If that's why they're tsundere that can be true, but they aren't always tsundere for the same reasons... it's not always because of self pity. ...What? I kind of like tsunderes, I thought Naru was one of the best characters in Love Hina for instance... same for Rin in the F/SN universe. Etc. (The other characters are usually worse!)
I certainly would agree that female anime characters overall are quite depressingly sexist in concept though, and the shoujo ones aren't any better than the shonen ones, a lot of the time; they just use different themes sometimes.
Tsunderes are a weird form of wishfulfillment, especially in magical girlfriend land, because it's like they're aware that they have no reason to like the guy but DESPITE that, they still somehow fall in love with him. It's just strange is all.
Well, first of all, I'd like to say that the filler arc that precedes Davy Back Fight was actually pretty cool.
And this... Well, I can definitely see why people dislike this arc, although I'd still rank it higher than the Captain Kuro one because of a couple of redeeming points:
- The concept of the Fight is neat.
-
Afro Luffy
was amazing.
- The
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
animals.
- The partnership between Zoro and Sanji.
The Groggy Ring event was surprisingly epic, and the animation in those last moments was top-notch.
-
Robin acting like a motherly figure when Chopper was crying was a pretty good moment. I just love all the characters in the crew.
The fact that I was drooling over the new OP and the widescreen resolution probably made me forgive a couple of this arc's mistakes, too. Like:
- There's almost no character development.
- I couldn't care less about
Tonjit, his grandkid, and the horse, although the fact that he stayed for 10 years standing on tilts is hilarious.
- The "main villain" is pretty annoying.
He reminds me of Wario.
- The filler events
were so obnoxious. Well, Roller Race was kind of fun, but the way the dodgeball match and the Oni game ended made me cringe. I know they were made to be funny, but they only frustrated me.
Although the anime team deserves a compliment for the way
they integrated the filler episodes in this arc. I honestly would never have guessed three of the events were anime-exclusive if I wasn't checking a guide.
Clip episode made bearable by a few original comedy bits. Poor Nikuman, having a
tsundere sister
must be difficult.
Chihayafuru 17:
Wow, Taichi breaks girls' hearts even faster and more dispassionately than Usui in Maid-sama.
The Karuta club
winning a relay race against a bunch of sports teams
was the least-realistic thing in the show so far, hah.
I love that the show can keep pulling out new ways for Chihaya to improve at karuta, though part of that might be how well they've masked the fact that she's always just played on twitch reflexes and it's taken this long for her to start feeling outmatched.
Chihayafuru 18:
Basically a "Chihaya absorbs karuta strategies from other players" episode. All of this technical strategizing is starying to make my eyes glaze over, but the great characters still carry me through when the subject matter doesn't. It still seems a bit late in the show to be devoting multiple entire episodes to karuta strategy.
Genki old lady was creepy. Kanade is mad cute.
Chihayafuru 19:
SUDDEN DEATH KARUTA
Still fun stuff, though I'm beginning to tire of the endless karuta. It's approaching Death Note-level strategization and getting bogged down in explaining the thought process behind every move. Is the show becoming less graceful in how it balances the depiction of the phyiscal and mental sides of karuta or am I just noticing it more? I suppose that these are the "weak" episodes that all of you were decrying a few weeks ago.
And wow,
poor Taichi
. It looks like there are equal odds of the show wrapping up with a
Shinobu
match and an
Arata
match.
Chihayafuru 20:
lol, as if things couldn't get worse for Taichi,
Arata's back and already intent on claiming Chihaya
. I suppose that there was no point in Taichi
telling Arata that he couldn't pursue Chihaya because Chihaya would ditch Taichi in about a second flat anyway
, so that was mighty bro of him not to
lie about being an official couple with Chihaya
.
I'm on Team Taichi like any decent person, but it's inevitable that Arata is going to be the one making karuta babies with Chihaya
.
