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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.
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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.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2018/12/10 03:22:35
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.
"Preach the gospel always, If necessary use words." ~ St. Francis of Assisi
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.
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2018/12/10 23:52:13
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bittersashes wrote:One guy down at my gaming club swore he saw an objective flag take out a full unit of Bane Thralls.
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.
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bittersashes wrote:One guy down at my gaming club swore he saw an objective flag take out a full unit of Bane Thralls.
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.
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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.
This message was edited 3 times. Last update was at 2018/12/12 01:01:47
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bittersashes wrote:One guy down at my gaming club swore he saw an objective flag take out a full unit of Bane Thralls.
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.
GENERATION 8: The first time you see this, copy and paste it into your sig and add 1 to the number after generation. Consider it a social experiment.
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M.A.V.- if you liked ChromeHounds, drop by the site and give it a go. Or check out my M.A.V. Oneshots videos on YouTube!
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.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2018/12/14 18:40:10
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bittersashes wrote:One guy down at my gaming club swore he saw an objective flag take out a full unit of Bane Thralls.
Big Mek Sparkz and his Band of Sparky Ting Huntas: 4,000 points
Our Lady of the Generous Heart: 2,000 points
Thousand Sons: One unbuilt Daemon Prince 
