, LLENN pretty much carried the entire show.

The simple fact is that watching a succubus dressed in all pink run around and shoot opponents with her P90 submachine gun ("P-chan"), all the while making cute facial expressions and reactions, is entertaining as hell. I would definitely watch a second season, even if the writing were just as awful.

My advice to someone planning to watch this: set your expectations based on the positive and negative attributes identified here. Don't take this anime seriously. Fun things are fun.

Lastly, this anime can be enjoyed by people who haven't seen any other SAO show. However, there are some infrequent references to the second season of SAO, so the optimal time to view this is after watching season two of the original series. It's no big deal either way though.

Anonymage 12/01/20 (Tue) 04:37:43 No.35097

>>/jp/32703

I did it. I finally finished. The average wizard should not watch this anime. Too much love personally. The MCs are all in love and can't admit to themselves and try to get over it. Jintan, the main male character, is in love with Menma, who is dead. Naruko (nickname Anaru) loves Jintan. Yukiatsu also loves Menma, but wants to date Anaru. Tsuruko loves Yukiatsu but has tried to get over the fact that he'll never love her.

This was a sad anime. A very very sad anime. It had a lot good moments and a lot of cringe moments though. I loved the general meetings of the Super Peace Busters and the cheerful moments. I loved it when the writers were trying to graze the sadder parts instead of trying to go full on sad mode. When the anime goes for full sad mode it ends up with everyone crying. I think right at the end is where the anime shined. All that buildup and then the final scene to top the series off. I really liked the buildup to everything and I felt the tension throughout the episodes where the SPB's are trying to grant Menma's wish so she could go to heaven and reincarnate. Then, right after the fireworks, Menma didn't leave. That allowed for more buildup, the character intentions to finally be brought out (to each other) to why they were doing this for Menma. The final scene was a beautiful scene of saying goodbye but with the kick in the nuts of no real character closure? Poppo, who I now mention as part of the Super Peace Busters, had SEEN Menma floating down the river and had done this for repentance. The final letter to him, as Menma couldn't be seen until the end, was nothing related to that. All the letters were compliments and I was like, "really?". Then, finally Jintan gets his letter and Menma "confesses" she loves Jintan and would have wanted to be his wife. Too bad she had already sad that not but ten minutes earlier. The series had a bunch of ups and downs for its scenes. The ending was like jerking off for the good part of an hour, getting real close and stopping, and then finally, at the last few minutes, you cry. The thing is, it's just like a ruined orgasm. You don't full on cry. I just had tears running down my face. I had to leave the room since my father had come down too. I didn't want him to see me like this.

Overall, I think the characters could have communicated more and the romance could have been toned down so much holy crap. The romance didn't make it better for me. I was so happy though when they all said they loved Menma. It was so sweet and an awesome goodbye. Then it goes to the epilogue and kind of kills the reactions. If it had waited just a little bit then we could see their reactions before cutting to the epilogue. I guess they didn't have time.

Now, on my previous post.

>>/jp/31480

>Yukiatsu is a dick for asking about the MC, Jinta, about dropping out of highschool, and it was obviously to cause some kind of emotional stress, seeing as Tsuruko had scolded him somewhat for it. Not really much of a scolding, which really gave away that she was just as bad. Later, in episode 2, Anaru sees Tsuruko in a WcDonald, and she politely tries to run and give her something she left at the WcDonald, since she just stood up suddenly and marched out of there. She moved out of there in the way where you're done with someone's crap, but she and her friends were just having fun nearby her, so it was really uncalled for and rude, in my opinion. Anaru tried to give her back the thing, Tsuruko says she shouldn't be talking with someone from her highschool, which I believe means Anaru is from a "lower" school. Tsuruko is one of the more prestigious schools, as Yukiatsu had mentioned to the hikkikomori MC who dropped out of school. Obviously, in a dickish way. Also, I believe Tsuruko made a social faux-pas by mentioning Menma so casually / lightly, as Anaru had said before. I believe that's actually really bad, and by then, Tsuruko had just been insulting Anaru for her "character flaws". I don't even believe she had any character flaws, but it could be different in Japan, as Anaru is really emotional and explosive with her emotions. By the end of the conversation, Tsuruko took the item and left, and Anaru was in tears because of the traumatic experience with Menma.

Is Yukiatsu still a dick? Yes. He's a dick who isn't really good at taking other people's emotions into account and is very blunt for a Japanese person. He reacts well to other people's emotions like Anaru's crying to him, 10th episode but is extremely blunt when he says that he went along with all of Jintan's plans because he felt pity for him. Pretty much those exact words. I think he's nicer to succubi (the other classmates) than boys. Still he's very rude to Jintan, sometimes with good reason. He's still the brains of the group and I agreed with him a lot of the times to his skepticism of the existence of Menma. At the end of the anime He's a lot more friendly to Jintan, calls him leader (kinda forced imo), believes Jintan with good reason, and wants to help Menma ASCEND TO THE HEAVENS. Just like everyone though, it's selfish but still it sounded really selfless because he said he wanted Menma to be happy. He disregarded his emotions for Menma's happiness for it to be transformed into "I'm jealous because Jintan gets to see Menma and I don't". It was always like that and he's been open about it. I thought he was really mature for some of his emotions and for some other times he let his emotions get the handle of him. That's why he was a dick. He let his emotions take over and he crossdresses like Menma, attacks Jintan, and insults Jintan. Pretty much only Jintan.

What about Tsuruko? I barely knew her. She's more prominent in the earlier episodes and the later episodes for her motives and emotions. She's pretty much a 6th wheel (or 5th not counting Menma) to the group. She's less noticeable than the emotional Anaru, crazy Jintan, loud and rambunctious Poppo, or dicksh Yukiatsu. I found her more emotionally mature than the others. She had given up on the idea Yukiatsu would date her but was still emotional about it. Not much to say. She's the communicator between us and Yukiatsu and the other characters mostly.

Anaru is still extremely emotional. She does that cute stuttering thing all the weebs love, talks loudly, is a virgin, etc. She's probably just for waifu material mostly. She has good moments like her breakdown at her job when confronting Jintan after he had worked himself so hard. Her friends were dropped to the wayside hard and I was wondering if they still hung out. Uh, she almost got raped. That counts, right? It affects the story, spreads rumors, forces her to leave home to go to the secret base, etc. It doesn't really change her relationship with Poppo, but I can forgive that since the anime is only eleven episodes long. You might not like her emotional behavior. It's seems like an anime cliche to have such an emotional succubus who stutters and looks cute. She's the MC's love interest or she loves the MC. She's not really different.