So, after spending the past three episodes
learning strategy
, Chihaya decides to concentrate specifically on an
anti-Queen karuta style
when that's not going to help her in 99.9% of the matches she plays? Whatever. At least this episode wasn't 100% Karuta Note.
Well, first of all, I'd like to say that the filler arc that precedes Davy Back Fight was actually pretty cool.
- The partnership between Zoro and Sanji.
The Groggy Ring event was surprisingly epic, and the animation in those last moments was top-notch.
But you missed the most well crafted example of editing and time management ever devised, for episode 11. Constraining that magnificent verbose on one episode's time while keeping the TOLD power intact, that is a serious task and no easy feat, well worth seeing the series on the TV airing.
The worst is over. From this point on, every single non-filler arc ranges from great to god tier. Though some people aren't crazy about the arc after the next one, but I still wouldn't call it bad.
Clip episode made bearable by a few original comedy bits. Poor Nikuman, having a
tsundere sister
must be difficult.
Chihayafuru 17:
Wow, Taichi breaks girls' hearts even faster and more dispassionately than Usui in Maid-sama.
The Karuta club
winning a relay race against a bunch of sports teams
was the least-realistic thing in the show so far, hah.
I love that the show can keep pulling out new ways for Chihaya to improve at karuta, though part of that might be how well they've masked the fact that she's always just played on twitch reflexes and it's taken this long for her to start feeling outmatched.
Chihayafuru 18:
Basically a "Chihaya absorbs karuta strategies from other players" episode. All of this technical strategizing is starying to make my eyes glaze over, but the great characters still carry me through when the subject matter doesn't. It still seems a bit late in the show to be devoting multiple entire episodes to karuta strategy.
Genki old lady was creepy. Kanade is mad cute.
Chihayafuru 19:
SUDDEN DEATH KARUTA
Still fun stuff, though I'm beginning to tire of the endless karuta. It's approaching Death Note-level strategization and getting bogged down in explaining the thought process behind every move. Is the show becoming less graceful in how it balances the depiction of the phyiscal and mental sides of karuta or am I just noticing it more? I suppose that these are the "weak" episodes that all of you were decrying a few weeks ago.
And wow,
poor Taichi
. It looks like there are equal odds of the show wrapping up with a
Shinobu
match and an
Arata
match.
Chihayafuru 20:
lol, as if things couldn't get worse for Taichi,
Arata's back and already intent on claiming Chihaya
. I suppose that there was no point in Taichi
telling Arata that he couldn't pursue Chihaya because Chihaya would ditch Taichi in about a second flat anyway
, so that was mighty bro of him not to
lie about being an official couple with Chihaya
.
I'm on Team Taichi like any decent person, but it's inevitable that Arata is going to be the one making karuta babies with Chihaya
.
So, after spending the past three episodes
learning strategy
, Chihaya decides to concentrate specifically on an
anti-Queen karuta style
when that's not going to help her in 99.9% of the matches she plays? Whatever. At least this episode wasn't 100% Karuta Note.
If you are only interested in digesting the series as what it is, just watch the complete version and ignore anything else. But if you're interested in editing magic, you should watch the TV version first and while watching it you should see if you can spot what was cut and in what ways. Then watch the complete version and see what they really did.
If you are only interested in digesting the series as what it is, just watch the complete version and ignore anything else. But if you're interested in editing magic, you should watch the TV version first and while watching it you should see if you can spot what was cut and in what ways. Then watch the complete version and see what they really did.
I've seen Melody of Oblivion - well, the last few episodes of it - and I still have no idea why that scene exists, other than to make MoO the most oddly fitting acronym ever.
Hey, at least you seem to have somewhat enjoyed it. I'll probably try to revisit Davy Back Fight someday if I'm ever desperate for some One Piece, but it was just too much for me. I may try the manga instead of the anime because the sports commentator in the show is fucking grating.
Buckle in, because you have several dozen episodes of brilliance ahead of you.
