So, I saw Goblin Slayer.
White Fox (I think that's who made it) did not pull punches and its great.
They didn't keep the back stories of the rookies, but that's ok because due to the brutality of what happened to them, kicking the puppy after punting it across the field would be excessive. Surprisingly limited black bars, or at least obvious black bars. They probably did a smart thing and use the cave's shadows to hide the nasty bits. I liked the grey distortion effect they used during the priestess's freak out, neat little touch.
So, Goblin Slayer. I like the rule, if it doesn't do anything for the plot, don't include rape. I can see the argument, 'hey it makes you hate the goblins', which it certainly does, but it was pretty gratuitous, one cut away from being some kind of monster hentai. And frankly I don't really want to see that. I get it, shock value and all, and I'll probably keep watching, but it just leaves a bad taste in the mouth, for want of a better phrase.
Well IIRC, one more episode of that excessive stuff to hammer home how horrible goblins are and it should be more than clear to the viewers that they have no redeeming qualities whatsoever.
It does improve from there on out as more characters are introduced and he gets really creative with killing goblins.
Thanks, I'll stick with it. I posted that exact same blurb to an anime group on facebook and been called immature, an idiot, bitching and blowing ten seconds out of the water. And then told to read the manga as though an anime cannot possibly be viewed on its own merits.
Yeah, goblins raping is present for the first few chapters, but it drops off pretty quickly and only serves to remind you later how terrible goblins are
Spoiler:
such as when they use women as living shields, or a distraction for ambushes. Past that I think there's only a couple more rape scenes, and attempted rape scenes IIRC
(spoiler is really minor stuff (no specific plot details in it), but I wasn't totally sure, so I'll spoiler it.)
On another note about goblin slayer, I think the swordsman's twitching hand is what sticks with me most, as the goblin prepares to chop it off. Might just be because the rape went by pretty quickly, and they kept showing the hand scene.
The swordsman getting hacked to pieces is another way of showing how cruel and sadistic they are, they don't just kill him, but they keep on hacking and chopping well past the point of death.
The next episode will be a bit worse even as the goblins deal with that adventurer party they brought down..
Spoiler:
One is raped, the ranger is used for target practice, the mage gets burned at the stake and the last one gets disembowelled and has her guts stuffed into her mouth, which was always a horrible scene, but Goblin Slayer and Priestess wipe them all out rather satisfyingly.
But after that things will get better as others join forces with him and he gets to show off just why he's silver who got by just killing goblins.
There is a prequel manga ongoing right now called Goblins Slayer side story Year One, which delves into why he is what he is and how he came to be so crazy prepared for everything.
BrookM wrote: The swordsman getting hacked to pieces is another way of showing how cruel and sadistic they are, they don't just kill him, but they keep on hacking and chopping well past the point of death.
The next episode will be a bit worse even as the goblins deal with that adventurer party they brought down..
Spoiler:
One is raped, the ranger is used for target practice, the mage gets burned at the stake and the last one gets disembowelled and has her guts stuffed into her mouth, which was always a horrible scene, but Goblin Slayer and Priestess wipe them all out rather satisfyingly.
But after that things will get better as others join forces with him and he gets to show off just why he's silver who got by just killing goblins.
There is a prequel manga ongoing right now called Goblins Slayer side story Year One, which delves into why he is what he is and how he came to be so crazy prepared for everything.
Exactly, the swordsman isn't even dead and they're already chopping him up to be eaten.
Also, which chapter is the spoiler? I don't remember it.
CREEEEEEEEED wrote: So, Goblin Slayer. I like the rule, if it doesn't do anything for the plot, don't include rape. I can see the argument, 'hey it makes you hate the goblins', which it certainly does, but it was pretty gratuitous, one cut away from being some kind of monster hentai. And frankly I don't really want to see that. I get it, shock value and all, and I'll probably keep watching, but it just leaves a bad taste in the mouth, for want of a better phrase.
It actually does serve the plot, in a way.
Spoiler:
Goblins have a weird reproduction method where there are no goblin women, so they have to breed with women from other species. I don't know how they evolved that way, but I guess its meant to be reminiscent of parasitism. Think Alien, or what some species of wasps can do.
I think its also implied that Goblins aren't even a natural species. There's a panel in the manga where the Slayer's party discusses the possible origins of the goblins, and iirc, it ranges from "mad wizard project" to "spiteful aliens from the moon"
CREEEEEEEEED wrote: So, Goblin Slayer. I like the rule, if it doesn't do anything for the plot, don't include rape. I can see the argument, 'hey it makes you hate the goblins', which it certainly does, but it was pretty gratuitous, one cut away from being some kind of monster hentai. And frankly I don't really want to see that. I get it, shock value and all, and I'll probably keep watching, but it just leaves a bad taste in the mouth, for want of a better phrase.
The manga was even more gratuitous, though at the same time I find that rule kind of silly. Genocide in fiction is fine. Mass murder is a okay. Creepy serial killers go for it. But no rape? Rather arbitrary lines we draw on the kinds of horrors can be acceptably thrown out to casually make us hate the bad guys. I won't call you an idiot for it though cause wow that's immature and you know now to stay away from anime groups on facebook those people are crazy.
In Goblin Slayer I'd actually agree the rape and stuff is misplaced, not because it's rape but because the whole package comes off as bizarre. The goblins are patently one of the most common and vile problems in the setting, raping pillaging and killing their way through poorly defended farmsteads and villages frequently. Yet the world at large seems to treat dealing with them as some kind of minimum wage job for rookies. More than a few rookies get killed (and other things) for walking into a goblin den casually in the manga, and it's enough to make me wonder how stupid people are in the setting. It works in a meta sense because goblins are rarely top tier enemies in the fantasy RPGs the story emulates and Goblin Slayer kind of rubs it in the readers face "see how dangerous these grunts can really be", but in-universe it's rather senseless and killed the story for me.
Still gonna watch the anime though cause the main character is pretty metal.
AduroT wrote: At least it’s better than the white bars from Blood C that would often cover three quarters of the screen.
There's also that one show I can't remember the name of where instead of using steam or watery shadows to hide the girl's personal areas during a bath they used shining bright lights that blind you and obscure everything on the screen to the point you can't even tell who is talking five minutes into the first episode.
LordofHats wrote: I don't think the series holds up personally. BaconCatBug and Overread nailed my thoughts on the series, and honestly I think the Manga is even worse cause it meanders more than the Anime does.
I think the anime for once does the story better justice because action and "humanity feth yeah" are the story's only real redeeming virtues.
Overall, I agree. I jumped to the manga after the first season and the storytelling is pretty dreadful. I'd actually given up on the show knowing where it goes but I've caught a few episodes here and there and forget how much the animation of the 3D gear helps keep things engaging. I pretty much checked out of the plot during the bit where the shifters all basically climb out of their cockpits for a chat before hopping back in. It's a neat enough twist, but the appeal drains away for me afterwards and the shock horror in general isn't super appealing for me. The arc transitions feel rougher in the manga too. The anime actually seems to be a good job editing things down to what matters. Still not my favorite show and I still don't really care for the shifter thing, but I'd much rather watch the show than read the manga.
CREEEEEEEEED wrote: So, Goblin Slayer. I like the rule, if it doesn't do anything for the plot, don't include rape. I can see the argument, 'hey it makes you hate the goblins', which it certainly does, but it was pretty gratuitous, one cut away from being some kind of monster hentai. And frankly I don't really want to see that. I get it, shock value and all, and I'll probably keep watching, but it just leaves a bad taste in the mouth, for want of a better phrase.
The manga was even more gratuitous, though at the same time I find that rule kind of silly. Genocide in fiction is fine. Mass murder is a okay. Creepy serial killers go for it. But no rape? Rather arbitrary lines we draw on the kinds of horrors can be acceptably thrown out to casually make us hate the bad guys. I won't call you an idiot for it though cause wow that's immature and you know now to stay away from anime groups on facebook those people are crazy.
In Goblin Slayer I'd actually agree the rape and stuff is misplaced, not because it's rape but because the whole package comes off as bizarre. The goblins are patently one of the most common and vile problems in the setting, raping pillaging and killing their way through poorly defended farmsteads and villages frequently. Yet the world at large seems to treat dealing with them as some kind of minimum wage job for rookies. More than a few rookies get killed (and other things) for walking into a goblin den casually in the manga, and it's enough to make me wonder how stupid people are in the setting. It works in a meta sense because goblins are rarely top tier enemies in the fantasy RPGs the story emulates and Goblin Slayer kind of rubs it in the readers face "see how dangerous these grunts can really be", but in-universe it's rather senseless and killed the story for me.
Still gonna watch the anime though cause the main character is pretty metal.
I think they explain in the series that since goblins are considered lowly vermin, most adventures past the rank of silver don't bother with them, as they consider them to be unworthy of their skills, and even the adventurers who know how dangerous goblins can be are reluctant to take goblin jobs as the going rate for goblin quests are nowhere near high enough to justify their risk. Overtime more and more goblins get ignored, to the point that its a huge problem. Normally what happens in the case of a serious goblin infestation is that the army is supposed to step in, iirc, but due to the arrival of a demon lord and the presence of several powerful monsters, the army can't deal with them right now. Furthermore, as Goblins tend to attack small rural areas, the big cities and lords don't really care, as unless the Goblins are directly threatening them, what happens to peasants just isn't their concern. It would be like calling in US marines to deal with rats in rural Texas when Washington is being invaded.
So basically the Goblin problem stems from politics, cultural preconceptions and economics. Sounds pretty realistic to me.
I understand the in universe explanations, I just don't buy them. Human beings will often ignore and put off dealing with a problem, but there's a breaking point on that and Goblin Slayer's setting is so past that in terms of goblins that I found it pulling me out of the story.
EDIT: Though to be fair I might have an easier time with it if the story showed more of the rest of the world. We hear about all these other things that seem kind of bad (fire sorcerers, evil wizards, demons and the like) but all we ever see if goblins wrecking stuff and everyone ignoring it except the MC. In Goblin Slayer year one, we see goblins attacking a whole town while everyone else is off hunting a rock monster whose only apparently crime is... being a rock monster in an abandoned mine no one cares about except that it has a rock monster in it. It's paints an odd lop sided picture.
LordofHats wrote: I understand the in universe explanations, I just don't buy them. Human beings will often ignore and put off dealing with a problem, but there's a breaking point on that and Goblin Slayer's setting is so past that in terms of goblins that I found it pulling me out of the story.
EDIT: Though to be fair I might have an easier time with it if the story showed more of the rest of the world. We hear about all these other things that seem kind of bad (fire sorcerers, evil wizards, demons and the like) but all we ever see if goblins wrecking stuff and everyone ignoring it except the MC. In Goblin Slayer year one, we see goblins attacking a whole town while everyone else is off hunting a rock monster whose only apparently crime is... being a rock monster in an abandoned mine no one cares about except that it has a rock monster in it. It's paints an odd lop sided picture.
But... isn't Goblin Slayer's world like...
Spoiler:
Literally a RPG game? Or did I took that too seriously when they show it on the manga?
After that, at least for me, everything had much more sense, specially how "gamey" the talk of the characters was.
Well I started reading the managa/light novel and it is way easier without the sound effects. Also it feels really disjointed, but maybe that's because I've never read a light novel before.
CREEEEEEEEED wrote: So, Goblin Slayer. I like the rule, if it doesn't do anything for the plot, don't include rape. I can see the argument, 'hey it makes you hate the goblins', which it certainly does, but it was pretty gratuitous, one cut away from being some kind of monster hentai. And frankly I don't really want to see that. I get it, shock value and all, and I'll probably keep watching, but it just leaves a bad taste in the mouth, for want of a better phrase.
The manga was even more gratuitous, though at the same time I find that rule kind of silly. Genocide in fiction is fine. Mass murder is a okay. Creepy serial killers go for it. But no rape? Rather arbitrary lines we draw on the kinds of horrors can be acceptably thrown out to casually make us hate the bad guys. I won't call you an idiot for it though cause wow that's immature and you know now to stay away from anime groups on facebook those people are crazy.
In Goblin Slayer I'd actually agree the rape and stuff is misplaced, not because it's rape but because the whole package comes off as bizarre. The goblins are patently one of the most common and vile problems in the setting, raping pillaging and killing their way through poorly defended farmsteads and villages frequently. Yet the world at large seems to treat dealing with them as some kind of minimum wage job for rookies. More than a few rookies get killed (and other things) for walking into a goblin den casually in the manga, and it's enough to make me wonder how stupid people are in the setting. It works in a meta sense because goblins are rarely top tier enemies in the fantasy RPGs the story emulates and Goblin Slayer kind of rubs it in the readers face "see how dangerous these grunts can really be", but in-universe it's rather senseless and killed the story for me.
Still gonna watch the anime though cause the main character is pretty metal.
I think they explain in the series that since goblins are considered lowly vermin, most adventures past the rank of silver don't bother with them
Silver is quite high, it's the 3rd highest rank (gold and platinum being higher), and silver is the highest that goes out on quests still, so it makes sense most silver adventurers would not deal with goblins, as they're the types that slay dragons and demons (which probably earn them their gold or platinum tags).
I took it literally, and as I said, everything did had much more sense to me after that. It made me actually enjoy the whole thing. Until that point I was like... "I started this, lets try to finish at least the chapters that are allready released"
CREEEEEEEEED wrote: So, Goblin Slayer. I like the rule, if it doesn't do anything for the plot, don't include rape. I can see the argument, 'hey it makes you hate the goblins', which it certainly does, but it was pretty gratuitous, one cut away from being some kind of monster hentai. And frankly I don't really want to see that. I get it, shock value and all, and I'll probably keep watching, but it just leaves a bad taste in the mouth, for want of a better phrase.
The manga was even more gratuitous, though at the same time I find that rule kind of silly. Genocide in fiction is fine. Mass murder is a okay. Creepy serial killers go for it. But no rape? Rather arbitrary lines we draw on the kinds of horrors can be acceptably thrown out to casually make us hate the bad guys. I won't call you an idiot for it though cause wow that's immature and you know now to stay away from anime groups on facebook those people are crazy.