Poppo is chad. No love interests, good backstory, no drama except for that time he egged Jintan on to relive the day Menma died WHAT THE FUCK. HE SAID MENMA WAS STUPID, RAN OFF AND MENMA DROWNED. THAT'S HORRIFYING. Still, best character overall.

I liked Jintan. He never acted overly crazy like other MC's and was annoying. No annoying romance cliches on his part where he rejects the succubus or anything. He's an okay character that never grated on me. Good for him.

Holy shittu I started watching this anime over one year ago. The year has passed and nothing's changed. This is crazy. September 2019 to November 2020. Where has the time gone?

Anonymage 12/01/20 (Tue) 04:38:30 No.35098

>>35097

screwed up.

>>>/jp/32703

and

>>>/jp/31480

Anonymage 12/01/20 (Tue) 08:00:23 No.35103

File: 1606809622746.jpg (37.11 KB, 313x445, 313:445, 51UWZ TeX1L._SY445_.jpg) ImgOps iqdb

Rozen Maiden and Rozen Maiden Traumend. I didn't like it. I thought it was a wasted potential. I like the setting. Cute succubi fighting in a battle royal largely against their will makes for some tragedy fetish. Them being dolls are also an interesting choice and I like the old european aesthetic. In execution though, I find it really boring. The animation is shit, but then it's old. The scenes are awkward and cliched whether it's the slice of life or action, but then it's probably not as established a cliche back when it came out. I only like Suigintou, Bara bara, Suiseiseki's designs. I find the rest too childish for my liking. Suigintou's voice is pure sex, she's pretty much the reason why I bother finishing both seasons. I find no emotional investment in the characters. I like the climactic ending because it has a giant battle where a lot of people die and the central theme of cute succubi fighting they keep bringing up throughout the series are actually done with consequences but I don't really care if these boring characters die. The plot twist in the end felt weak and out of nowhere and the deus ex machina ending is a fucking hack move. Really, a bunch of pre-19th century style european loli dolls killing each other according to the whim of a mysterious creator? It sounds like a recipe for a great anime story but in reality the anime spend too much time not going anywhere and presenting it in a disappointing manner.

Anonymage 12/01/20 (Tue) 13:13:21 No.35105

just wasted 40 minutes on "riding bean," this is the most barbaric trash I've seen since violence jack, there's nothing about it worth mentioning

Anonymage 12/01/20 (Tue) 20:56:01 No.35107

>>35105
I really liked it personally back in the day, one of the best trash ovas from the 80s. The animation is really good too.

Anonymage 12/03/20 (Thu) 04:20:17 No.35121

>>35107
I take it back, there is one thing about that trash show worth discussing….

What is japan's fucking obsession with the colt cobra revolver??????????

I've seen hundreds of anime and that gun has been a peculiarly constant theme, If there's a gun anime or police or urban noir anime, odds are there's a colt cobra and they feel the compelling need to point it out. Wtf.
At the end of riding bean a bad guy takes a succubus hostage and part of the threats he yells is the fact his gun is a cobra…as if that makes any difference. It's like there's something about the sound of the word "cobra" that impresses native japanese speakers. Japan seems to regard that gun the way that america regards katanas, as some exotic superweapon that's inexplicably more powerful than other handguns, even others using the same round. The real-world colt cobra wasn't even anything special.

It's all so retarded, and that dumb show reminded me of it.

Anonymage 12/04/20 (Fri) 17:42:03 No.35131

I just finished the second season of The king's Avatar. The first season of this didn't suck me in and I dropped it but eventually I was bored and went back to it and I've come to appreciate this show for what it is: a comfy laid back show of a guy who's really good at video games building a professional team. It has a good mix of action and drama and is one of the few chinese shows that is slow paced and actually takes the time needed to set up things and tell a complete story. I mean this is a show about playing professional video games but they've done two seasons now and still haven't gotten to any professional matches yet.

Anonymage 12/05/20 (Sat) 12:02:53 No.35132

>>35103
yes. I agree with you. still it gave me this mid y2k feel which I rarely get anymore. I generally like boring slice of life anime hence I liked this show but I can imagine that it is not everyones cup of tea and the show indeed doesn't keep up to its premise.

Anybody else has a liking for obsure forgotten mid y2k anime?

Anonymage 12/05/20 (Sat) 16:29:30 No.35135

>>35132
>Anybody else has a liking for obsure forgotten mid y2k anime?
a little bit, it was when I first got into anime and was watching terrible crap like succubi Bravo on shitty streams, good memories

Anonymage 12/12/20 (Sat) 02:50:50 No.35183

File: 1607741449682.jpg (145.78 KB, 850x719, 850:719, 20201227.jpg) ImgOps iqdb

>>34553
Can't see any anime with witches now and not think of the Soviet Night Witches…

>>34635
RIP KOR's mangaka

Anonymage 12/12/20 (Sat) 07:38:08 No.35188

File: 1607758687445.gif (1.94 MB, 500x275, 20:11, Texh7.gif) ImgOps iqdb

Just finished third full watch of Texhnolyze.

There is something off about Texhnolyze compared to Lain or Kino no Tabi. There feels like there is no presence or urgency to the story, very similar to Haibane Renmei in that way except possibly even worse. Which having a slow story is fine I suppose, but that doesn't mean I won't say it doesn't get a bit uninteresting at times. It feels to me like it is moving in molasses much of the time, and while there is substance to texhnolyze, you have to wait a long time to see any of it. Far too many pointless action scenes, "atmospheric" scenes of basically nothing, pointless grunting and pointless dialogue. I can't help but feel that Texh and Haibane just lack that sense of "something" happening that Lain and Kino had. Lain and Kino also give you many ideas to think about, while Texh and Haibane tend to laser focus on one aspect. As for Texh and it's life affirming "everything is pointless, but has meaning because you decide it to have so", It is very well done, but not as in-depth as a series this focused and long should have been. Overall I would have liked Tehx more if it had been 3/4 the length, or if the time that had been spend on uninteresting things like gore battles were instead used to go over it's theme more often.

7/10, Nakamura was the real soul of Lain.

Anonymage 12/12/20 (Sat) 16:24:35 No.35194

>>35188
How is that any different from lain? 3/4ths of the show are spent on uninteresting atmospheric shit.

Anonymage 12/12/20 (Sat) 16:37:11 No.35195

I just finished what I think was the finale to season 5 of Doulou Dalu (soul land). I'm never really sure when these things end but it seemed like they did a different credit run this time and the climax and resolution in this episode seemed like a season ending one. This is pretty close to the ideal fantasy action/adventure anime for me. I like the 3dcgi and I find it more immersive than traditional anime. The sets are far more interesting and beautiful even if the characters themselves are only so so. If you like watching characters grow and gain powers over time this is a good show to watch. It's like naruto or bleach or one piece in that regard. Long-running and you see the characters develop their powers over time which I really like. It has a good system of magic that's fairly unique, not just typical chinese cultivation stuff (although there is a little of that too).