In Goblin Slayer I'd actually agree the rape and stuff is misplaced, not because it's rape but because the whole package comes off as bizarre. The goblins are patently one of the most common and vile problems in the setting, raping pillaging and killing their way through poorly defended farmsteads and villages frequently. Yet the world at large seems to treat dealing with them as some kind of minimum wage job for rookies. More than a few rookies get killed (and other things) for walking into a goblin den casually in the manga, and it's enough to make me wonder how stupid people are in the setting. It works in a meta sense because goblins are rarely top tier enemies in the fantasy RPGs the story emulates and Goblin Slayer kind of rubs it in the readers face "see how dangerous these grunts can really be", but in-universe it's rather senseless and killed the story for me.
Still gonna watch the anime though cause the main character is pretty metal.
I think they explain in the series that since goblins are considered lowly vermin, most adventures past the rank of silver don't bother with them
Silver is quite high, it's the 3rd highest rank (gold and platinum being higher), and silver is the highest that goes out on quests still, so it makes sense most silver adventurers would not deal with goblins, as they're the types that slay dragons and demons (which probably earn them their gold or platinum tags).
That is true. Come to think of it, have they mentioned any other ranks? I don't recall them going through the whole system. I only said Silver because that's the only rank that came to mind that's higher than porcelain (the lowest) but lower than gold, and that a lot of characters remarked how odd it is that the Slayer is a silver ranked adventurer who kills only goblins.
CREEEEEEEEED wrote: So, Goblin Slayer. I like the rule, if it doesn't do anything for the plot, don't include rape. I can see the argument, 'hey it makes you hate the goblins', which it certainly does, but it was pretty gratuitous, one cut away from being some kind of monster hentai. And frankly I don't really want to see that. I get it, shock value and all, and I'll probably keep watching, but it just leaves a bad taste in the mouth, for want of a better phrase.
The manga was even more gratuitous, though at the same time I find that rule kind of silly. Genocide in fiction is fine. Mass murder is a okay. Creepy serial killers go for it. But no rape? Rather arbitrary lines we draw on the kinds of horrors can be acceptably thrown out to casually make us hate the bad guys. I won't call you an idiot for it though cause wow that's immature and you know now to stay away from anime groups on facebook those people are crazy.
In Goblin Slayer I'd actually agree the rape and stuff is misplaced, not because it's rape but because the whole package comes off as bizarre. The goblins are patently one of the most common and vile problems in the setting, raping pillaging and killing their way through poorly defended farmsteads and villages frequently. Yet the world at large seems to treat dealing with them as some kind of minimum wage job for rookies. More than a few rookies get killed (and other things) for walking into a goblin den casually in the manga, and it's enough to make me wonder how stupid people are in the setting. It works in a meta sense because goblins are rarely top tier enemies in the fantasy RPGs the story emulates and Goblin Slayer kind of rubs it in the readers face "see how dangerous these grunts can really be", but in-universe it's rather senseless and killed the story for me.
Still gonna watch the anime though cause the main character is pretty metal.
I think they explain in the series that since goblins are considered lowly vermin, most adventures past the rank of silver don't bother with them
Silver is quite high, it's the 3rd highest rank (gold and platinum being higher), and silver is the highest that goes out on quests still, so it makes sense most silver adventurers would not deal with goblins, as they're the types that slay dragons and demons (which probably earn them their gold or platinum tags).
That is true. Come to think of it, have they mentioned any other ranks? I don't recall them going through the whole system. I only said Silver because that's the only rank that came to mind that's higher than porcelain (the lowest) but lower than gold, and that a lot of characters remarked how odd it is that the Slayer is a silver ranked adventurer who kills only goblins.
Yeah, they mentioned it in the manga I think, and maybe went over it pretty quick in the anime. The full rank list is from highest to lowest: Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze, Ruby, Emerald, Sapphire, Steel, Obsidian, and lastly, Porcelain
LordofHats wrote: I understand the in universe explanations, I just don't buy them. Human beings will often ignore and put off dealing with a problem, but there's a breaking point on that and Goblin Slayer's setting is so past that in terms of goblins that I found it pulling me out of the story.
EDIT: Though to be fair I might have an easier time with it if the story showed more of the rest of the world. We hear about all these other things that seem kind of bad (fire sorcerers, evil wizards, demons and the like) but all we ever see if goblins wrecking stuff and everyone ignoring it except the MC. In Goblin Slayer year one, we see goblins attacking a whole town while everyone else is off hunting a rock monster whose only apparently crime is... being a rock monster in an abandoned mine no one cares about except that it has a rock monster in it. It's paints an odd lop sided picture.
But... isn't Goblin Slayer's world like...
Spoiler:
Literally a RPG game? Or did I took that too seriously when they show it on the manga?
After that, at least for me, everything had much more sense, specially how "gamey" the talk of the characters was.
I think its one of those settings where its heavily based on a RPG system, but its "real" in the sense that people die and stuff. Anime and manga is weird like that. Its interesting to note that no one has a real name; everyone is addressed by their job description. I always chalked that up to the author not bothering to come up with names, which is pretty hard to do. Unless you just name everyone Bob. Especially the women.
CREEEEEEEEED wrote: So, Goblin Slayer. I like the rule, if it doesn't do anything for the plot, don't include rape. I can see the argument, 'hey it makes you hate the goblins', which it certainly does, but it was pretty gratuitous, one cut away from being some kind of monster hentai. And frankly I don't really want to see that. I get it, shock value and all, and I'll probably keep watching, but it just leaves a bad taste in the mouth, for want of a better phrase.
The manga was even more gratuitous, though at the same time I find that rule kind of silly. Genocide in fiction is fine. Mass murder is a okay. Creepy serial killers go for it. But no rape? Rather arbitrary lines we draw on the kinds of horrors can be acceptably thrown out to casually make us hate the bad guys. I won't call you an idiot for it though cause wow that's immature and you know now to stay away from anime groups on facebook those people are crazy.
In Goblin Slayer I'd actually agree the rape and stuff is misplaced, not because it's rape but because the whole package comes off as bizarre. The goblins are patently one of the most common and vile problems in the setting, raping pillaging and killing their way through poorly defended farmsteads and villages frequently. Yet the world at large seems to treat dealing with them as some kind of minimum wage job for rookies. More than a few rookies get killed (and other things) for walking into a goblin den casually in the manga, and it's enough to make me wonder how stupid people are in the setting. It works in a meta sense because goblins are rarely top tier enemies in the fantasy RPGs the story emulates and Goblin Slayer kind of rubs it in the readers face "see how dangerous these grunts can really be", but in-universe it's rather senseless and killed the story for me.
Still gonna watch the anime though cause the main character is pretty metal.
I think they explain in the series that since goblins are considered lowly vermin, most adventures past the rank of silver don't bother with them
Silver is quite high, it's the 3rd highest rank (gold and platinum being higher), and silver is the highest that goes out on quests still, so it makes sense most silver adventurers would not deal with goblins, as they're the types that slay dragons and demons (which probably earn them their gold or platinum tags).
That is true. Come to think of it, have they mentioned any other ranks? I don't recall them going through the whole system. I only said Silver because that's the only rank that came to mind that's higher than porcelain (the lowest) but lower than gold, and that a lot of characters remarked how odd it is that the Slayer is a silver ranked adventurer who kills only goblins.
Yeah, they mentioned it in the manga I think, and maybe went over it pretty quick in the anime. The full rank list is from highest to lowest: Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze, Ruby, Emerald, Sapphire, Steel, Obsidian, and lastly, Porcelain
Wow is that it? That's weird. I must have missed it in the manga. I was expecting something like Plat, Gold, Silver, steel, iron, bronze, copper, tin, stone, porcelain.
Its not often you see gems in a ranking system. Its usually metal based.
LordofHats wrote: I understand the in universe explanations, I just don't buy them. Human beings will often ignore and put off dealing with a problem, but there's a breaking point on that and Goblin Slayer's setting is so past that in terms of goblins that I found it pulling me out of the story.
EDIT: Though to be fair I might have an easier time with it if the story showed more of the rest of the world. We hear about all these other things that seem kind of bad (fire sorcerers, evil wizards, demons and the like) but all we ever see if goblins wrecking stuff and everyone ignoring it except the MC. In Goblin Slayer year one, we see goblins attacking a whole town while everyone else is off hunting a rock monster whose only apparently crime is... being a rock monster in an abandoned mine no one cares about except that it has a rock monster in it. It's paints an odd lop sided picture.
But... isn't Goblin Slayer's world like...
Spoiler:
Literally a RPG game? Or did I took that too seriously when they show it on the manga?
After that, at least for me, everything had much more sense, specially how "gamey" the talk of the characters was.
I think its one of those settings where its heavily based on a RPG system, but its "real" in the sense that people die and stuff.
Anime and manga is weird like that. Its interesting to note that no one has a real name; everyone is addressed by their job description. I always chalked that up to the author not bothering to come up with names, which is pretty hard to do. Unless you just name everyone Bob. Especially the women.
Yeah, for the characters of course all that happens is real. But I take everything much less serious. Also, at the end of the first episode of the anime, you can hear dices rolling.
LordofHats wrote: I understand the in universe explanations, I just don't buy them. Human beings will often ignore and put off dealing with a problem, but there's a breaking point on that and Goblin Slayer's setting is so past that in terms of goblins that I found it pulling me out of the story.
EDIT: Though to be fair I might have an easier time with it if the story showed more of the rest of the world. We hear about all these other things that seem kind of bad (fire sorcerers, evil wizards, demons and the like) but all we ever see if goblins wrecking stuff and everyone ignoring it except the MC. In Goblin Slayer year one, we see goblins attacking a whole town while everyone else is off hunting a rock monster whose only apparently crime is... being a rock monster in an abandoned mine no one cares about except that it has a rock monster in it. It's paints an odd lop sided picture.
But... isn't Goblin Slayer's world like...
Spoiler:
Literally a RPG game? Or did I took that too seriously when they show it on the manga?
After that, at least for me, everything had much more sense, specially how "gamey" the talk of the characters was.
I think its one of those settings where its heavily based on a RPG system, but its "real" in the sense that people die and stuff. Anime and manga is weird like that. Its interesting to note that no one has a real name; everyone is addressed by their job description. I always chalked that up to the author not bothering to come up with names, which is pretty hard to do. Unless you just name everyone Bob. Especially the women.
Yeah, for the characters of course all that happens is real. But I take everything much less serious. Also, at the end of the first episode of the anime, you can hear dices rolling.
Ah, you actually find out what that's about later on the manga
Spoiler:
You are actually on to something that its all a game. You know how in the Color of Magic the gods are playing with the fates of humanity? Its the same thing in Goblin Slayer. A bunch of gods sit around and they play with the fates of mankind, and Slayer is just one of the pieces on the board. What's unique about his piece though is that it seems to do what it wants and stubbornly refuses whatever the gods roll for it. I think it even pushes one of the dice in a panel. I just remembered that part. That's some fine foreshadowing in the anime. Awesome.
The RPG similarities are clearly drawn from RPG games though. Did the gods set it up that way? Idk. Maybe. Anime is weird.
Watching that reincarnated as a slime show. First two episodes (so far) are really slow to develop, but the opening credits on the second episode make it look like it could get good so I’m sticking with it.
The opening credits disappointed me. The fact that apparently that slime can look human is a huge letdown. If he looks human, then it doesn't make the show all that different from any other OP isekai schlock, does it? We are only 2 episodes in and he's already powerful, he's best buds with a dragon and is going to get goblins for allies. It would have been interesting if he looked like a slime the whole time, but the fact that it can shapeshift into human form (apparently) completely undermines that aspect. Lame.
The skill set and plot is is even reminiscent of Re:Monster, and I hate that series. Absolute edgelord schlock that one is.
Its a manga series, I don't think it was adapted into an anime. Its about some guy who was a monster in real life because he had super powers (he can steal abilities if he eats people), and he got murdered by his sister, and got reincarnated as a goblin in another world that has a RPG style class progression system. For whatever reason he still has his OP ability from his human life, so of course all he has to do is nibble on some monsters to get super strong, thus becoming da strongest and bestest monster eva who became a ogre faster than the other goblins and taught them how to use actual tactics, hunt and craft tools. Oh, and these goblins also have a weird reproduction system where they kidnap other races and mate with them, men included as there are female goblins, because they have lower fertility rates with other goblins. Which is really just an excuse for the main character to have a harem (which, I must remind you, that he acquired through kidnapping and occasionally drugs), which the girls are fine with for reasons. I suppose its better than most harems though, as the mc actually does something with the girls instead of that infuriating pantomime they usually play, but its still trash.
To be fair, slime is a little better in that the main character was at least a decent, normal human to begin with and is actually endearing and there doesn't seem to be as much puerile edginess, but it still has the same sort of premise which I hate. Given the choice, I would go with slime though.
Goblin Slayer seems very much another one of those series that has sprung up in the wake of World of Warcraft built around the weird artificial nonsense these games create. In this case, it's the fact players ignore content they've outleveled despite the situation they were tasked with resolving still clearly being a problem. It's similar (in premise) to the self explaining "I've Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level".
Its a manga series, I don't think it was adapted into an anime.
Its about some guy who was a monster in real life because he had super powers (he can steal abilities if he eats people), and he got murdered by his sister, and got reincarnated as a goblin in another world that has a RPG style class progression system. For whatever reason he still has his OP ability from his human life, so of course all he has to do is nibble on some monsters to get super strong, thus becoming da strongest and bestest monster eva who became a ogre faster than the other goblins and taught them how to use actual tactics, hunt and craft tools. Oh, and these goblins also have a weird reproduction system where they kidnap other races and mate with them, men included as there are female goblins, because they have lower fertility rates with other goblins.
Which is really just an excuse for the main character to have a harem (which, I must remind you, that he acquired through kidnapping and occasionally drugs), which the girls are fine with for reasons. I suppose its better than most harems though, as the mc actually does something with the girls instead of that infuriating pantomime they usually play, but its still trash.
To be fair, slime is a little better in that the main character was at least a decent, normal human to begin with and is actually endearing and there doesn't seem to be as much puerile edginess, but it still has the same sort of premise which I hate.
Given the choice, I would go with slime though.
This hits pretty close to how I feel about harem series as well. That goblin one by the way is easily one of the creepiest ones I’ve ever come across. I think the only one I’v ever liked was Suzuka and that series spent most of its time deconstructions harem plot lines as ridiculous while presenting a classic coming of age romance.
Yeah, its pretty disturbing trash. Its not there to make an interesting point about the nature of being a monster or anything, its really just to be an edgelord power fantasy with a hyperactive sex drive.
Alucard isn't as creepy or disturbing as Rou, and he's a fethmothering vampire which you end up pitying because of how miserable his existence really is. You know what's a good manga? Drifters. I want another season of Nobunaga and Friends Bizarre Adventure in Middle Earth.
CthuluIsSpy wrote: Yeah, its pretty disturbing trash. Its not there to make an interesting point about the nature of being a monster or anything, its really just to be an edgelord power fantasy with a hyperactive sex drive.
Only in Japan do mass murdering psychopaths end up less creepy than teenagers
It’s even worse after you realize most media in Japan is treated as a merchandising opportunity and there’s action figures for everything. Everything.
And yes Drifters is amazing but our luck we won’t see anything until three or four years after the manga concludes and it’ll be an epic OVA series that takes another seven years to finish before TFS makes a much more entertaining parody version of the storyline. So you know. Worth it in the end
Anyway, time to talk about things that are good. Like Jojo. Everyone likes Jojo. That first episode was pretty good, and Gold Requiem is probably one of the more interesting stands so far. I noticed how Giorno said that its not fully under his control, which would imply that it has a will of its own. Or maybe its because of his weird genetics? I don't quite understand how if its Jonathan Joestar's body, that Gio could have Dio's genes. I'm pretty sure sperm doesn't work like that.
Automatically Appended Next Post:
BrookM wrote: It's not an action figure, it is a collectable statuette, thankyouverymuch.
And ha, was just thinking of Drifters when I saw the "mass murdering psychopaths end up less creepy than teenagers" comment.
I was too. Hellsing and Drifters are both from the same author, after all.
I give him credit for managing his premise so well. Making historically “evil” people the good guys of the series while placing historically “good” people (mostly) as the antagonists and he’s managed to avoid either side coming out like complete heroes/villains.
My favorite part is when the Zero pilot dog fights the dragons
LordofHats wrote: I give him credit for managing his premise so well. Making historically “evil” people the good guys of the series while placing historically “good” people (mostly) as the antagonists and he’s managed to avoid either side coming out like complete heroes/villains.
My favorite part is when the Zero pilot dog fights the dragons
I like how Toyohisa is best friends with the Dwarfs. "Father, Grandfather...I found myself true companions. In a place like this, I found true Satsuma companions". Awesome. Needs more wild bunch though. We haven't seen them in like, 30 chapters. The interaction between them and the zero pilot is pretty funny though. They had to lie and said they were Bolivians, because that pilot really hates Americans.
LunarSol wrote: Goblin Slayer seems very much another one of those series that has sprung up in the wake of World of Warcraft built around the weird artificial nonsense these games create. In this case, it's the fact players ignore content they've outleveled despite the situation they were tasked with resolving still clearly being a problem. It's similar (in premise) to the self explaining "I've Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level".
Watched the first episode of Goblin Slayer and its a hard pass for me The whole thing just seemed mean and unpleasant for no real reason other than to try and shock.
LunarSol wrote: Goblin Slayer seems very much another one of those series that has sprung up in the wake of World of Warcraft built around the weird artificial nonsense these games create. In this case, it's the fact players ignore content they've outleveled despite the situation they were tasked with resolving still clearly being a problem. It's similar (in premise) to the self explaining "I've Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level".
Watched the first episode of Goblin Slayer and its a hard pass for me The whole thing just seemed mean and unpleasant for no real reason other than to try and shock.
That's the entire point of the show/manga. It's edgelord for the sake of being edgelord. It's intentionally trying to offend.
I don't think intentionally trying to offend is the point. We're not talking Brickleberry here. I'd say they more went down the Berserk/Ubel Blatt road of anti-heroism. When the hero is dark, you have to make the villains darker to keep the audience on the side of the maniac. Goblin Slayer stands out because it has a clean cut Shonene art style compared to others of its brand, and plays its premise off light heartedly outside of action sequences.
LordofHats wrote: I don't think intentionally trying to offend is the point. We're not talking Brickleberry here. I'd say they more went down the Berserk/Ubel Blatt road of anti-heroism. When the hero is dark, you have to make the villains darker to keep the audience on the side of the maniac. Goblin Slayer stands out because it has a clean cut Shonene art style compared to others of its brand, and plays its premise off light heartedly outside of action sequences.
I agree with this.
I also think it has a very rich world in comparison to many manga/anime. Look past the gratuitous violence and...other stuff and there's a very detailed world in there. I mean alchemy and magic are discussed at length outside of action sequences, as well as detailed studies into Goblin culture, starting, obviously, from reproduction and growth.
I must be honest at first I felt it was very basic and people read it only for the hentai factor but something sucked me in. I think it's the fact that the stakes feel a bit more real than many other anime and the world is created with such attention to detail. Its not for everyone, no doubt, but don't write it off as a basic anime because of the first episode. I promise there's more to it than the obvious.
So, they covered the tree fort part of the manga, which is the second early messed up part from the manga. And they covered it by...not really covering it. You see a brief glimpse of the aftermath, but most of the brutal details were omitted. Which is a decent move, but I feel that they should have at least kept the part where the rookie party leader gets a rock to the head, because that was the significance of the scene where the Slayer gets hit in the head with a sling; it shows that armor is really important in this world, and if you don't wear a helmet in battle you will probably die. The part where that rookie gets hit in the head and Slayer gets hit in the head is a contrast, and showing who the victims were at first would provide a bit more context, which is always good to have in a story.
CthuluIsSpy wrote: So, they covered the tree fort part of the manga, which is the second early messed up part from the manga.
And they covered it by...not really covering it. You see a brief glimpse of the aftermath, but most of the brutal details were omitted.
Which is a decent move, but I feel that they should have at least kept the part where the rookie party leader gets a rock to the head, because that was the significance of the scene where the Slayer gets hit in the head with a sling; it shows that armor is really important in this world, and if you don't wear a helmet in battle you will probably die.
The part where that rookie gets hit in the head and Slayer gets hit in the head is a contrast, and showing who the victims were at first would provide a bit more context, which is always good to have in a story.
Yea, me and the Mrs just watched ep 2. She's oddly keen on the anime not having read the manga Anyway I'm sure there were a few differences, the most major I noticed was that when the Priestess cast protect there was also a hand that looked all too human trying to escape, which is what put her question of faith into action. I didn't see this in the anime. As you've mentioned the rock to the head scene didn't happen, but we got more character building from the supporting heroes, cow girl and goblin slayer himself.
GoatboyBeta wrote: Watched the first episode of Goblin Slayer and its a hard pass for me The whole thing just seemed mean and unpleasant for no real reason other than to try and shock.
Yeah, I also watched the first episode of GS, but it just didn't really appeal to me. Oh, well.
CthuluIsSpy wrote: So, they covered the tree fort part of the manga, which is the second early messed up part from the manga.
And they covered it by...not really covering it. You see a brief glimpse of the aftermath, but most of the brutal details were omitted.
Which is a decent move, but I feel that they should have at least kept the part where the rookie party leader gets a rock to the head, because that was the significance of the scene where the Slayer gets hit in the head with a sling; it shows that armor is really important in this world, and if you don't wear a helmet in battle you will probably die.
The part where that rookie gets hit in the head and Slayer gets hit in the head is a contrast, and showing who the victims were at first would provide a bit more context, which is always good to have in a story.
Very much this yes, on the one hand glad they left it out, but yes the context was missing. But with that out of the way we can move on to them partying up and do the really awesome stuff.
I just finished watching Violet Evergarden, and man, parts of that show were straight depressing. I heard people complained about how technologically advanced her arms were compared to the rest of the technology in the show... But I found I could give it a pass, and didn't find it to detract from the setting too much.
Reminds me of Kingdom. All of Kingdom's anime adaptation was done in CGI. There were times it was so smooth you didn't even notice it, and other times it was so choppy and mechanical it stood out like a sore thumb.
NH Gunsmith wrote: I just finished watching Violet Evergarden, and man, parts of that show were straight depressing. I heard people complained about how technologically advanced her arms were compared to the rest of the technology in the show... But I found I could give it a pass, and didn't find it to detract from the setting too much.
I really loved the series. The only problems it had were (in my opinion) that the first few episodes kinda followed into each other and they only switched later into the episodic format (tell a story each episode). It wasn't a problem in itself but the switch happened at the oddest time.
Spoiler:
First she barely learns to write empathic letters and suddenly she's writing some a princess to stop a war from happening. Quite a jump in responsibility.
Other than that pacing issue there was also this story bit:
Spoiler:
I haven't read the original light novel but apparently Violet is of supernatural origin and also has a huge axe. That explains why she was such a great soldier for a teenager. While I like that they left out the supernatural stuff it feels like they should have toned down her heroics a bit more too. It felt a bit dissonant or exaggerated at times.
Galas wrote: The Dragon Prince is a great series but his animation style... the fighting scenes are great but the framerrate of everything else...
But you can do only so much with a small budget.
Fun fact about that!
It has a VERY low framerate. And the thing is, low framerate is actually GOOD for high-movement scenes, such as action scenes! Lots of fast movement means that objects have to move from one position to the next quickly, which means sudden jumps get smoothed out naturally by the eye.
There's actually a really interesting difference between Western and Eastern animation, there. In Western animation, framerates are generally constant; steady at 24 or 30 for animation; sometimes 'on two's' for cheap stuff, which means every other frame is just a copy of the previous frame. Because of this, fast action can look very janky because of the amount of change that happens between frames. To solve this, Western animators started to add in Smear Frames- frames where the action-y bits are stretched and contorted to simulate motion blur, smoothing out the jankiness of the motion.
Eastern animation, on the other hand, took a different tack. Instead of smear frames, where the characters or objects are distorted, Anime tends to actually change the framerate between action and slower scenes, dynamically. So with fewer frames in the high-speed parts, it compresses the action and removes the jank of speedy movement (sort of like how they used to speed-up old-timey film, by filming at a slower rate then speeding it up in post- and the opposite of high-speed photography). It's sort of like, Anime moves dynamically from Time-Lapse to High-Speed framerates as the scene and action requires, while Western animation uses motion blur.
So the Dragon Prince got, like, one half of the Anime equation right, but skipped the 'higher framerate for slower parts' bit, 'cause they're Western animators and aren't used to working that way. I think/hope. I have heard that the next portion of it is going to have smoother frames, however.
BaconCatBug wrote: You'd think SOMEONE would have made a library of proper walk cycles by now.
I don't think it's the walk cycle. It's the backgrounds. Setting the angle wrong, or not putting in certain levels of detail calls attention to the model and makes it look weird.
Part of it is that Goblin Slayer's design is really elaborate. He's almost always the most detailed character on the screen and as a result draws more attention. I didn't notice it when he was with other adventurers with their own elaborate armors and designs, but put him in a bland background or beside Cow Girl whose design is simple and he stands out like a sore thumb.
CthuluIsSpy wrote: Meanwhile, fans of No Game No Life are going "oh, you get a season in 6 months? That's nice"
Or spice and wolf fans. Been what, about 10 years now?
I am still upset Log Horizon got Spice-and-Wolf''d
Ughhhhhhh... Don't remind me. Log Horizon was what I wish Sword Art Online had been, and Spice and Wolf was such a surprising treat. Spice and Wolf is one of the few shows that makes me want to get the source material because I WANT TO KNOW HOW IT ENDS. Don't get me wrong, the end of the show seemed to be a good cutoff point though, just not knowing the rest bugs the crap out of me.
I guess that is still better (or is it?) than The World Only God Knows... Where they skipped like two seasons worth of material just to get us the ending before the funding ran out... That last season's start had me so confused when I first watched it, since I thought I missed at least one season somehow.
I loved the second season of Blue SomethingIForget where it started at something like the halfway point of season one where it had deviated from the manga to make its own story. That was super confusing.
BrookM wrote: I'm not looking forward to Zombieland Saga episode #3 as the preview showed off crappy CGI dancing.
My guess is that it's going to be some bait-and-switch thing where they parody CG idol stuff. The show seems to be somewhat of a light parody. Just look at episode 2 with the rappers.
AduroT wrote: I loved the second season of Blue SomethingIForget where it started at something like the halfway point of season one where it had deviated from the manga to make its own story. That was super confusing.
Blue Exorcist? Everything past a certain point in the first season was original material, and the second season is from the manga.
AduroT wrote: I loved the second season of Blue SomethingIForget where it started at something like the halfway point of season one where it had deviated from the manga to make its own story. That was super confusing.
Blue Exorcist? Everything past a certain point in the first season was original material, and the second season is from the manga.
Exorcist. That’s the one. But yeah, I understand that Now, but watching it originally without reading the manga, the first season told a story. And I liked it. Then I find out it’s getting a second season and it’s like yeah, cool! I watch that, and it’s like what? Why’s everyone mad at him? What’s going on? I’m lost. It was just weird to have the show pretend the second half of the first season never existed without some kind of info segment at the beginning of ep1 of the second season to explain what’s going on and where we’re at.
AduroT wrote: I loved the second season of Blue SomethingIForget where it started at something like the halfway point of season one where it had deviated from the manga to make its own story. That was super confusing.
I've always hated when animes go off and make their own material. I get that they need to cash in quick on a successful manga but if there isn't enough material for an anime season it's just shooting themselves in the foot.