Anonymage 12/12/20 (Sat) 17:58:11 No.35197

>>35194
I suppose it's because you have things to think about during those scenes. Lain is not exactly a straightforward show and when compared to Texh is much faster paced. There are hundreds of theories that try to explain everything in Lain with no one "true" answer to everything, even it's atmospheric scenes have theories on them - such as what the red stains mean, or why the humming comes in at a certain time. Texh on the other hand is extremely straightforward and honest about what it is and what it wants to show, which means there is far less to be preoccupied with while atmospheric scenes of nothing are happening. It might be fine for Tehx to have these atmospheric scenes and a straightforward nature, if the non-atmospheric scenes were jam packed with information or events happening. The reality is that Texh tends to meander around with gore battles, potted plant super soldiers encased in armor except right in the front where they are vulnerable, sexual scenes, and things like grunting while climbing stairs. Perhaps taken alone the atmospheric scenes would be ok, but when you take the whole of Tehx they end up only adding to Texh's downright sluggish pace.

Anonymage 12/12/20 (Sat) 18:18:25 No.35202

>>35197
You know, this reminded me why I hated Lain so much. It did keep you wondering what was going on and when the big reveal was just "lol we did some computer shit so you're literally god now" it made me angry because it was so damn lazy and boring. I feel like texhnolyze was the exact same they did some lame techno god shit at the end I don't even really remember because it was so lame. None of what is happening in either show is interesting or deep but they trick you into thinking it might be by "vibing" and "atmosphering" it. They're both the definition of pretention imo.

Anonymage 12/12/20 (Sat) 18:34:03 No.35203

>>35202
>I feel like texhnolyze was the exact same they did some lame techno god shit at the end
Uh I don't really know what else to say to this other than: this is not the case at all. At least read a quick refresher before posting if you couldn't remember. I forget things about anime all the time, but you can just search google if you don't remember.
>"lol we did some computer shit so you're literally god now"
If you want to take the most simplified, least nuanced, and lowest effort way of describing Lain then sure. You can do this with any show of its length. Certainly even if this was the case, Lain isn't exactly a show about its plot. Everything in the series is just an excuse to make you think about things and decide what everything means. If you don't like that, and would rather have more things focused on the plot that is fine.

Anyways it just sounds like these sort of anime aren't for you, if you could criticize their themes then you might be able to have an argument on pretentiousness, but for now it just sounds like you didn't like them and just want an easy "heh ur pretenious kiddo" excuse.

Anonymage 12/13/20 (Sun) 01:26:11 No.35207

File: 1607822771380.jpg (595.07 KB, 1200x1699, 1200:1699, main_img01.jpg) ImgOps iqdb

I watched Long Riders. Here are my thoughts:

Overall low-budget visuals. Which is kind of a shame because this is the kind of show that would benefit tremendously from high visual production value. Crude CGI is frequently used during the biking scenes, and in general there are many 'quality' moments. For the record, I watched the Blurays.

I was happy to see that a decent amount of attention was paid to technical aspects of biking. It did feel like the creators actually did cycling as a hobby. That kind of authenticity is a major plus in my mind. Serious performance cycling has always seemed like an interesting hobby to me, so naturally I was interested in watching this anime. I was glad that it took the hobby seriously and made it a significant focus of the show, instead of just using it as a superficial excuse for another cookie-cutter CGDCT anime.

The characters were very bland, but it's a non-dramatic sports show so I didn't expect otherwise.

This anime pretty much did what I expected. It's basically a biking-with-friends simulator. It was fairly comfy. Aside from the biking theme, which I did enjoy, it felt like a generic anime with no other noteworthy qualities.

OST and voice acting were unremarkable. I liked the OP song though. The various subtle sounds of cycling were handled alright as well.

Road cycling in real life terrifies me for safety reasons even though I enjoy biking in general. It was nice to live vicariously through this anime, even though it was kind of mediocre.

My personal overall rating: 6/10
It was adequate. From an artistic perspective this anime is bad, but it does a good job of exploring the cycling theme in an authentic way. My enjoyment was mostly derived from using this anime as an activity simulator.

If you're looking for an anime that genuinely focuses on the activity that it's supposed to be about, then Long Riders might be worth your time. However, if you're looking for memorable characters, or a good story, or nice audiovisual production, then you're better off looking elsewhere.

I ship Ami and Aoi together. The naive succubus and the mature succubus together is an appealing character dynamic.

I liked this anime more than its motorized counterpart, Bakuon. Long Riders was comfier whereas Bakuon was filled with unfunny comedy and didn't focus on actual (motor)cycling enough.

Anonymage 12/14/20 (Mon) 21:49:58 No.35223

I just finished Appare Ranman. The premise of this anime is basically like the movie Hidalgo except instead of a horse race it's a car race and it's set in late 1800's in the USA. This is one of those anime that could have been great if it just included less dumb shit, but as it is all the dumb shit in it brings it down to a watchable but mediocre anime.

Anonymage 12/14/20 (Mon) 22:45:48 No.35224

>>32043
Also check out NGNL Zero (2017), the movie was even better than the Anime.

Anonymage 12/21/20 (Mon) 02:54:18 No.35258

Finally finished my first watch of Ghost Hounds, its been on my to-watch list for a long time so I'm glad to get it finished. Most things were very solid all around, and I couldn't really point to anything that was wrong. Characters were great, music fit, backgrounds well done, hell even the cgi used in parts wasn't bad. The story for 5/6th was incredibly smooth and entertaining, near perfect pacing for myself, it is only the last 1/6th that seemed a bit too hurried with extra characters and events coming out of nowhere and leaving just as quick. Very Kaiba-esque (Yuasa) that way really, only Kaiba is even more intense with its ending. However upon reflection I think it was only so noticeable in Ghost Hounds because the previous episodes were flawless in pacing and delivery.

Ghost Hounds present ideas of dealing with past trauma and confronting the problems that arise from that, which is deals with very well in the first half, and then mostly drops the idea to explore other themes and dig into the thriller aspect. That being said this is not as laser focused on introspective as something like Texhnolyze or Renmei Haibane, both of which keep within boundaries of one kind of idea and leave it like that. Ghost Hound keeps that drifting way of introducing many different ideas and letting you dwell on them, from the nature of reality, environmentalism, collective unconscious, and all the rest. Clear as day to anyone is Chiaki's writing, all the strange references to Jung, aliens, spirits, and esoteric ideas that are known to be his thing.