BaconCatBug wrote: You'd think SOMEONE would have made a library of proper walk cycles by now.
I don't think it's the walk cycle. It's the backgrounds. Setting the angle wrong, or not putting in certain levels of detail calls attention to the model and makes it look weird.
Part of it is that Goblin Slayer's design is really elaborate. He's almost always the most detailed character on the screen and as a result draws more attention. I didn't notice it when he was with other adventurers with their own elaborate armors and designs, but put him in a bland background or beside Cow Girl whose design is simple and he stands out like a sore thumb.
I tried getting into this show, but I can't. It just feels like a cheap knock-off of the much, much better Berserk.
BaconCatBug wrote: You'd think SOMEONE would have made a library of proper walk cycles by now.
I don't think it's the walk cycle. It's the backgrounds. Setting the angle wrong, or not putting in certain levels of detail calls attention to the model and makes it look weird.
Part of it is that Goblin Slayer's design is really elaborate. He's almost always the most detailed character on the screen and as a result draws more attention. I didn't notice it when he was with other adventurers with their own elaborate armors and designs, but put him in a bland background or beside Cow Girl whose design is simple and he stands out like a sore thumb.
I tried getting into this show, but I can't. It just feels like a cheap knock-off of the much, much better Berserk.
I sincerely hope you don't mean the new Berserk.
And I know "it gets better later" isn't a good argument, but without having read the manga I have been told "it gets better later" when you see just how single minded the Goblin Slayer is.
BaconCatBug wrote: You'd think SOMEONE would have made a library of proper walk cycles by now.
I don't think it's the walk cycle. It's the backgrounds. Setting the angle wrong, or not putting in certain levels of detail calls attention to the model and makes it look weird.
Part of it is that Goblin Slayer's design is really elaborate. He's almost always the most detailed character on the screen and as a result draws more attention. I didn't notice it when he was with other adventurers with their own elaborate armors and designs, but put him in a bland background or beside Cow Girl whose design is simple and he stands out like a sore thumb.
I tried getting into this show, but I can't. It just feels like a cheap knock-off of the much, much better Berserk.
I sincerely hope you don't mean the new Berserk.
And I know "it gets better later" isn't a good argument, but without having read the manga I have been told "it gets better later" when you see just how single minded the Goblin Slayer is.
I've not seen anything but the original.
I'm much, much more of a Sci-Fi guy than I am fantasy. I'm also not huge on super graphic violence.
The second season of Thunderbolt Fantasy is proving quite enjoyable so far. We're only 4 episodes in but they're doing a good job of building sensibly on the first season.
Anyone who didn't watch the first season really missed out and anyone who isn't watching the second season is also missing out. Y'all need some martial arts doll animation in your lives.
Quite pleased with Golden Kamui myself, it has received a slight upgrade in animation quality (horrible fire aside) and from the look of things, we will be getting the prison raid this season, which will be an awesome point to end the season on.
Rosebuddy wrote: The second season of Thunderbolt Fantasy is proving quite enjoyable so far. We're only 4 episodes in but they're doing a good job of building sensibly on the first season.
Anyone who didn't watch the first season really missed out and anyone who isn't watching the second season is also missing out. Y'all need some martial arts doll animation in your lives.
I watched the first episode. It’s definitely unusual. I put it on the to-be-watched-eventually-but-probably-not-anytime-soon list.
For anyone interested, GundamInfo (the official portal site for the Gundam Franchise) has posted the compilation films for Mobile Suit Gundam: Thunderbolt on its YouTube channel.
December Sky represents all four episodes of season 1 in film format, while Bandit Flower is all four episodes of season 2.
If you haven't seen them I'd highly suggest it. Thunderbolt is imo one of the best Gundam entries in the entire franchise, and equally portrays both sides of its central conficts. The action scenes are superb and mostly set to orchestral Jazz and Blues music for flavor.
You can see either film as a Sub or Dub. Both films will probably be taken down after a month or so (no official word I can find, but they've put the series out for free and taken it down after a month twice in the past).
Rosebuddy wrote: The second season of Thunderbolt Fantasy is proving quite enjoyable so far. We're only 4 episodes in but they're doing a good job of building sensibly on the first season.
Anyone who didn't watch the first season really missed out and anyone who isn't watching the second season is also missing out. Y'all need some martial arts doll animation in your lives.
I watched the first episode. It’s definitely unusual. I put it on the to-be-watched-eventually-but-probably-not-anytime-soon list.
The second season starts very soon after the first one so if you don't want to watch that or can't I'd recommend a quick look at some plot summary, just to get a little explanation of why the 2nd season starts where and how it does. It's a great thing to get and watch with friends for a new "woah what the hell was that" experience.
I think Castlevania was a western production, but I'm not sure.
I could have sworn that Warren Ellis or someone like that wrote the script.
Good show, btw. Needs season 2.
CthuluIsSpy wrote: I think Castlevania was a western production, but I'm not sure.
I could have sworn that Warren Ellis or someone like that wrote the script.
Good show, btw. Needs season 2.
Castlevania is a Netflix production and indeed with a script provided by Warren Ellis. There is supposed to be a second season coming some time.
CthuluIsSpy wrote: I think Castlevania was a western production, but I'm not sure.
I could have sworn that Warren Ellis or someone like that wrote the script.
Good show, btw. Needs season 2.
Castlevania is a Netflix production and indeed with a script provided by Warren Ellis. There is supposed to be a second season coming some time.
Wasn't Devil Man Crybaby also a Netflix show, except from a Japanese company?
CthuluIsSpy wrote: I think Castlevania was a western production, but I'm not sure.
I could have sworn that Warren Ellis or someone like that wrote the script.
Good show, btw. Needs season 2.
Castlevania is a Netflix production and indeed with a script provided by Warren Ellis. There is supposed to be a second season coming some time.
Wasn't Devil Man Crybaby also a Netflix show, except from a Japanese company?
Indeed, I think most if not all of their Netflix anime content is being done overseas animation wise.
I've also checked info on the second season and it's coming.. TOMORROW!
CthuluIsSpy wrote: I think Castlevania was a western production, but I'm not sure.
I could have sworn that Warren Ellis or someone like that wrote the script.
Good show, btw. Needs season 2.
Castlevania is a Netflix production and indeed with a script provided by Warren Ellis. There is supposed to be a second season coming some time.
Wasn't Devil Man Crybaby also a Netflix show, except from a Japanese company?
Indeed, I think most if not all of their Netflix anime content is being done overseas animation wise.
I've also checked info on the second season and it's coming.. TOMORROW!
Oh cool, they actually are making a second season.
Kroem wrote:I gotta admit I'm a bit all at sea when it comes to Animu...
I loved Avatar: The Last Airbender and Oban Star Racers so guess I like anime with Western input, are there any more like these?
You could try Boku no Hero Academia/My Hero Academia. Not really wester input directly but the series is heavily inspired by western superhero comics and mythology but from a Japanese cultural perspective (if that makes sense). It's a really solid series. Season three has just ended and season four will start in spring 2019 so you don't need to rush watching it.
Castlevania has already been mentioned and it's really good although season one consists of only four episodes (I think season two is supposed to be longer).
But yeah- MHA is well on its way to becoming another "Big Three" style hit.
The thing about Avatar and its successors (because both Dragon Prince and Voltron are being made by Avatar veterans) is that they're not so much Anime with Western influence, as much as they are Western cartoons with Anime influence. Basically the inverse of MHA in a way.
If you like that sort of story, though... Maybe One Piece, if you have the free time. It's another strongly character-driven series, where the story is less about what's happening, and more about how the characters are growing and changing and reacting to things. Maybe stuff like Full Metal Alchemist- another series with a definitive plotline. The thing about a lot of Anime is that they're set up as 'endless plots' so that they don't have to end if they turn into hits. Ones with long-term character development and actual overall plot resolution are relatively rare.
Really, Anime and Western are going to become irrelevant terms more and more as the people who grew up watching both become inspired by each and everything just kind of coalesces into just being cartoons.
AduroT wrote: Really, Anime and Western are going to become irrelevant terms more and more as the people who grew up watching both become inspired by each and everything just kind of coalesces into just being cartoons.
How many of us grew up watching Pokemon and Digimon and thought it was "anime". Honestly at this stage Anime and Western are almost purely marketing terms and fan terms used to make it easier to talk about things in a casual sense.
AduroT wrote: Really, Anime and Western are going to become irrelevant terms more and more as the people who grew up watching both become inspired by each and everything just kind of coalesces into just being cartoons.
How many of us grew up watching Pokemon and Digimon and thought it was "anime". Honestly at this stage Anime and Western are almost purely marketing terms and fan terms used to make it easier to talk about things in a casual sense.
To weigh in on the debate here, to me it comes down to what animation techniques are used and what story tropes are used, albeit secondary to where the show was made.
Is it a story about a group of 15 year olds with spikey hair killing god, standing around and having pan shots of them talking for 17 minutes and then 3 minutes of hyperanimated over 9000 fps fighting with explosions? If it was made in Japan, it's Anime. If it was made anywhere else, it is Anime-inspired animation.
Is it animated on 4s and Calarts? It's Western Animation.
It's all blurred anyway, since the first "Anime" such as Mighty Atom (Astroboy) and Princess Knight were very much inspired by Western Animation.
Also I recommend watching the Original Astroboy and Princess Knight shows. They still hold up pretty well IMHO.
Just to complicate matters a bit more also the French have been making some interesting inroads with very anime inspired series like Wakfu from Akama Studios or Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir recently.
Quality animated media is slowly becoming a common thing outside of Japan in general now. Netflix with DreamWorks is making significant in roads with Voltron and How to Train your Dragon and then you have the occasional odd ball like Avatar the Last Airbender.
@BaconCatBug- Yes, yes indeed. Mostly, I consider the differences to be primarily on overarching form, even more than animation methods. Honestly, I consider Anime more of a supergenre even- there's a lot of things you can point to and say "That's Anime", that many Japanese animations don't do, or that some American animations do.
And on the Astro Boy thing- are you talking about the original original, the one that's black-and-white? 'cause yea, it's pretty cool.
Anvildude wrote: @BaconCatBug- Yes, yes indeed. Mostly, I consider the differences to be primarily on overarching form, even more than animation methods. Honestly, I consider Anime more of a supergenre even- there's a lot of things you can point to and say "That's Anime", that many Japanese animations don't do, or that some American animations do.
And on the Astro Boy thing- are you talking about the original original, the one that's black-and-white? 'cause yea, it's pretty cool.
Darn tootin' I am. It was named the 86th best animated series by IGN, which just proves you can't spell Ignorant without IGN. I know it's a big commitment but I highly recommend anyone who is interested in animation to watch it in its entirety.
If you like that sort of story, though... Maybe One Piece, if you have the free time. It's another strongly character-driven series, where the story is less about what's happening, and more about how the characters are growing and changing and reacting to things. Maybe stuff like Full Metal Alchemist- another series with a definitive plotline. The thing about a lot of Anime is that they're set up as 'endless plots' so that they don't have to end if they turn into hits. Ones with long-term character development and actual overall plot resolution are relatively rare.
One Piece? No way.... Watch Gintama. I find Gintama far more enjoyable than the strangeness that One Piece became.
vonjankmon wrote: Just to complicate matters a bit more also the French have been making some interesting inroads with very anime inspired series like Wakfu from Akama Studios or Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir recently.
Quality animated media is slowly becoming a common thing outside of Japan in general now. Netflix with DreamWorks is making significant in roads with Voltron and How to Train your Dragon and then you have the occasional odd ball like Avatar the Last Airbender.
Interesting times we're living in.
True, the Frenchies made Oban and that was great. Sav! The World also recently announced they were working on a sequel/ spinoff!
France has a really strong comic scene as well and the artistic quality and styles far out strips many of the big DC/Marvel styles. So its no shock that animation has a strength there.
So i have been watching Goblin Slayer and yes i do like it. I admit hearing about the complaints made me only more curious and want to watch it more. The show is pretty good. Yeah it has some dark themes but if you don't mind dark shows it's not really big. We all play warhammer so i'm sure dark themes aren't really new to us. Shame GW has become more family friendly overall though.
Anyway i saw episode 4 just now and it's enjoyable. Goblin Slayer is definitely efficient at what he does. He definitely tends to be prepared that's for sure.
Oh yeah, French stuff! There's also Wakfu, Code Lyoko, maybe a couple others with strong Anime influence. France actually has a really strong animation scene.
If you like that sort of story, though... Maybe One Piece, if you have the free time. It's another strongly character-driven series, where the story is less about what's happening, and more about how the characters are growing and changing and reacting to things. Maybe stuff like Full Metal Alchemist- another series with a definitive plotline. The thing about a lot of Anime is that they're set up as 'endless plots' so that they don't have to end if they turn into hits. Ones with long-term character development and actual overall plot resolution are relatively rare.
One Piece? No way.... Watch Gintama. I find Gintama far more enjoyable than the strangeness that One Piece became.
Became? One Piece started bizarre, and requires dropping more acid.
And is outpaced by most glaciers.
BrookM wrote: It's a great show, dodgy animation, horrible CGI animals and the fire effects aside.
The bears in the first few episodes were a little bad, but I think the regular animation is ok. Not sure what you mean about the fire effects as I haven't noticed anything odd about it.
If you like that sort of story, though... Maybe One Piece, if you have the free time. It's another strongly character-driven series, where the story is less about what's happening, and more about how the characters are growing and changing and reacting to things. Maybe stuff like Full Metal Alchemist- another series with a definitive plotline. The thing about a lot of Anime is that they're set up as 'endless plots' so that they don't have to end if they turn into hits. Ones with long-term character development and actual overall plot resolution are relatively rare.
One Piece? No way.... Watch Gintama. I find Gintama far more enjoyable than the strangeness that One Piece became.
Became? One Piece started bizarre, and requires dropping more acid.
And is outpaced by most glaciers.