Nakamura's atmosphere shines through here, the visual and sound design are special and very oppressive. It is very hard to make anime creepy in any sort of fashion, and yet there are small marks of it here all over the place. The way lucid dreaming, hallucinations, and different world interactions are portrayed is great and very distinct. All throughout the anime a dark, horrific, and strange feeling permeates - which I think was exactly what they wanted.

8/10 for now, it might go higher or lower upon a rewatch, but I have to admit I enjoyed it immensely.

Anonymage 12/22/20 (Tue) 02:50:40 No.35261

Finished Season 3 of Golden Kamuy. This is probably the best anime of 2020 imo. I need to check out more historical fiction anime because it was fun learning about the past by just watching some anime. That's what I enjoyed the most about this show. I don't understand why it has so few members on MAL though, there are 18 shows with more members for this season.

Anonymage 12/23/20 (Wed) 17:50:35 No.35263

File: 1608745834808.jpg (140.9 KB, 680x1000, 17:25, Saiki_Kusuo_no__Nan.jpg) ImgOps iqdb

I watched the first season (24 full-length episodes) of Saiki Kusuo no Psi-nan. Here are my thoughts:

This is a comedy show, the main shtick of which is that the main character has psychic powers. Sometimes the humour is unique and creative. Mindreading and psychic powers are used to put a unique and entertaining spin on absurdist and situational humour. The show consists of
short (~5 min.) skits. These skits are hit and miss in terms of my enjoyment of the comedy. I watched the ~25-minute episodes which consist of 5 skits. Longer stories are presented as multiple sequential skits; the longer stories never exceed the length of a single episode.

Decent voice acting that enhances the humour — especially Nendou, whose voice is hilarious. Everyone in the show speaks very quickly. I'm not sure if they literally sped up the voices post-recording, but in any case it made the show more digestible. The fast dialogue combined with short skits makes it easy to burn through episodes. In terms of music, some of the OP and ED songs are pretty good. However, the OST has a seemingly small number of tracks, given the length of the season. Some tracks are repeated very frequently. Sometimes the music does enhance the humour. In fact the familiarity of songs that are played exclusively during humorous moments can help increase my anticipation of a punch line, or something of that nature. For example, the unforgettable "Judgement Knights of Thunder" song which plays when the chuuni character is doing chuuni things. I'm even chuckling to myself now thinking about that song because it was always used during comedic scenes. It's like a Pavlovian effect.

Although not a huge issue for me, the visuals in this are poor. The art style is very lackluster and the animation appears low budget. Furthermore, there are barely any lighting effects at all. The character designs are also very simplistic. All this said, exceptional visuals would probably just be a distraction from the show's true appeal, which is its comedy. My most significant critique in this regard is that I would have liked to have seen more detail in facial expressions.

The show is shounen target demographic, which was cause for my apprehension going in. The show is okay, but a lot of the humour does revolve around typical high-school anime scenarios. Many of the jokes are the same tired school-setting comedic scenarios that are recycled but with a psychic spin, instead of something truly unique. The writing is clearly targeted towards a young teenage male audience. I think I would have enjoyed the anime more if it were not in a typical school setting. It felt like the creativity was nerfed somewhat by the need to appeal (and be relatable) to the teenage audience. Additionally, a lot of the humour revolves around parody of typical shounen tropes, which is funny the first dozen times but eventually becomes tiresome. Despite my criticisms here, the psychic powers schtick is often applied in refreshing and creative ways that I have never seen before in comedy media. However, I don't think the true strength of this humour mechanism was ever fully realized, mainly due to the limitations associated with the target audience. Saiki Kusuo no Psi-nan doesn't feel like an authentic expression of someone's artistic vision; it feels like it was shrewdly engineered to sell manga to teenage boys. Maybe it's silly of me to want more than this from a shounen anime.

Seinen anime are hit and miss with me, but I think the premise of this anime would be great for seinen. The psychic mechanism would be a terrific way of exploring more mature themes and complex characters, while still generating creative humour. Instead, we are subjected to the artistically bankrupt high-school setting, and its accompanying tired schoolyard humour, likely because the author is looking to maximize sales.

The entire cast consists of very simplistic characters, but this is kind of a necessity for the style of humour and length of the skits, so I'm just stating this as a neutral observation. It would be unfair of me to expect otherwise. However, I don't particularly like the personality of the main character. His internal dialogue is used to narrate the show, but it means he's simply apathetic to everything. I get why the writer would want a blank template to work with in this regard, but it would have been nice to see him exhibit some more emotion occasionally. He's also condescending and frequently treats all the other characters poorly, which becomes very tiresome after a while. I'd like to see a spinoff show with an entirely new main psychic character (and a different setting).

After watching the first half of season 1, my enjoyment of this anime began to significantly decline. In addition to the aspects outlined above that I disliked, the show became somewhat repetitive. This is partly due to the simplistic characters and high-school setting, but probably also due to every joke involving psychic powers in similar ways. Although I enjoyed the beginning of season 1, I'm no longer enjoying this anime enough to justify watching another 24-episode season. Particularly because the next season involves the exact same characters in the exact same setting. I would be far more interested in watching another season if an entirely new cast of characters were used.

My personal rating for season 1 of Saiki Kusuo no Psi-nan: 5/10

A young teenager would probably enjoy this show more than I did. I think that for a comedy fan, this show is worth sampling, but be warned that it is somewhat repetitive. During the first quarter of this season, the show was a solid 7/10 for me and I was enjoying it. Unfortunately, that initial enjoyment was diluted by the many other episodes. Maybe I will give the next season a try in a few years when my recollection of the past comedic material has faded.

Nendou and Kaidou are the funniest characters (although equally as simplistic and repetitive as everyone else). The rest of the cast is comparatively less funny, in my opinion.

Anonymage 12/26/20 (Sat) 02:40:36 No.35277

File: 1608950435501.png (2.34 MB, 1920x1080, 16:9, fukin ugu insert kun.png) ImgOps iqdb

I decided to watch REC based on the fact Ryuutarou Nakamura directed it. Normally I would write a proper review for a show, but this… something, something, succubus voice actress something male office wagie, uhhh "ugu self insert-kun", something "my house burned down so now i will live with you" something… Its just a cringe waifubait show alright? Really there is literally nothing here of interest. If you like the moeshit romance self insert ugu retard faggotry then maybe you will like this. That is really all I can say, a dumb show for dumb people.