True, but many anime shows are strange to begin with, I don't mind some strangeness in a show (ie. Gintama)... but there is a point where a show gets so strange that I just can't follow it, and is immersion breaking for me. One Piece was that way, after jumping back in I just stopped watching. Gintama though? Can never get enough of it.
So... the Broly movie is apparently the best thing since sliced bread. It aired for the first time in Japan and people are loving it. From what I've read spoiler-wise I can see why.
Oh boy what a freaking train wreck episode 7 was. Half arsed eye candy/fan service, an action scene that didn't really have that much action and one minute and 20 seconds of staring into a blinking birds eye with a static shot reflected in the eye. This is even worse than the elevator shot from Evangellion, at least we had two cute girls to look at there. I've also been informed that they skipped huge chunks of the light novels and butchered the pacing of what they did adapt. Add to that more poor quality CGI on the main character and I feel somewhat let down. I wasn't expecting much, but even what little expectations I had have been dashed.
And on the flipside, Bunny Grill Sempai:
Spoiler:
Seishun Buta Yarou wa Bunny Girl Senpai no Yume wo Minai aka Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai is a slice of life high school anime and... wait, come back, seriously. This show is FANTASTIC. No hyperbole, the best anime of 2018 so far IMHO. It's well written, self aware and deals with things in a realistic fashion, at least realistic in a world where certain supernatural phenomena exist. The character chemistry between all the characters is great, the animation is spot on and I cannot recommend it highly enough. The romance aspect is both adorable and relatable and one arc pulls a twist on the Endless Eight formula Haruhi did but does it better IMHO and without being so obnoxious about it. I highly recommend you watch this or at the very minimum take an hour out of your day to do the three episode test. I don't think you'll be disappointed.
Yeah, the bird eye thing went on for way too long and ruined what was a good scene before hand.
The action scene was good though. It was bloody and visceral, as it should be.
CthuluIsSpy wrote: Yeah, the bird eye thing went on for way too long and ruined what was a good scene before hand. The action scene was good though. It was bloody and visceral, as it should be.
It was bloody and visceral but what really happened? Not much. Compare it to the action scene from the first episode. The first episode was far more dynamic. Furthermore, why does Goblin Slayer, a guy who has dedicated his life to fighting Goblins (and thus has most likely fought Hobgoblins, Goblin Champions etc in the past) make the same idiot mistake of rushing the big lads (in awe of the size of that lad, absolute unit) only to be pasted against a wall. I could handwave against the Ogre, but to do it AGAIN? It makes no sense. Also, how did the bird even survive? The Dwarf clearly says the poison will harm them but not kill them, but a tiny bird like that (WHO IS ON THE FREAKING GROUND SURROUNDED BY POISON GAS) surely should have died or passed out. Also the damage done to the Priestess is inconsistent and I suspect (without checking) was more brutal in the Light Novel/Mango. It looks like the Champion either rips her arm off or at least takes a massive chunk out of her arm, but then suddenly it's only a light fleshwound (as confirmed by the Lizard Bro)?
Nah, she got bit in the arm there too. I don't remember him removing an entire chunk like that though. Edit : I read it again. Yes, he did remove a chunk, but it wasn't that big and didn't look that deep. It was nasty, but it wasn't that brutal. The anime made it more graphic than it was in the manga. As for GS rushing the champion - he tried attacking it from behind, and in the manga he was planning on killing it in one strike. The champion rolled a 3 for his grot shield though.
As an aside, they also skipped the village defense arc. Which is a pity, because that arc was badass.
That scene played out pretty much exactly like it was in the manga, but you are correct that they have skipped a big chunk of story. Granted, a large portion of the story they have skipped was stuff told from the Goblin's point view, including stuff that happened in this episode.
I think its pretty clear that while he has fought champions before, but they are exceptionally rare that his experience vs them is far less than vs other types of goblins. They are a challenge for him as they aren't of low skill and intelligence like other goblins.
So, Goblin Slayer, it turns out that overly long bird’s eye shot was Supposed to have the credits rolling over, but Crunchyroll screwed it up or something and left them off and then played the normal credits sequence after.
AduroT wrote: So, Goblin Slayer, it turns out that overly long bird’s eye shot was Supposed to have the credits rolling over, but Crunchyroll screwed it up or something and left them off and then played the normal credits sequence after.
That makes a lot more sense. I was wondering why they did something so stupid.
Okay so I just saw an odd Youtube Video (NSFW warning). I mostly find this video to be a painful experience, but the actual subject roused my curiosity. I suggest not watching it. To save you the trouble, it notes that some google search results have been taken over by popular renditions of anime characters, namely Nero Claudius, Jack the Ripper, and Paul Bunyan. I checked and I don't know what google search the video maker was using because I didn't get any picks of the Fate version of Jack the Ripper or Paul Bunyan when searching.
I did however search some of the series other more well known characters and...
Nero Claudius, Mordred, Cu Chulainn, Okita Souji, Minamoto no Raikou, Shuten Douji, Kiyohime, Nitocris and that's about where I stopped because I ran out of characters to name off the top of my head. Oda Nobunaga, Atalanta, Lancelot, Gawain, Gilgamesh, Hassan i Sabah, and Karna were mostly non-anime images but did have the Fate characters visible without scrolling down on my screen. Hercules didn't have the Fate character, but it sure had a lot of images from the Disney movie. Ibaraki Doji was an anime or game character. I just don't know from where.
So while whoever made the video was a ranting loon, I'm wondering if maybe there was a broader point there about popular culture completely overshadowing the real thing XD
As you say, the broader point of the popularized version of various characters are going to be higher profile than the original. Which is due to search engines in general sorting hits by popularity. I did once have to explain who Iskandar was in the Fate series because one of my friends didn't know what Alexander the Great's real name was.
BaconCatBug wrote: Otaku-Vs is very much parody/gakposting, don't take everyanything they say seriously.
I was wondering cause I wasn't sure who would make that and think it wasn't pure cringe. Mostly I link only because that video is the only reason I bothered to go looking at all. It mostly seems to only hit figures/people who don't have a lot of images online, leaving just the anime/video game/whatever images to overtake the google search. That one Mordred image for example is the only "historic" image of the character I think I've ever seen.
Saber is for example easily the most popular fate character (more so than those others I linked) but a google search of King Arthur doesn't throw up any pictures of her.
Saber is for example easily the most popular fate character (more so than those others I linked) but a google search of King Arthur doesn't throw up any pictures of her.
Which is probably because she really has nothing in common with the actual historical King Arthur, and King Arthur has such an extreme presence in media and mythology that there is enough material to drown out anything coming from the Fate anime series.
Oddly enough though, if you google Excalibur you get hits on the Fate series.
Anvildude wrote: Also, search engines tend to sort by personal search history. So that suggests that the person who posted that video searches for a lot of Anime.
So I know it's not exactly Anime, but has anyone been watching the new She-Ra?
It's just BONKERS. Like, I checked out an episode of the old one, and yeah, that was equally weird, but it had the 80's to excuse it. The new one's just good, but keeps all the strange from the 80's one.
It's fantastic, though.
And the Queen is literally a character from Robotech, but as a fairy queen. Or just Blue Diamond.
I watched it on a whim and my main objection would be the typical stuff stemming from it being mainly for, like, 7-10 year olds. There's really too little about the economic and sociopolitcal functions of Etheria and the Horde. Other than that it's a respectable first season with a couple of actually quite good characters. Catra is the most compelling by far, and Entrapta, Scorpia, Bow and Glimmer are very fun supporting cast.
The show is also anime as hell despite not being in Japanese so this is as good a place as any to discuss.
Anyway, I caught up on all eight episodes of Zombieland Saga so far and the show has a lot more ambition than just being a gag show even if it's firmly rooted in dark comedy. A pleasant surprise.
Anvildude wrote: So I know it's not exactly Anime, but has anyone been watching the new She-Ra?
It's just BONKERS. Like, I checked out an episode of the old one, and yeah, that was equally weird, but it had the 80's to excuse it. The new one's just good, but keeps all the strange from the 80's one.
It's fantastic, though.
And the Queen is literally a character from Robotech, but as a fairy queen. Or just Blue Diamond.
If I wanted to watch ugly Calarts blobs with terrible personalities, I'd stick to Steven Universe.
Automatically Appended Next Post:
Rosebuddy wrote: Anyway, I caught up on all eight episodes of Zombieland Saga so far and the show has a lot more ambition than just being a gag show even if it's firmly rooted in dark comedy. A pleasant surprise.
BaconCatBug wrote: If I wanted to watch ugly Calarts blobs with terrible personalities, I'd stick to Steven Universe.
Let's recap, shall we
Steven Universe:
She-Ra:
Bad screencaps that I found after image searching for as many as multiple seconds aside, you don't even need to see full figures standing straight to know that the shows aren't visually interchangeable.
What they have in common in terms of art style is a relative lack of shading and use of bold colours. The former is likely a time-saving measure and the latter is common to cartoons in general although these shows do in fact share some crew so saying that there are influences in this area is fair.
She-Ra characters have a much more strongly defined, well, skeleton than SU characters do. Catra and Adora have jawlines, entirely different styles of hands and feet, worlds of detail apart in terms of how they portray faces which happen to be one of the cornerstones of an art style.
If they are both "CalArts" it's in the broadest umbrella use of the term at which point you're complaining about an approach to animation designed to be easy to do under contemporary conditions. Or you just don't like the California Institute of the Arts. There appears to be something you don't like about the shows but what that is remains unclear since you flit wildly between claiming that they look the same, that it doesn't matter that they don't look the same, that all the characters have garbage personalities (how? I'd be interested in hearing that in more detail) and that They have to take down negative reviews.
Honestly? The Abridged series is BETTER than the 'original'. Well, the Ultimate original. And not just in comedy. In drama, action, depth of lore, everything.
To be fair the actual series didn't give much background for these events either, and the prequel series that was intended to do that got discontinued before it even got far off the ground.
This is apparently a part 1, so maybe TFS will give an explanation (there's two main fan theories) in the next part.
So I just watched Mobile Suit Gundam - The 08th MS Team and really enjoyed it. It doesn't go as deep into the "Horrors of War" darkness that later series went into but it does show that War is Not Good and that there is good and evil on both sides.
Also another fantastic episode of Bunny Girl Sempai this week. I cannot recommend it highly enough.
Oneday I plan to get hold of Gundam DVDs and watch the whole thing. It's one of those "wish I'd seen it when I was younger" series as war mechs and such is something I've always loved.
And they went with the Walter just wants to fight Alucard that badly explanation, as well as tying it to the "men are just children playing monsters" interpretation of canon.
Anvildude wrote: Honestly? The Abridged series is BETTER than the 'original'. Well, the Ultimate original. And not just in comedy. In drama, action, depth of lore, everything.
Oh, I don't disagree.
It's just... the first... half? six? episodes were really good. The last few have felt like filler, with nothing to follow up. Granted they obviously didn't have much to work with, but 8 was obviously the climax, while 9 & 10 are just coping with the incoherent gibberish and trying to wring something out of them, which largely hasn't been that funny.
Anvildude wrote: Honestly? The Abridged series is BETTER than the 'original'. Well, the Ultimate original. And not just in comedy. In drama, action, depth of lore, everything.
Oh, I don't disagree.
It's just... the first... half? six? episodes were really good. The last few have felt like filler, with nothing to follow up. Granted they obviously didn't have much to work with, but 8 was obviously the climax, while 9 & 10 are just coping with the incoherent gibberish and trying to wring something out of them, which largely hasn't been that funny.
Yeah they haven't been as funny. Really kind of mirrors the series to in that. The end of the fight with Anderson was basically the high point and everything after was jumbled and confused. I think it's also obvious that TFS has been ready to be done with the project for some time. They really want to wrap up their ABS projects (DBZA ends with the Majin Buu saga) and move on to their more creative works, which also happen to be far less heavy on editing.
Unlimited Blade Works Abridged Episode 4 also apparently dropped while I wasn't looking for anyone who is enjoying it.
Goblin Slayer - Fun Action RPG story about a guy just doing a job.
That Time I got Reincarnated as a Slime - Fun story, amazing opener.
Bunny Girl Senpai - Is actually an amazing watch...
Violet Evergarden - watched it with a few friends, we cried... A lot.
Goblin Slayer. Haven't watched. Have been reading the manga, so probably will binge it at some point.
That Time I got Reincarnated as a Slime – Agree its a fun show and that the lead is a slime, but still a lot of OP Isekai character nonsense with no real drama and as soon as the slime learned human duplication, it kind of lost some of its uniqueness
Bunny Girl Senpai - Definitely one of my favorites of the season.
Violet Evergarden - Yep...lots of feelz.
Also;
SSS.Gridman - great take on the genre. Animation is good. A little anxious about whatever wacky ending Trigger has cooked up.
Sword Art Online: Alicization - I'm not sure why I keep watching SAO. The backstory is weak IMHO but if you have nothing better to watch
Ms. Vampire who lives in my neighborhood - Cute (monster) girls doing cute things. Helps pass the time, but otherwise not really memorable.
Zombie Land Saga - runs hot and cold for me. Definitely a different take on the idol genre.
Iroduku: The World in Colors - Interesting plot, good animation, feelz...worth the watch
Overall I feel the fall season has been way better than summer, but still not as good as spring 2018 which wasn't as good as winter 2018 overall.
I quite like SAO:A, especially once they got into the background of the setting and what they want to achieve with it.
Can't wait for the next episode of Golden Kamui, we're finally getting the finale to the prison break, though I am worried that the rather subpar animation will make it feel weak as with previous action sequences. It's a shame they cut out an entire scene in an Anui village where they went on a rampage against bandits.
Can't stand SAO, the games that they're set in are poorly designed, the characters flat and boring, the MC overpowered and simply "the best at almost everything" and opportunities for any sort of real character development development wasted. Basically, it's a bad harem isekai anime.
SAO;A is slightly better from what I remember when I had gak taste and read the light novels, if only by a little bit.
The doubled down on creepy sexually assault this season of SAO too, because that wasn’t that thing I heard everyone complain about from the first season.
BaconCatBug wrote: Log Horizon is superior to SAO in every respect, which makes it all the more upsetting it got Spice-and-Wolf'd.
In better news the SnW VR novel (which has a non VR version, story written by the author himself, and characters voiced by the original Japanese VAs) has been backed insanely well on kickstarter, and the studio, Spicy Tails, has stated they'd like to look into funding a season 3 for SnW.
I mean, at least SAO is good about starting up vehement discussions on anime.
Like, for instance, I actually MUCH prefer SAO to LH- but then, I don't disagree with a lot of the complaints people have with it. It's just that I don't think SAO has the same 'good' as other anime.
SAO is, I think, an anime that's focused on Themes. The theme of reality vs. VR, personal responsibility for impersonal events, society vs. barbarism and the thin line between each, and how so much of the world depends on people just mutually agreeing to not be horrible to each other. The strength or weakness of those themes in the show are what influenced how well or badly each segment of it was received- and why Mother's Rosario is generally considered good even by those who dislike SAO- it was the segment with the strongest persual of those themes, without needing to rely on the shock-horror value of sexual assault that, say, the Elfheim arc had.
Also, it isn't a harem anime. At all. I don't get how people call it that. Yes, there's a bunch of female characters who hang out with the MC, and yes, one or two are crushing on him, but unlike EVERY OTHER HAREM anime, KIRITO IS MARRIED. He and Asuna are an official COUPLE. THEY HAVE A CHILD. All the rest is either friendship or one-sided. The only other girl that Kirito showed interest in is DEAD.
LH, on the other hand, is "Just another Isekai with a cliche'd cast" which, while it may be done compentantly, doesn't stand out in any particular way. I watched through, like, 7-10 episodes, and couldn't even remember the main character's name, that's how little impact they had on me.
Anvildude wrote: I mean, at least SAO is good about starting up vehement discussions on anime.
Like, for instance, I actually MUCH prefer SAO to LH- but then, I don't disagree with a lot of the complaints people have with it. It's just that I don't think SAO has the same 'good' as other anime.
SAO is, I think, an anime that's focused on Themes. The theme of reality vs. VR, personal responsibility for impersonal events, society vs. barbarism and the thin line between each, and how so much of the world depends on people just mutually agreeing to not be horrible to each other. The strength or weakness of those themes in the show are what influenced how well or badly each segment of it was received- and why Mother's Rosario is generally considered good even by those who dislike SAO- it was the segment with the strongest persual of those themes, without needing to rely on the shock-horror value of sexual assault that, say, the Elfheim arc had.
Also, it isn't a harem anime. At all. I don't get how people call it that. Yes, there's a bunch of female characters who hang out with the MC, and yes, one or two are crushing on him, but unlike EVERY OTHER HAREM anime, KIRITO IS MARRIED. He and Asuna are an official COUPLE. THEY HAVE A CHILD. All the rest is either friendship or one-sided. The only other girl that Kirito showed interest in is DEAD.
LH, on the other hand, is "Just another Isekai with a cliche'd cast" which, while it may be done compentantly, doesn't stand out in any particular way. I watched through, like, 7-10 episodes, and couldn't even remember the main character's name, that's how little impact they had on me.
Hefty spoilers ahead from what I recall
Spoiler:
From what I remember about SAO:A, Kirito heavily cheats on Azuna, gets a new waifu (Alice) as his best friend whatshisface dies fighting the first real big bad. Later when they're out travelling the galaxy it's also implied he takes more than one wife, and has children with them
To further back up that it's a harem anime, every female character, minus maybe one or two, have a crush on or are in love with Kirito, and like all harem protags, he's totally oblivious to it, and thus is one-sided (I mean, that's what a harem anime is, even Clannad has elements of this, proving that it doesn't make an anime innately bad if it does this). Also, they're only married in game, still dating real world, and their "daughter" is an AI, which could have been used for an interesting discussion, but is just used for moe purposes instead.
Comparatively Log Horizon has likable characters who grow and overcome challenges instead of just being "the best" and winning because they're "the best." That's what hurts SAO the most, the lack of character growth. It also keeps the game world realistic in that it would be a fun game as an MMO, as no matter how hard you try, there's only so much you can do with everyone playing a melee DPS in regards to fight mechanics or gear. SAO doesn't even do "themes" well, because "themes" is an abstract concept you need to define. Love? Clannad and Violet Evergarden both do it better, as do a million different anime. Cool action scenes? Kill La Kill, Project K, FMAB, deadman wonderland and MHA all come to mind as having better action. SAO might try to do a bunch of things, but it doesn't do any of them well.
Not to gak on what you like, like what you want, that's just my two cents.
That's true enough. I'm glad they started off the new season by dumping the biggest troll that plagued Aincrad into the Alfheim server that's heavy on role play.
I also quite liked the Gun Game spinoff, which didn't feature any of the regular cast and instead focused on another character and a tourney she was in.
Yeah, I don't begrudge anyone their preferences. Like I said, it's interesting just how divisive SAO is.
Rather saddened if what you say about SAO:A is true, but I'll still have to give it a try.
On the subject of Harem Anime- I don't think one-sided attraction is a feature of it- at least for the harem anime that I've watched (Tenchi Muyo!, Ranma 1/2, Monster Musume, Infinite Stratos, etc) one of the main plot points is "Which girl will the MC choose?"- and the MCs are attracted to all of the harem for one reason or another (or at least multiple of them), even if it's purely physical attraction. The hijinks aren't up to Harem levels, either, if I remember correctly- very few, if any pratfalls with hands in compromising positions, or accidentally wandering into the wrong onsen or any of that. Again, just speaking of my own memories of the first two seasons.
Harem (or reverse harem too I guess) isn't about the attraction, but a lot of girls lusting after one guy (or vice versa).
I also never claimed SAO was a particularly GOOD harem anime, just like it's not a good story focused anime, or action focused anime. I mean, those hijinks are some of the ways characters get built up, and SAO does a terrible job of character development.
They did clearly state it was a recap episode this week ahead of time, plus they're almost totally caught up with the manga. They MIGHT be able to squeeze another 12-13 episodes if they take a long break before season 2.
Yeah, the village defense was before he got a party and went to water town. They probably flipped the arcs so they can have the village defense as the finale. Which makes sense I guess.
Episode 10.5 is a recap episode. Don't waste your time with it.
So after having every single anime youtuber I follow say to do so along with several friends, I watched Episode 10 of Violet Evergarden.
Spoiler:
Now, I am not normally one to cry at films or anime, I'll get teary-eyed, sure, but not actually cry.
This made me cry. A lot.
It's a gut-punching story that hits a little too close to home but am I so very glad I watched it. It helps it's some of the most spectacular art I have ever seen and one of if not the best looking anime, imho.
I watched the first season of Hi Score Girl on Netflix.
It’s well done but pretty much paint-by-numbers. Slacker Guy is crushed on by both Perfect Girl and Not So Perfect Girl. Put it another way, what if Betty was Mortal Kombat and Veronica was Street Fighter?
Anvildude wrote: Just watched the first episode of Black Clover.
It's Naruto, with wizards.
That's... literally what it is. Except with worse pacing.
Don't you mean Black ClovAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
Seriously, I don't understand how you can screw up that badly without genuinely trying to screw up.
Saw Shield Hero last week. Rather liked it and plan to keep up with that one.
Was introduced to Black Cover a few weeks ago. I have binged the entire series up to current. It’s less Naruto but Wizards, and more One Piece but Wizards, due to everyone having their one power kind of deal. The main dude’s yelling definitely started off super grating, but I just kind of got used to it.
Having just finished the Shield Hero Mango, one thing I noticed was that the anime was not shy about saying "screw the source" when it came to the details, ordering or shots and instead told the story in a way that fit the medium rather than falling into the trap of trying to just shot for shot matching the manga, and I am happy about that.
BaconCatBug wrote: Having just finished the Shield Hero Mango, one thing I noticed was that the anime was not shy about saying "screw the source" when it came to the details, ordering or shots and instead told the story in a way that fit the medium rather than falling into the trap of trying to just shot for shot matching the manga, and I am happy about that.
I am hearing more and more evidence I should give Shied Hero a try.
I finally got around to finishing my dvd of JoJo season 1, and... the Nazi was a good guy. Still dealing with that.
Oh! Konosuba is getting it's dub on crunchyroll, and Mio is Darkness and Astolfo is Aqua, so I see nothing wrong and look forward to it (and the next Heaven's Feel movie when that gets stateside.)
Speaking of, how is the winter season panning out for folks?
Rising of the Shield Hero's manga is great. Loved to see it animated, especially since it tackles many of its related cliches in inventive ways, and goes a completely opposite route from most "transported into another world" hero stories. The series can be a little wangsty at times, but the quality of the story more than makes up for it.
EDIT: Additionally, super DUPER excited about Lord El-Melloi Case Files getting an anime adaptation. Probably the best series to come out of the Fate Franchise since Fate/Zero by miles.
Automatically Appended Next Post:
Manchu wrote: I watched the first season of Hi Score Girl on Netflix.
It’s well done but pretty much paint-by-numbers. Slacker Guy is crushed on by both Perfect Girl and Not So Perfect Girl. Put it another way, what if Betty was Mortal Kombat and Veronica was Street Fighter?
I think I enjoyed this series solely because I actually knew most of the games being referenced, and it's very obvious the story was written by someone who was that age at that time so it comes off as really authentic. The author of the original source material claims it's based on a youthful romance he had in the early 90s.
Spot on comments, LoH. How does it feel that your own childhood is now fodder for nostalgia?
I thought it was funny to see Clinton winning an election used as a milestone marker.
The best I can say for Hi Score Girl, and most anime these days, is that the usual chracterizations, plots, and conflicts are all delivered with good pacing. There’s not much new here.
Also the character design for the blonde girl ... Those eyelashes are irritating to me for some reason.
Manchu wrote: Spot on comments, LoH. How does it feel that your own childhood is now fodder for nostalgia?
Probably not a great example. You really feel the enthusiasm of the period watching the show. Games making massive leaps and bounds in design, graphics, and style year to year. Arcade culture at it's height before home gaming wiped it out.
When it comes to milking nostalgia for entertainment I think Hi Score Girl goes about it the right way most of the time. Sure there's this melodramatic love story mixed in that's more than a little cheesy, but I didn't care about that so much as I just sat back and enjoyed how "real" the main character feels when he's being excited about the games he's playing and what it was like to be alive in that era of gaming. To be sure there's still lots of great games out there, but the industry isn't moving at anything near the speed did in those years.
Also the character design for the blonde girl ... Those eyelashes are irritating to me for some reason.
I will say I'm not a fan of the character design in the series, or the really obvious CGI that pulls you out of the moment frequently episode to episode.
BaconCatBug wrote: Watched the first episode of Rising of the Shield Hero, mostly out of spite more than any actual interest (Streisand Effect).
The first episode is pretty good, the "controversy" a total non-issue. I hear that the original source material was pretty good also.
It is. I read the manga after seeing the first episode, and its a pretty solid story. It reminds me a little of Berserk, where terrible (though arguably not as bad) stuff happens to the main character, so he becomes this bitter, violent individual who doesn't trust anyone, and ends up regaining his humanity through the few reputable companions he encounters. Its a lot lighter and not as great as Berserk, but it follows the same sort of concept and is still better than most crap on the market nowadays.
Spoiler:
What I liked the most about it though is that it doesn't follow the usual Isekai formula of the main character being strong from Day 1 and just wrecking everyone effortlessly; Naofumi actually had to work and get inventive to become strong, and ends up surpassing the other 3 heroes.
Automatically Appended Next Post:
Anvildude wrote: Just watched the first episode of Black Clover.
It's Naruto, with wizards.
That's... literally what it is. Except with worse pacing.
Apparently it gets better later on. By later on I mean something like 30 episodes in. Which means you have to endure 29 episodes of Asta's ear raping screeches. So feth that noise.
I am hearing more and more evidence I should give Shied Hero a try.
I finally got around to finishing my dvd of JoJo season 1, and... the Nazi was a good guy. Still dealing with that.
Speaking of, how is the winter season panning out for folks?
Season 2, technically. Battle Tendency is the second part of Jojo Bizarre's adventure. Stroheim is pure meme gold and I love it.
You can easily apply that line to Warhammer. Just replace German with Necron, Tau or Imperial (because of course the Ad Mech would think so), and it will fit thematically.
He's not really a good guy though. They made it pretty clear early on that he's a bit of a gak, considering how he treated that mexican woman and supervised human experimentation, and the series didn't shy away from slaughtering nazi soldiers en masse. I don't think a single one, except for Stroheim, survived an encounter with the Pillar Men.
Anvildude wrote: Just watched the first episode of Black Clover.
It's Naruto, with wizards.
That's... literally what it is. Except with worse pacing.
Apparently it gets better later on. By later on I mean something like 30 episodes in. Which means you have to endure 29 episodes of Asta's ear raping screeches.
So feth that noise.
I didn't really bother to watch Black Clover, but I read the manga when it came out and thought it was a pretty galling copy paste. Pretty amazed it went anywhere at all, but there was a fair amount of desperation as Bleach and Naruto were both coming to an end. Then again, I didn't really care for a lot of Naruto's early stuff, though that's largely due to the pacing of the show. I quite liked the manga but mostly skipped to the highlights when it came to seeing it animated. Maybe someday BC will find its footing too?
I think Black Clover benefited a lot from the timing of it's release which may not have been coincidental. It's definitely a lot like Naruto and when it first started up Naruto was in its closing chapters. Fans jumped ship from one story that was ending to another very similar story that was just starting. Personally I lost interest because the quality just wasn't the same, but I can see how Black Clover survived despite feeling extremely derivative.
I really enjoyed K-On! And I knew that Naoko Yamada was going to be one of those directors to watch. Now, having seen this film, I can definitely say she's definitely one of Japan's new directorial talents that we should all be paying more attention to.
BaconCatBug wrote: Koe no Katachi is fantastic, it's just (unfairly) overshadowed by Kimi no Na wa.