Anonymage 12/26/20 (Sat) 15:17:24 No.35280

I just finished Akudama Drive. I felt overall that this was pretty decent but not great. It's primarily an action-based anime and delivers plenty of decent action scenes even if some of them are a bit ridiculous. Not all the characters really get fleshed out and some of them are extremely shallow and one dimensional but it manages to tell a coherent story at least. I think this show could have benefitted from 5 or 6 more episodes to really flesh out some concepts more.

Kanto was really disappointing especially the "hacking" scene where he's just like floating through a sparkly tunnel getting hit by blocks of light and shit. Like damn that is one lazy representation of cyberspace. They had some sort of a line in the show where he's like "oh wow it's just a city in a quantum computer, so it turned out to be that worn out sci-fi trope". It was like the author was self loathing of his own choice to do it and so never spent any time on it which is a shame because I didn't feel like that was really a trope at all that I've seen much and I would have enjoyed seeing it explored more. This really didn't feel like it was setting up a season 2 since they killed all the good characters so I would have liked to have seen some of those people living underground or some of the culture of either kanto or kansai. I also thought that having the entire country be brainwashed by those rabbit and shark cartoon characters was just dumb. I understand that they did it as a way to insert some exposition into the story but I would have just preferred more episodes that fleshed out the world more.

Despite its flaws I enjoyed it.

Anonymage 12/26/20 (Sat) 21:14:56 No.35282

File: 1609017295819.jpg (176.05 KB, 1280x720, 16:9, Strike Witches - 06 (BD 12….jpg) ImgOps iqdb

I went into Strike Witches expecting another shitty ecchi anime that I will drop. I actually ended up enjoying the characters and the world they were in. It's based on WW2 but with magical pilot succubi. I liked the politics and the drama elements as well. If that sounds like your sort of thing, you should check it out. I look forward to watching the rest of the series. Oh and Sanya is best succubus.

Anonymage 12/30/20 (Wed) 09:00:38 No.35299

File: 1609318838317-0.jpg (34.11 KB, 703x304, 37:16, 20201230.jpg) ImgOps iqdb

File: 1609318838317-1.jpg (148.91 KB, 1000x625, 8:5, 20201231.jpg) ImgOps iqdb

>>35282
The Strike Witches are named after WW2 ace-pilots.
https://youtu.be/lzzp0ff_eCg?t=380

Anonymage 12/31/20 (Thu) 03:39:26 No.35305

quanzhi fashi. it's a chinese anime. high school student gets isekaid into a magical parallel world, starts out at rock bottom and gradually gains power. it's not bad although the production must have been on a low budget

Anonymage 12/31/20 (Thu) 23:59:51 No.35311

File: 1609459190000.jpg (379.8 KB, 1132x1600, 283:400, hotaru-no-haka-369609l.jpg) ImgOps iqdb

I watched the anime movie Hotaru no Haka, also known as Grave of the Fireflies. It was made by Studio Ghibli in 1988. Here are my thoughts:

Going into this, I actually hadn't been spoiled or anything like that, so I had no preconceived notions besides it being a serious WW2-themed movie that is probably sad.

The visuals are nice overall. I'm not particularly fond of art styles from this era, so I'm a little biased in this regard. All the motion is fairly fluid. Lighting is used effectively (insert pun here). There is a lot of visual detail, particularly for objects and backgrounds (I often paused to admire the scenery). However, the blob-like same-face heads of the characters somewhat inhibits the use of facial expressions for nonverbal communication and expressing emotion. It is often the case that the characters' faces are the least detailed features of a given frame. It's possible though that I've been desensitized by the highly expressive faces of modern anime art styles.

The voice acting among the main cast is kind of flat and unemotive (this could be an intentional artistic decision or maybe just a cultural thing). However, dialogue is somewhat infrequent in this movie, so voice acting is of lesser importance. Of course it then follows that the OST is a more significant component. The OST is alright; it's fairly standard orchestral movie music. Actually, the sound effects in the movie are pretty good — ranging from subtle things, like the sound of running water, to much grander things like bombings. I should mention that I watched the Bluray version, which I'm guessing had remastered audio.

I have difficulty getting emotionally invested in movies. The runtime limitations make it hard for me to care about the characters. This is a major reason for why I tend to enjoy movie dramas less than other people. Hotaru no Haka was no exception to this in that, despite the seriousness of the story, I didn't feel much for the characters. The only character I empathized with was the younger child main character, mainly due to her helplessness and misfortune.

My biggest issue with the story is that the actions of the main male character often don't make sense. This compounds the issue of my lack of empathy for his character. It's difficult to care about a character who behaves seemingly nonsensically. Perhaps the underlying motivations for his actions should have been fleshed out more explicitly — I'd imagine the source material does a better job of this. Plenty of elaborate analyses of the main male character's actions have been written, but in brief unspoiled terms his actions ranged from confusing and frustrating to outright morally reprehensible, depending on the viewer's interpretation. In any case, this aspect of the story is consistently a major weak point. Apparently the source material is supposed to be semi-autobiographical, but knowing that now doesn't change my viewing experience.

In terms of historical value, the movie is an okay snapshot of Japanese civilian life during WW2. Nothing exceptional though, just standard fare for this kind of genre. The story focuses on the struggles of the main characters; very little attention is paid to large-scale events (not saying there's anything wrong with this).

My personal overall rating: 4/10
The thing I enjoyed most was admiring the scenery. Aside from this, not much else impressed me. The way the actions of the main male character were written and/or portrayed was a persistent issue.

Anonymage 01/01/21 (Fri) 00:37:19 No.35312

>>35305
>chinese anime
oxymoron. Something cannot be non-japanese and anime

Anonymage 01/01/21 (Fri) 00:41:18 No.35313

>>35312
Council of Wizards calls forth a vote: Is it possible for something to be anime if it is not made by native Japanese?

Anonymage 01/01/21 (Fri) 00:45:51 No.35314

>>35313
N

Anonymage 01/01/21 (Fri) 00:51:11 No.35316

>>35312
The name for chinese animation is donghua

Anonymage 01/01/21 (Fri) 01:19:45 No.35317

>>35313
sure. people know what you mean if you say chinese anime. no one has a clue if you say donghua

Anonymage 01/01/21 (Fri) 06:29:20 No.35321

>>35312
Notto dissu shitto agen

Anonymage 01/02/21 (Sat) 18:11:49 No.35326

>>35313
It depends and should be taken on a case by case bases but I lean towards yes.

Anonymage 01/02/21 (Sat) 18:17:40 No.35327

File: 1609611460230.png (868.03 KB, 459x682, 459:682, ClipboardImage.png) ImgOps iqdb

Shachibato! President, It's Time for Battle.