After having seen it, I'm now greatly interested in seeing Liz and the Blue Bird. I've heard that it is just as good and enjoyable.
Liz and the Blue Bird is great. It's kinda an independent follow up to the second season of Hibike! Euphonium (takes place in the next school year with two Hibike! Euphonium side characters are the main characters this time and Hibike! Euphonium main characters as side characters). You can totally watch it without having seen anything of Hibike! Euphonium and having zero knowledge of the backstory of the side characters. What you would get from watching the series is not that important for the movie (it's a self-contained story) but it does add a bit flavour/nostalgia when you see them (and the second season has a tiny focus on the two main characters for an episode or two).
The style is a bit softer and stylised (less "realistic") but the slightly dreamy style really fits the story that's told. It's just really, really good.
Kyoto Animation are also working on a second Hibike! Euphonium movie (not Yamada, different team) that's more of a real followup to Hibike! Euphonium's main characters in the second year.
Regarding Yamada, I really like this video about her work: Naoko Yamada — At The Entrance To The Universe, it's such a good introduction to her work and methods (of course: slight but for the most part not that significant spoiler for most of her work).
BaconCatBug wrote: Koe no Katachi is fantastic, it's just (unfairly) overshadowed by Kimi no Na wa.
After having seen it, I'm now greatly interested in seeing Liz and the Blue Bird. I've heard that it is just as good and enjoyable.
Liz and the Blue Bird is great. It's kinda an independent follow up to the second season of Hibike! Euphonium (takes place in the next school year with two Hibike! Euphonium side characters are the main characters this time and Hibike! Euphonium main characters as side characters). You can totally watch it without having seen anything of Hibike! Euphonium and having zero knowledge of the backstory of the side characters. What you would get from watching the series is not that important for the movie (it's a self-contained story) but it does add a bit flavour/nostalgia when you see them (and the second season has a tiny focus on the two main characters for an episode or two).
The style is a bit softer and stylised (less "realistic") but the slightly dreamy style really fits the story that's told. It's just really, really good.
Kyoto Animation are also working on a second Hibike! Euphonium movie (not Yamada, different team) that's more of a real followup to Hibike! Euphonium's main characters in the second year.
Regarding Yamada, I really like this video about her work: Naoko Yamada — At The Entrance To The Universe, it's such a good introduction to her work and methods (of course: slight but for the most part not that significant spoiler for most of her work).
Fantastic, I'll give that a watch tonight. As I understand it, women are still a minority in the animation directors seat in Japan. She seems to be a cut way above even the most average of directors, so I'm glad to see her works finding a lot of success in the animation world.
Is there word on how many episodes Rising of the Shield Hero is getting? I'd really like to see it make it to 26. Just 13 will leave the story in a somewhat awkward hang.
LordofHats wrote: Is there word on how many episodes Rising of the Shield Hero is getting? I'd really like to see it make it to 26. Just 13 will leave the story in a somewhat awkward hang.
It's confirmed to get the two full cours, 25 episodes (the first was double length).
Togusa wrote: Fantastic, I'll give that a watch tonight. As I understand it, women are still a minority in the animation directors seat in Japan. She seems to be a cut way above even the most average of directors, so I'm glad to see her works finding a lot of success in the animation world.
Kyoto Animation is a bit of an anomaly in the anime industry. They actually have a majority of female employees (I think that's still true), they managed to work their way out of the constant treadmill of being "just another outsourcing studio", and they actually employ nearly all of their animators on wages (instead of paying per drawing on a freelance basis). I think their wages are still below what western animators make but it's a bit better/stable than the Japanese average.
The industry in general seems to work more with a freelance model: Essentially a production committee (everybody who has financial stake in the success of that series: manga publisher, music publisher for the soundtrack, other companies that help out financially) "hires" a studio create the series. And that studio in turn tends to hire a lot of animators on a freelance basis and maybe outsource some episodes or parts to other studios. Studios tend to get overworked at low rates because they are not a stakeholder in the production. And the committee members are the ones who end up making money from licensing the series (and all the merchandise). The studio that do the actual work often just buy themselves a financial runway extension (hoping to secure another series soon).
On the positive side: Anime production is booming right now (more stuff gets made) but on the negative side most of the financial benefits don't end up at the studios and workers (but at the committee) and a lot of people are over-working themselves. Getting young animators into the industry also has been a challenge as studios didn't have the time to hire/educate newbies but often relied on outsourcing studios for in-between work so there's a bit of a gap/lack of newbies (Kyoto Animation also has it's own animation school so they were not really hit with that problem).
Kyoto Animation managed to get off that treadmill with some financial security and can produce its own work with mostly full-time in-house staff (and can pick and choose what they want to work on instead of having constant financial pressure). That leads to better management/scheduling, better working conditions, and less volatile finances for the studio.
I'm anticpating a boom in American animation in, oh, about 10 years or so, actually. I think the greater acceptance of animation as a serious, all-ages media is going to push against the 'animation stigma', and those who have grown up with high-quality Western animation (Avatar, Korra, some of the Netflix series) will start founding their own studios and finding funding. Especially with Netflix spearheading the use of newer, smaller studios for licensed content.
Togusa wrote: Fantastic, I'll give that a watch tonight. As I understand it, women are still a minority in the animation directors seat in Japan. She seems to be a cut way above even the most average of directors, so I'm glad to see her works finding a lot of success in the animation world.
Kyoto Animation is a bit of an anomaly in the anime industry. They actually have a majority of female employees (I think that's still true), they managed to work their way out of the constant treadmill of being "just another outsourcing studio", and they actually employ nearly all of their animators on wages (instead of paying per drawing on a freelance basis). I think their wages are still below what western animators make but it's a bit better/stable than the Japanese average.
The industry in general seems to work more with a freelance model: Essentially a production committee (everybody who has financial stake in the success of that series: manga publisher, music publisher for the soundtrack, other companies that help out financially) "hires" a studio create the series. And that studio in turn tends to hire a lot of animators on a freelance basis and maybe outsource some episodes or parts to other studios. Studios tend to get overworked at low rates because they are not a stakeholder in the production. And the committee members are the ones who end up making money from licensing the series (and all the merchandise). The studio that do the actual work often just buy themselves a financial runway extension (hoping to secure another series soon).
On the positive side: Anime production is booming right now (more stuff gets made) but on the negative side most of the financial benefits don't end up at the studios and workers (but at the committee) and a lot of people are over-working themselves. Getting young animators into the industry also has been a challenge as studios didn't have the time to hire/educate newbies but often relied on outsourcing studios for in-between work so there's a bit of a gap/lack of newbies (Kyoto Animation also has it's own animation school so they were not really hit with that problem).
Kyoto Animation managed to get off that treadmill with some financial security and can produce its own work with mostly full-time in-house staff (and can pick and choose what they want to work on instead of having constant financial pressure). That leads to better management/scheduling, better working conditions, and less volatile finances for the studio.
I hadn't realized that Kyoto Ani had done the production work. Been a fan of their studio for a long, long time.
Finally managed to watch Maquia, absolutely loved it. It's hard to describe without spoilers but the character growth was great, the art and animation was beautiful, and it had the bittersweet ending that comes with everything with a mention of flowers that Mari Okada is known for.
Wolfblade wrote: Finally managed to watch Maquia, absolutely loved it. It's hard to describe without spoilers but the character growth was great, the art and animation was beautiful, and it had the bittersweet ending that comes with everything with a mention of flowers that Mari Okada is known for.
I hadn't heard of this one yet, I am going to have to add it to my list!
It's absolutely fantastic. Go in blind, don't read up on anything about it until you finish it, or you risk spoiling yourself heavily.
For those who don't know Mari Okada, she's worked on Black butler, darker than black, black rock shooter, Dragon pilot, and probably her most well known work (at least recently), Anohana.
Wolfblade wrote: Finally managed to watch Maquia, absolutely loved it. It's hard to describe without spoilers but the character growth was great, the art and animation was beautiful, and it had the bittersweet ending that comes with everything with a mention of flowers that Mari Okada is known for.
I hadn't heard of this one yet, I am going to have to add it to my list!
It's really good, Maquia (as its name) is used in the west but it can also be Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms or Sayonara no Asa ni Yakusoku no Hana wo Kazarou
(Japanese).
Wolfblade wrote:It's absolutely fantastic. Go in blind, don't read up on anything about it until you finish it, or you risk spoiling yourself heavily.
For those who don't know Mari Okada, she's worked on Black butler, darker than black, black rock shooter, Dragon pilot, and probably her most well known work (at least recently), Anohana.
Yup, I'm fairly excited for up the upcoming projects she's involved in, and the next thing is "O Maidens in Your Savage Season" and I havent looked up anyhing on so I really hope it'll be as good as maquia or anohana, but that might be a high bar to set for every work she is involved in now I suppose.
It's been, to use a typical British Understatement, "a little fast", but I highly prefer going at a quick clip than to spending 9 episodes waiting for Namek to explode.
I also really like that they aren't falling into the trap of so many bad adaptations by trying to somehow cram the exact Light Novel points into an animated medium. Books and Animation are not the same and what works in one doesn't necessarily work in the other.
So the closest thing that we have in the US for industry anime awards was announced tonight. Some of you I am guess might have voted in Crunchyroll's fan poll like me.
Jojo won best character designs? Ick. Looking at the character designs for this season has super turned me off on that show, not that I was terribly interested in it before.
Best voice actor went to a character who annoyed me enough I stopped watching the show, but I know a majority were fans of his.
I’m surprised Hero won so much, but wasn’t even nominated for anime of the year. Havented watched Devilman, May have to.
Devilman Crybaby is weird, but strangely powerful. The animation frankly is incredible from start to finish. The story I imagine is a turnoff for a lot of people though. When I say weird, I mean weird. Lots of bizarre/surreal scenes, lots of angst, and more than a little "god this main character is unbearable." It all comes together in an odd way though.
LordofHats wrote: Devilman Crybaby is weird, but strangely powerful. The animation frankly is incredible from start to finish. The story I imagine is a turnoff for a lot of people though. When I say weird, I mean weird. Lots of bizarre/surreal scenes, lots of angst, and more than a little "god this main character is unbearable." It all comes together in an odd way though.
I wholeheartedly agree with this. It's spot on. Also, major spoilers for the ending of the anime:
Spoiler:
I didn't even realize that the final scene wasn't the earth being wiped clean like it seemed, but apparently the author stated it was god turning back time for the world as Lucifer's punishment, so he'd have to watch Akira die again and again.
The Yuri On Ice awards are back? Sweet!!!! I look forward to shows that got the highest traffic on crunchy roll getting awards and not actual good stuff getting awards!!!!!
Even though the winner was on Netflix....
hotsauceman1 wrote: The Yuri On Ice awards are back? Sweet!!!! I look forward to shows that got the highest traffic on crunchy roll getting awards and not actual good stuff getting awards!!!!!
Even though the winner was on Netflix....
Thats really the problem with any type of Awards system for media in general.
Entertainment is a 100% subjective subject, like all Art. So generally there is always going to be a disconnect between the skill of an Artist and weather or not his art is popular.
A technically flawless movie or show might not be very popular simply because it doesn't cater to the tastes of most viewers. A show might have excellent animation, but bad acting or plot development, or any good/bad combination of these things.
Basically, all Media awards systems are going to be complete garbage at discerning what is actually good, because "Good" is in the eye of the individual viewer. Its not something that can be measured or quantified in a meaningful way. And this is before you get into a system essentially being 'rigged', like the Oscars and Grammys are.
Take away the harem bs and Shield Dude has some pretty good moments, though it is sometimes a bit heavy handed in its presentation. His fellow heroes are doing all these great and grand things to level up and gain more acclaim, but fail to look at the consequences of their actions, like Spear Idiot and Bitch with their magic seed.
Pretty sure spear dude is just a patsy for bitch with nefarious goals.
Also yes, Filo is definitely a mixed bag with what she brings to the show. I like her “heavily fowl” persona, but having her turn into a Loli who wants the main dude to mate with her actively detracts from my enjoyment.
Ehhh, its not nearly as bad as most Haram anime. We at least had 4 episodes of character development for Naofumi and Raphtalia before that happened, and she was still just a bird for most of episode 5.
AduroT wrote: Pretty sure spear dude is just a patsy for bitch with nefarious goals.
Also yes, Filo is definitely a mixed bag with what she brings to the show. I like her “heavily fowl” persona, but having her turn into a Loli who wants the main dude to mate with her actively detracts from my enjoyment.
AduroT wrote: Pretty sure spear dude is just a patsy for bitch with nefarious goals.
Also yes, Filo is definitely a mixed bag with what she brings to the show. I like her “heavily fowl” persona, but having her turn into a Loli who wants the main dude to mate with her actively detracts from my enjoyment.
some very VERY big spoilers the anime won't get to (seriously, these are REALLY big):
Spoiler:
Bitch (as her name is later legally changed to (for real)) is a fragment of an evil god, and is directly responsible for the curse series of weapons and corrupts each of the heroes
I do heavily agree with Filo. It would have been better if she was just a cute girl doing cute things instead of actively trying to be in naofumi's love life (but you can blame that on the fan outcry partially when the web novel first ended)
Big BIG BIG spoilers again:
Spoiler:
The first ending has naofumi and raphtalia get kicked back to japan when the "final boss" in the previous spoiler basically kills naofumi, fans went nuts and hated the ending, so it got rewritten to where naofumi has a slave village harem, which was then rewritten AGAIN to just be shards of naofumi as he and Raphtalia travel between worlds killing the "final boss" in the previous spoiler
Wolfblade wrote: the first was the best imo, and I'll also point out I did simplify a lot of the details around the endings
The first ending was the best ending and only ending as far as my head canon is concerned
I'm surprised the author bothered trying to rewrite it honestly. You can see the author get better as the story goes on, and the ending was a really nice cap off to the story. But it wasn't a stereotypical harem ending, and the series does have that section of the fans who are... a little too committed to how they think things should play out (creepily).