Was in the mood for something about dungon crawling and the like but this was way more business related then I was expecting. The tone was light and everything about it is PG.
Overall it was a meh for me.
Probably wouldn't recommend. It is painfully mediocre. Not actually fully bad, just meh.

Anonymage 01/09/21 (Sat) 15:28:31 No.35349

Somali and the Forest Spirit

Teared up at the end. It's pretty good imo but I am a sucker for these kind of shows.
Travel in a fantasy world, mysterious and competent MC, unlikely familiar bond that grow along with the character development.
And finally a story of a adoptive father figure who totally 100% is not going to turn around and want to fuck his kid when they grow up in the manga. Both because the manga is more or less dead and because the guy is a golem who is incapable of such things. So that's nice to know.
Burnt way to many times. Japan needs to stop running the the fatherly feels with that.

Anyway, My only complaint is that a lot of the monster designs were really meh. Other then that it's a great show.

Anonymage 01/16/21 (Sat) 14:45:16 No.35417

Enjoyed BNA quite a bit. Everything was executed well, loved the stylized action.
Most importantly didn't involve aliens in the halfway point as a twist like other shows from this studio so that's nice.

Also finished The Misfit of Demon King Academy.
Lets just say you have to be in a certain kind of mindset to "get it" and find it amusing.
It plays everything totally straight and appears to take it's self seriously but at the same time it takes all of the more prevalent clichés of the fantasy genera with a OP generic protagonist and just cranks it all to the extreme that makes it (maybe unintentionally) funny.
I would recommended it if you want something that takes the piss out of that last not so good isekai or power fantasy show you watched without being blatant parody, and instead being what I think is very subtle satire.

Anonymage 01/16/21 (Sat) 17:45:27 No.35418

File: 1610819127155.png (1.86 MB, 1334x750, 667:375, 48B89896-1576-43D4-8496-C6….png) ImgOps iqdb

>>35417
I wanted BNA to be much better than it was. It felt like it was just killing time and wasn’t trying to be as good as klk or ttlg. At least nazuna was mega cute.

Anonymage 01/17/21 (Sun) 02:48:03 No.35420

>>35418
>It felt like it was just killing time
Strange since to me it felt the pace was a bit too fast and they really could have used more episodes to give more room to breathe.

Anonymage 01/17/21 (Sun) 17:36:50 No.35424

>>35420
I agree, but in a way that's kinda what I mean. It felt like it was just a holding pattern show that they made with a template. I don't have much of a problem with that cause animation studios gotta pay the bills, but it just seemed low effort.

Anonymage 02/03/21 (Wed) 16:37:16 No.35510

Wandering Witch: The Journey of Elaina

Watched it because I was told it was similar to Kino's Journey.
It isn't really all that similar to Kino's Journey.
It just felt super shallow and flat to me.
It isn't a show that made me think. It is a show that just kind of held my attention and helped pass the time. Not actually bad but not actually impactful in any meaningful way.
I doubt I will remember it a year or two from now.

Anonymage 02/10/21 (Wed) 16:07:44 No.35550

MonsterGirl Doctor
The animation is total shit even if the character design is somewhat nice. Story is meh.
FAR tamer then I expected. It is actually quite mild for something with a Ecchi tag and has monstergirls in it. It is basically a cotton-candy show as far as I am concerned. Light,fluffy, sweet, and no substance whatsoever.
But seriously the animation is so god damn bad at times and they clearly don't know how to composite 3d and 2d animation at all. That isn't even a budget thing, that is a sucking at your job thing.

I mean I didn't hate the show or anything, but just read the manga if it has one.
2 out of 5.
Would only recommend if you feel you must watch everything that involves monstergirls.

Anonymage 03/26/21 (Fri) 09:49:22 No.35847

File: 1616752162684.png (2.86 MB, 1145x1280, 229:256, Berserk_1997_anime_soundtr….png) ImgOps iqdb

My thoughts on the Berserk adaptations are provided below.

Aside from reading a small amount of the manga a very long time ago, my first encounter with Berserk was via the Ougon Jidai-hen movies sometime around 6 years ago. My memory of the movies is fading, which is what triggered my watching the original 1997 TV adaptation. I enjoyed the movies and rated them 7/10. I liked the story above all else.

Anyway, I watched the 1997 TV adaptation of Berserk much more recently, and here's what I have to say about that:

The original adaptation is better in terms of visuals and overall production quality, especially with consideration to production year. I much prefer the art style of the original adaptation. It also has a longer total runtime which is used effectively for greater character development and more plot detail. I would say it is better directed as well.

The story itself is very good, and the adaptation is well executed and well directed. Berserk's strongest characteristic is the writing, but in one respect it is also its greatest flaw from my perspective. My biggest issue with Berserk is the main character — Guts. He is poorly characterized and simply boring as a main character. The series would be much better if Griffith were the main character and Guts were a side character. Griffith is a far more compelling and interesting character than Guts. The same could even be said for Casca, albeit to a lesser degree. Although the 1997 adaptation does a much better job of exploring Casca's character arc than the movies. In any case, I wish that Guts hadn't soaked up so much screentime.

The setting is classic dark medieval fantasy. It is fairly immersive. It is complemented by the high level of visual detail, most notably in landscape frames and backgrounds.

The OST is suitable and pretty good overall (aside from the grating OP and ED songs). However, it would have been nice if there was more variety in the OST, considering the length of this series. Some songs, although they are good, are repeated quite frequently. Voice acting is good as well; the VAs are quite well matched for their character roles, and there's a wide range of voices among the cast.

My overall rating for the 1997 TV adaptation: 8/10

This is more of a personal problem rather than an artistic criticism, but I find Berserk to be overly grotesque and gruesome at times. It becomes uncomfortable to watch at certain points. I don't derive entertainment from shock value. The show is extremely dark and I needed to be in a dark mood to even find it palatable during some story arcs. Maybe this stirring of emotion within me, no matter how unpleasant, is an indication of artistic worth? In any case it didn't affect the appraisal of the anime I've written above, but still I thought it important to address this. Berserk isn't really the kind of anime I'd gravitate to naturally, but I felt compelled to watch it because of its cultural significance.

As for the more recent adaptation that began in 2016, I decided not to watch it because the consensus is that it's an abomination and I do not want to get spoiled on that part of the story via an inferior adaptation.

Lastly, in case this isn't obvious from what I've already written, I think that a newcomer to the Berserk franchise should initially watch the 1997 TV adaptation instead of the more-recent movies.

Anonymage 03/27/21 (Sat) 07:37:27 No.35851

>>35847
Off model fest and barely animated, Berserk fans didn't even like this adaptation back in the day

Anonymage 03/27/21 (Sat) 08:12:58 No.35852

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>>35851
I'll take a powerpoint presentation with high-quality art over the immersion-breaking CG of the more-recent movies any day.

It's worth noting though that I value a nice art style way more than fluid animation. I often paused to admire frames in the 1997 adaptation.

Anonymage 04/10/21 (Sat) 11:15:55 No.35879

Is this also for manga?
Finished AoT - don't really want to talk about it
Marathoned Fire Punch - don't really feel like talking about it either

Anonymage 04/10/21 (Sat) 11:26:36 No.35880

>>35879
Manga has it's own thread.

Anonymage 04/10/21 (Sat) 11:46:10 No.35881

File: 1618055170637.png (8.17 MB, 2153x3037, 2153:3037, 05db33ae36fdb52b941f5daf74….png) ImgOps iqdb

I have watched: Yama No Susume. It is nice show.

Shy, lonely, but happy highschool 2d reunites with her childhood friend with whom she shared in mountain climbing. The two take up hiking as a hobby and meet some nice more friends along the way. The more nice friends they find, they happier they become.

The anime was broadcast as short episodes for the first season to establish the plot and tone, so if you like the look of that picture <<<<<<<< over there then you can watch the whole first season in about an hour to determine if you want to see more of <<<<< that. So far there has been one boob-touch episode, one panty descriptor sequence, and one sexy swimwear subplot. Because of the last sentence the series ranks very low on the Wizard Scale of Meaningful Media for Male Minds, but scores high Byproxy Antithetics points (a recently established form of ranking , it means it's a good way to experience an "ideal unwizardly" life without actually engaging in unwizardly behavior).

There is a new season of anime to catch up to the manga, but it is delayed. Frogs say it is because the ongoing lie-rus has limited people's right to climb mountains, mountain climbing gear a stale market. As climbing gear manufactures have been sponsors for the anime adaption so far, they see no need to fun further episodes until the market returns.

Worth a watch if you like anime.

Anonymage 04/11/21 (Sun) 06:17:13 No.35883

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finished this garbage
now i know where the push for antinatalism comes from suddenly the last couple of years

Anonymage 04/11/21 (Sun) 11:00:57 No.35884

>>35883
Cool, i like AN in fiction. Is this Attack on Titan? Watched some episodes, didn't like the main character being reborn as a giant or something like that. Really turned me off.

Anonymage 04/11/21 (Sun) 14:14:22 No.35885

>>35884
There's a couple of twists in S1 that might turn you off, but it's a really solid story by the end of S3. First half of S4 arc is also good, but manga recently finished so it's only downhill from there.

Anonymage 04/13/21 (Tue) 09:55:16 No.35893

Was in the mood for a good old fashion 80s OVA.
So I watched Good Morning Althea.
Not mind blowing (or actually good) or anything but really scratched that inch for old school mech shows in 52 minutes.
I feel satisfied watching it.

Anonymage 04/15/21 (Thu) 08:38:37 No.35901

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After ignoring it for a long time I finally watched Bakemonogatari.

As a whole it varies wildly, yes as everyone knows the entire thing revolves mostly about talking, some of the times you can see deep intellectual thoughts, other times you see smart come backs and puns, and other times just stupid shit that is totally worthless but with a pretentious air of 2deep4u.

The real star of the show IMO are the interdictions,one shot explanations/thoughts and the constant change of art/style that serves to reinforce situations or dialogue, it's a truly awesome thing that I absolutely loved, without it it would be just another quasi-harem show about succubi with fucked up mental problems (BTW Mayoi is best succubus, fight me if you think otherwise) still the characters are likeable and a fun bunch.

Basically the show is entertaining and worth your time, the presentation is superb, I don't remember a show with such a high quality presentation and effort put into ever since I watched nichijou.

Unfortunately the plot is just not on par with the general presentation, it's entertaining but no more than that, without the interdictions, one shot explanations and the constant change of art style it would be a 7/10, that's why I don't think I will ever read the LN or the manga, the plot is not that interesting IMO,I certainly don't think that its interesting enough for the 20 or so volumes that comprise the whole thing.

Im going to watch the rest mostly because it kept me entertained.

Anonymage 04/15/21 (Thu) 11:41:22 No.35902

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>>35901
I’m glad to hear you liked it, it’s one of my favorite series. There’s a lot of material, so don’t burn yourself out on it though. Also you haven’t even seen the true best succubus yet.

Anonymage 04/15/21 (Thu) 20:30:06 No.35907

>>35902
The rest of the show (Nise, Neko etc) is on par quality wise with Bake? It would be a very big dissapointment to discover that the quality takes a dive later on.

As I said is not the masterpiece that some retards claim it is, but is entertaining enough, is like a saturday cartoon for me and I don't want to be dissapointed later on.

Anonymage 04/15/21 (Thu) 21:17:30 No.35908

>>35907
The plot can get a little samey later on, and some parts seem like filler, but the major TV airing seasons are up to par with each other. The movies vary from cash in to UNLIMITED BUDGETWORKS.

Anonymage 04/15/21 (Thu) 21:20:53 No.35909

>>35907
>As I said is not the masterpiece that some retards claim it is
More like you can't really appreaciate the masterpiece, boyo. It doesn't really matters since is not obligatory for everyone to enjoy the same things. But don't take your ignorance out for everyone to see.

Anonymage 04/16/21 (Fri) 00:27:42 No.35914

>>35909
>Boyo
Fuck off, go back to whatever shithole you came from.

Anonymage 04/16/21 (Fri) 00:59:56 No.35917

>>35914
Why exactly are you having a tantrum over that word?

Anonymage 04/16/21 (Fri) 01:51:10 No.35918

>>35917
Boyo is usually used as crab lingo.

Anonymage 04/16/21 (Fri) 02:00:18 No.35919

Rewatching Endro! it is a moe fantasy anime which uses the fantasy setting to be as moe as possible and does not take itself too seriously.

The plot itself is a little confusing at time as contradictory but it does not matter this is an anime to watch if you want to look at cute anime succubi and one of the main characters is a demon loli I suggest watching this anime if you have not tried.

The succubi are drawn in sexy ways and all round it is cute and funny the perfect anime to watch when tired and want to sleep.

Anonymage 04/16/21 (Fri) 22:45:30 No.35921

>>35919
>when tired and want to sleep.
Obscure idol anime like aidoru jihen or that one with VR shows and a Chinese succubus.