LordofHats wrote: I'm surprised the author bothered trying to rewrite it honestly. You can see the author get better as the story goes on, and the ending was a really nice cap off to the story. But it wasn't a stereotypical harem ending, and the series does have that section of the fans who are... a little too committed to how they think things should play out (creepily).
That's not exactly a unique trait of that single fandom.
Wolfblade wrote: the first was the best imo, and I'll also point out I did simplify a lot of the details around the endings
The first ending was the best ending and only ending as far as my head canon is concerned
I'm surprised the author bothered trying to rewrite it honestly. You can see the author get better as the story goes on, and the ending was a really nice cap off to the story. But it wasn't a stereotypical harem ending, and the series does have that section of the fans who are... a little too committed to how they think things should play out (creepily).
That's how I feel. I'm currently reading the LNs, and I hope the author won't end it poorly, and the writing gets WAY better the further you go into the novels
(I'm actually surprised the anime is so good, because the first 6 episodes are like, nearly 3 volumes IIRC.)
LordofHats wrote: I'm surprised the author bothered trying to rewrite it honestly. You can see the author get better as the story goes on, and the ending was a really nice cap off to the story. But it wasn't a stereotypical harem ending, and the series does have that section of the fans who are... a little too committed to how they think things should play out (creepily).
That's not exactly a unique trait of that single fandom.
No it's not. It's a general issue that constantly comes up in the entire Japanese pop media scene.
While some people on the FGO Comics Reddit have been lamenting the soft banning of numerous characters from comics for fear of the ban hammer befalling the whole board, I'm also quietly in the back thinking that as much as I like some character, I feel like other people like them a bit too much and yes random internet poster I know Helena is technically a grandma, but she looks like a twelve year old and I feel like you specifically are just using her lore as an excuse to draw a tween <CENSORED> and it's really freaking me out. So yeah, not lamenting that much.
One of the worst, bog standard Isekai I've read to date.
Weak kid and his whole class get transported to another world, he's also a weakling there and during a dungeon raid gets fireball'd in the back by a jealous classmate because princess of the class likes him a lot, so he falls deeper into the dungeon, loses his arm and must survive by embracing his inner edgelord.
His big skill is I can't remember, but it allows him to magically create things. In his case, combining stuff like ores, fire elements and whatnot to build guns, napalm grenades and a motorbike in order to survive. Along the way he becomes obscenely powerful, gains a harem including an underage vampire and bunny girl and just about everything else that's on the isekai checklist really.
BrookM wrote: One of the worst, bog standard Isekai I've read to date.
Weak kid and his whole class get transported to another world, he's also a weakling there and during a dungeon raid gets fireball'd in the back by a jealous classmate because princess of the class likes him a lot, so he falls deeper into the dungeon, loses his arm and must survive by embracing his inner edgelord.
His big skill is I can't remember, but it allows him to magically create things. In his case, combining stuff like ores, fire elements and whatnot to build guns, napalm grenades and a motorbike in order to survive. Along the way he becomes obscenely powerful, gains a harem including an underage vampire and bunny girl and just about everything else that's on the isekai checklist really.
I think I read this as a manga, and it starts off pretty good before diving way off into the deep end of stupidity.
Also read the manga, recently, after a friend dared me to.
It's..
It jumps into that comfortable "let's do what all isekai do" zone way too fast.
Well, at least the chapters revolving around a trap dungeon were funny, as it was set up by a troll who was genre savvy enough to make the experience as tedious and painful as possible, even for a group as horrendously overpowered as that of the protagonist and his waifus.
On the bright side, this crap made me like Shield Bro even more than before now.
AduroT wrote: Pretty sure spear dude is just a patsy for bitch with nefarious goals.
Also yes, Filo is definitely a mixed bag with what she brings to the show. I like her “heavily fowl” persona, but having her turn into a Loli who wants the main dude to mate with her actively detracts from my enjoyment.
some very VERY big spoilers the anime won't get to (seriously, these are REALLY big):
Spoiler:
Bitch (as her name is later legally changed to (for real)) is a fragment of an evil god, and is directly responsible for the curse series of weapons and corrupts each of the heroes
I do heavily agree with Filo. It would have been better if she was just a cute girl doing cute things instead of actively trying to be in naofumi's love life (but you can blame that on the fan outcry partially when the web novel first ended)
Big BIG BIG spoilers again:
Spoiler:
The first ending has naofumi and raphtalia get kicked back to japan when the "final boss" in the previous spoiler basically kills naofumi, fans went nuts and hated the ending, so it got rewritten to where naofumi has a slave village harem, which was then rewritten AGAIN to just be shards of naofumi as he and Raphtalia travel between worlds killing the "final boss" in the previous spoiler
Yeah, Raphtalia was already kinda pushing it for me given that she's still effectively a kid even if she "matures" faster due to her demi-human nature. Filo just going flat out saying she wants Naofumi as a mate made me go full "NOPE". I don't even want to think the logistics of how that would even work, not to mention that it's like a horse coming onto its rider. Dammit Japan!
Recently, I've found Love is War to be much better if you're interested in light romantic comedy, the narrator is by far one of the best parts of the show and its refreshing to have a different premise for once for the two main leads (though Shinomiya is definitely a lot more crazy when it comes to scheming to have Shirogane "confess" to her, she only fails several times because of Chika or other circumstances).
my roommate is a cat, kaguya-sama, and the promised Neverland are all fantastic for this season. If you haven't watched those 3, you're really missing out (ignoring shield hero as it's been talked about already, and mob psycho 2 which feels like the clear winner of the season so far imo, but also a 2nd seaaon of an already amazing anime)
As for shield hero, I liked the premise a lot, but the slow descent into harem territory annoyed me a lot in the novels. Almost everyone who joins his party seems to have a thing for him (as in, regulars of his party. I can think of one character who isn't interested in naofumi romantically) and I'd like to blame that on the outrage with the web novel, but I'm not really sure I can.
Wolfblade wrote: As for shield hero, I liked the premise a lot, but the slow descent into harem territory annoyed me a lot in the novels. Almost everyone who joins his party seems to have a thing for him (as in, regulars of his party. I can think of one character who isn't interested in naofumi romantically) and I'd like to blame that on the outrage with the web novel, but I'm not really sure I can.
It's kind of part and parcel of the entire genre as it is. Best bet is to just ignore it and focus on the rest, that I think right now Shield Hero is in one of the weaker parts of it's story. Everything about it starts getting a lot better at the conclusion of the first arc, which hopefully the anime will make it through.
That's what I did for the 13 books so far. Outside of the constant harem stuff it's a decent series. I'm just hoping the ending isn't anything like what I've heard about how the web novel finally ended.
BrookM wrote: Cat roommate is fun, it's a bit predictable and plays it on the safe side, but fun and wholesome nonetheless.
Every season it seems I have one slice of life show that is just there to chill too and this season it's My roomate is a cat.
As for the topic de jour, I got really plugged into Shield Hero and binged the manga and now find myself having dropped the anime having seen the direction that the manga goes in.
Switching gears quickly, at the beginning of the latest episode of Mob Psycho 100, I though to myself why they were doing the psudo slice of life story and Mob's growing maturity and self confidence and when they were going to get to the "crisis" storyline for the season, then last five minutes just went BAM! Well that got dark real fast.
Mob is also quite wholesome in some ways and a nice aversion of the usual "everybody hates this kid" sort of story, where instead everybody, even the jocks, are so damned nice and supportive of him.
But yeah, things just got real dark and serious real fast!
BrookM wrote: Mob is also quite wholesome in some ways and a nice aversion of the usual "everybody hates this kid" sort of story, where instead everybody, even the jocks, are so damned nice and supportive of him.
The line does make sense in context--it's something like "I can't keep defying the laws of nature, people die when they're killed, and that's the way it should be."
Though the Fate series has had more than its fair share of giggle-worthy lines:
The funny thing is, I remember hearing G Gundam only aired a few months after Victory Gundam, often regarded as one of the more bleak and depressing entries in the franchise. So you go from the height of "war is bad" straight to Super Asia and the Tequila Gundam.
Yeah but I think they have a particular style of crap that has made them memorable for how bad they were, which kind of calls into question are they really crap, or were the 80s and early 90s just a bizarre time XD
To be fair, they're basically doing it on purpose at this point. Almost every entry contains a line that harkons back to "people die is they are killed" because of how memetic it became. FGO actually has several examples.
BrookM wrote: Mob is also quite wholesome in some ways and a nice aversion of the usual "everybody hates this kid" sort of story, where instead everybody, even the jocks, are so damned nice and supportive of him.
But yeah, things just got real dark and serious real fast!
???%
Yeah I love Mob and that was totally outta left field and holy smokes dark - been some time since I have been this anxious to see the next episode of any anime....
BrookM wrote: Mob is also quite wholesome in some ways and a nice aversion of the usual "everybody hates this kid" sort of story, where instead everybody, even the jocks, are so damned nice and supportive of him.
But yeah, things just got real dark and serious real fast!
???%
Yeah I love Mob and that was totally outta left field and holy smokes dark - been some time since I have been this anxious to see the next episode of any anime....
BrookM wrote: Mob is also quite wholesome in some ways and a nice aversion of the usual "everybody hates this kid" sort of story, where instead everybody, even the jocks, are so damned nice and supportive of him.
But yeah, things just got real dark and serious real fast!
???%
Yeah I love Mob and that was totally outta left field and holy smokes dark - been some time since I have been this anxious to see the next episode of any anime....
Just saw the next episode...
Spoiler:
Man i got mixed feelings about the payoff
Spoiler:
I agree. Felt like I was trolled a bit. It was probably my least liked episode of the season TBH
Yeah, bit of a mixed bag that one. The opening was a copout, but it got so much better with the introduction of MORE PSYCHIC SNOWFLAKES WITH SUPER INSANE UNIQUE POWERS.
I loved that ???% turned into OBSESSION 100% and that Dimple is acting as the voice of reason to Mob now, not bad for an evil spirit out for power.
BrookM wrote: Mob is also quite wholesome in some ways and a nice aversion of the usual "everybody hates this kid" sort of story, where instead everybody, even the jocks, are so damned nice and supportive of him.
But yeah, things just got real dark and serious real fast!
???%
Yeah I love Mob and that was totally outta left field and holy smokes dark - been some time since I have been this anxious to see the next episode of any anime....
Just saw the next episode...
[spoiler]Man i got mixed feelings about the payoff
Spoiler:
I agree. Felt like I was trolled a bit. It was probably my least liked episode of the season TBH
[/spoiler]
Spoiler:
Like i get it, i think it would of been tooooooo brutal for best boi to have dealt with death directly but i would of loved to see ether 1) best boy going ???% and some how reviving them or 2) them actually being captured in an attempt to provoke mob into tearing up the town ether way mob could have had to come to full terms of his power which could of been a cool ark imho
Between Reigen being awesome as always with the "final" blow on the teleporter, mob scaring the crap out of him, and some really good action scenes overall setting up what to expect from the final fight next episode (I assume)
Shield Bro was good today, love the animation of his finishing move.
Also watched everything of Slime something up to the most recent episode, bleh. The last one, not revolving around slime god but rather the girl whose name I've forgotten, quite nice.
And after some prodding watched all of Knight's & Magic. It's another isekai, it's bad, but it doesn't tick off all the boxes of the genre thankfully.
The next episode of shield hero will be pretty good too.
Spoiler:
Glass is here now, which is both a good fight, and the first real taste of defeat for the non-shield heroes who descend further into the "this is a video game and I'm the main hero!" mindset which proves problematic later obviously when none of them will listen to any of the voices of reason.
Last two MOB eps have been freakin great cannot wait for the next one
Shield Bro I feel a little odd about - I actually wish there had been more world building or background on the bad guys - maybe next eps will give that? Honestly aside from the poor townsfolk I don't give a flying turd about the kingdom and religious order that the heroes have ostensibly been summoned to protect given how they have treated SheildBro himself...
petrov27 wrote: Shield Bro I feel a little odd about - I actually wish there had been more world building or background on the bad guys - maybe next eps will give that? Honestly aside from the poor townsfolk I don't give a flying turd about the kingdom and religious order that the heroes have ostensibly been summoned to protect given how they have treated SheildBro himself...
That's kind of the point, the world is harsh and hateful, just like the real world.
petrov27 wrote: Shield Bro I feel a little odd about - I actually wish there had been more world building or background on the bad guys - maybe next eps will give that? Honestly aside from the poor townsfolk I don't give a flying turd about the kingdom and religious order that the heroes have ostensibly been summoned to protect given how they have treated SheildBro himself...
That's kind of the point, the world is harsh and hateful, just like the real world.
Some spoilers for later on in the series:
Spoiler:
and the church's attitude/treatment will play into the plot later, most likely as the season finale
petrov27 wrote: Shield Bro I feel a little odd about - I actually wish there had been more world building or background on the bad guys - maybe next eps will give that? Honestly aside from the poor townsfolk I don't give a flying turd about the kingdom and religious order that the heroes have ostensibly been summoned to protect given how they have treated SheildBro himself...
That's kind of the point, the world is harsh and hateful, just like the real world.
Sure, sure, but so far all of that harsh and hatred is directed at ShieldBro at an almost comical level vs. the other summoned heroes who are just having a lark and everyone just totally kisses their rear ends in the Kingdom. I mean thats fine, certainly its there to make you root for the MC all the more, but at times it seems over the top...
The whole thing just seemed mean and unpleasant for no real reason other than to try and shock.
Anyway I'm sure there were a few differences, the most major I noticed was that when the Priestess cast protect there was also a hand that looked all too human trying to escape, which is what put her question of faith into action. I didn't see this in the anime. As you've mentioned the rock to the head scene didn't happen, but we got more character building from the supporting heroes, cow girl and goblin slayer himself.
It was named the 86th best animated series by IGN, which just proves you can't spell Ignorant without IGN. I know it's a big commitment but I highly recommend anyone who is interested in animation to watch it in its entirety.