Anonymage 04/21/21 (Wed) 03:35:20 No.35957

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Finished Gurren Lagann the other day after my brother pressured me into watching it. I don't think I would have finished the series if it wasn't for his constant pressure to do so. Overall I give the series a 7/10

As he pointed out to me, the producers spent 80% of their entire budget on a small handful of episodes, which produced a small handful of really well done episodes- and a lot of mediocre filler content

If you enjoy mecha shows you'd probably really appreciate this. It has really extreme artistic content, great world progression and some of the characters have really excellent qualities to them. If you don't enjoy mecha content though (like me), it's probably not worth watching

Anonymage 04/21/21 (Wed) 04:34:27 No.35958

>>35957
I watched it like 13 years ago and thinking about kamina still makes me sad, that probably sounds dumb

Anonymage 04/21/21 (Wed) 05:04:17 No.35959

>>35958
That incident in the show caught me off guard. He was a great character

Anonymage 04/21/21 (Wed) 16:10:12 No.35965

>>35881
I'm only halfway through season 2, but so far I think it's a great show as well. Easily among the best slice of life shows from the 2010s decade, IMO.

Anonymage 04/21/21 (Wed) 22:22:07 No.35966

The Qwaser of Stigmata

Do you love boobs? Like really love them?
Do you want a anime that is full on about magical titty sucking but somehow not actually a full hentai?
Then this show is for you.
It has boobs of every taste. The creators are true men of culture.
I found it quite enjoyable myself.

Anonymage 04/22/21 (Thu) 05:36:40 No.35968

>>35966
there's also "how not to summon a demon lord"

Anonymage 04/25/21 (Sun) 06:03:03 No.36064

wasted the last two days watching vinland saga, the MC is a ninja viking who can basically teleport behind opponents, swords can cut through boat masts, a prince changes from intravert into chad based on 3 minutes of sophistry from a drunk priest about "love" being the sky and the snow, the main antagonist who gets more face time the MC receives a redemption arc only to end up murdering a village of succubi and children execution style for no reason

a dumb, ahistorical cartoon about murdering people that tries to look deep

Anonymage 04/25/21 (Sun) 11:56:15 No.36066

>>36064
Sounds great, I will put it on my to watch list.

Anonymage 04/28/21 (Wed) 19:32:02 No.36118

Watched Big Order
It has been awhile since I watched such a train wreck of a show.
It looked nice, it sounded nice, but my god everything to do with the story and writing in general was a mess.

Anonymage 04/29/21 (Thu) 02:34:29 No.36119

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I just finished Flip Flappers because I saw >>32042 give it a 10/10 and it looked interesting. In short the show started off well and developed an interesting world and cast, however about halfway in it changed from a man's action show to a succubus's sappy emotional drama. The worst part of all was that this drama felt forced and unnatural

Also the show also committed the great sin of "telling and not showing"

A truly great show doesn't narrate everything that appears on the screen. As it's said, a picture tells a thousand words. The best moments in fiction are conveyed entirely through imagery and not words and they strike the mind more potently due to this. However Flip Flappers felt the need to put most of the emotions, twists and drama into explicitly stated words, as though the audience is mentally retarded or perhaps five years old

Overall I still enjoyed the show and I'd give it a 7/10, but it felt like they could have done a much better job

Anonymage 04/29/21 (Thu) 03:13:16 No.36120

>>36118
Lol, I watched the first 3 episodes of Big Order and I remember the plot being completely ridiculous, even by anime standards.
it was moar liek Big Mess

Anonymage 04/29/21 (Thu) 04:21:06 No.36121

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>>36119
Wow wizzie, that's great that you watched it and enjoyed it too!

You are definitely not alone in your dissatisfaction with the second half of the series. A lot of people felt similarly to you. Personally I liked the second half, but I'll concede there were execution issues like pacing.

Also, if you wanted a "man's action show," then Flip Flappers probably isn't the best choice. Although maybe its branding and reputation don't align well with the actual content. It is a fairly 'giirly' show and the writing is filled with feminine themes. In fact I think the show has a sizable female fanbase.

Anonymage 04/29/21 (Thu) 16:40:47 No.36133

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>>36121
>Also, if you wanted a "man's action show," then Flip Flappers probably isn't the best choice. Although maybe its branding and reputation don't align well with the actual content
The second episode of the show has a nude demoness overseeing a BDSM orgy, before she appears in the desert and a crazy Dragonball type fight begins that lasts almost the entirety of the episode. It was incredibly over the top and almost nothing in the episode would appeal to a feminine mind

>It is a fairly 'giirly' show and the writing is filled with feminine themes. In fact I think the show has a sizable female fanbase
I could easily see that due to the profound changes that occurred in the second half of the season. It truly feels as though the writers were changed halfway into the show and they took it in a completely different direction

Maybe what Flip Flappers truly lacked was just direction. Even during the feminine second half of the show they upped the fan-service elements and introduced some half naked loli that served no importance to the plot whatsoever. If I was watching a man's TV show and they started putting half naked men on the screen it would piss me off, and I'm sure fan service of anime g*rls annoys females

Flip Flappers had great potential but they fumbled the ball

Anonymage 04/30/21 (Fri) 15:44:53 No.36142

File: 1619797493030.pdf (12.07 MB, A Complete Guide to Unders….pdf)

>>36133
First of all, you're definitely right about some people not liking the arguably excessive erotic fanservice in the show. It is a fairly common criticism that I've seen. Personally, I'm totally unfazed by that kind of thing because I've been desensitized from watching so much anime, so it didn't influence my viewing experience in any significant way. Arguably some of the erotic fanservice serves an artistic purpose (like in the split-personality Papika episode for example), but definitely not all. Regardless of the visual content, sexuality is certainly an underlying theme in the writing. Also, at least among the female fanbase, I'm pretty sure a lot of them are yuri fans, and hence somewhat more tolerant of erotic content. So there might be a selection bias at play in that respect. There are a lot of blog posts about Flip Flappers from a wide variety of people out there in the anime blogosphere, if you're interested in reading about more diverse perspectives.

>episode of the show has a nude demoness overseeing a BDSM orgy, before she appears in the desert and a crazy Dragonball type fight begins that lasts almost the entirety of the episode. It was incredibly over the top and almost nothing in the episode would appeal to a feminine mind
I think you're referring to the third episode. That is definitely one of the more pop-culture reference-heavy episodes. One thing to keep in mind is that each Pure Illusion world they visit is supposed to represent the psyche of a character in the show. In that episode I'm pretty sure the world they visit is supposed to be Sayuri's Pure Illusion, and thus a reflection of her psyche. So for example, Sayuri is supposedly a Mad Max fan, hence the Mad Max references in that episode's Pure Illusion.

I've attached a PDF to this post which contains an analysis of Flip Flappers written up by various people. I don't necessarily agree with everything in it, but you might find it interesting.