This is an episode of Natsume where we learn about Natsume's past. It turns out that with his parents out of the picture Natsume hds to move from home to home and town to town in search of a new family. Whenever it looks like he might be able to settle down to a normal life something gets in his way - the strange creatures that only he can see. When he reacts to these strange creatures the foster family he's with usually label him a trouble maker, and he's forced to move on to another family.
As he was always on the move he never got a chance to settle down and get to know people - this inevitably lead to him becoming an isolated loner. This wasn't helped by the fact that only he can see the strange supernatural beings known as youkai. It's pretty hard to act like a normal kid when you can see/are being attacked by monsters and so whenever Natsume interacts with the creatures he always looks like a crazy person to outsiders, because he appears to be talking to thin air or running away from nothing. He must be a bad child that makes up stories, possibly to get attention, possibly because he's a little crazy. As people react in this way to him he becomes even more isolated and the cycle perpetuates itself.
Luckily, kid-Natsume was able to overcome the problem with the youkai/relative who he was living with. Or maybe he didn't. Either way, he'll have learned something and it doesn't matter because now Natsume has found a loving home with good friends. Everything is peachy.
The end.
Oh, I wasn't specifically talking about the episode that aired recently. This is the exact formula that every single 'flash back to Natsume's past' uses. We've had numerous versions of this exact same story over the last four seasons and it's gotten painfully route. I don't care how well you dress this tale up, I've seen it too many times.
Still, at least they did expend a bit of effort making this episode look good. There wasn't anything in the cinematography to write home about, but there were some nice moments.
It's kind of a shame that there weren't more moments of impressive animation like these two sequences (which were very brief):
Unfortunately we had to put up with some badly looped animation for the 'emotional highpoints of the episode', such as the running and crying sequences. The animation loop was especially brief and noticeable in the crying sequence, to the point where I was actually distracted by it's shoddiness.
It really wasn't a badly done episode overall, but it was literally redundant. Sure, we visited the important house - but that visit gave us practically no insight into anything.
We'll get back to you next week the new season is about to begin, although I can say that Fate Zero is the least likely to dissapoint because it's already poven itself in the first half that aired last year, however your post seems to indicate that you havn't seen the first half yet so chop chop!
It really wasn't a badly done episode overall, but it was literally redundant. Sure, we visited the important house - but that visit gave us practically no insight into anything.
The biggest disapointing factor on it was that Natsume actually wondered how his grandma did growing up, and there was an opportunity to have seen at least hints of this through his parents where we had the right setting and everything, such a wastefulness.
So 2010. Then here's a list of shows I'd recommend from 2011 until now, in no particular order:
Wandering Son
Usagi Drop
Mawaru Penguin Drum
Fate/Zero
Kaiji S2
Level E
Madoka Magica
Hanasaku Iroha
Working'!!
Daily Lives of High School Boys
Ano Natsu de Matteru
And you can check back in a bit to see what shows of this new season come out on top.
So 2010. Then here's a list of shows I'd recommend from 2011 until now, in no particular order:
Wandering Son
Usagi Drop
Mawaru Penguin Drum
Fate/Zero
Kaiji S2
Level E
Madoka Magica
Hanasaku Iroha
Working'!!
Daily Lives of High School Boys
Ano Natsu de Matteru
And you can check back in a bit to see what shows of this new season come out on top.
This is fairly complete, but I'd add House of Five Leaves and Steins;Gate. Oh, and the first part of Kaiji Season 2, assuming you've already seen the first season.
Delicious Tsundere Izumi actually is a minor character in the manga and novel. She dies in the novel, but in an inconsequential way. The anime properly reflects this, though she was given a larger role and her death was Final Destination'd.
I don't believe in your hype anymore. I am diligently suffering through DEEN's Fate/Stay Night in order to un-hype myself as much as possible before Friday!!
Cute battle music video later on. Some emotions here and there over the events.
The ending of course, was what anyone would've seen.
It was an okay episode, didn't feel very "specially" though. Felt much like a regular episode with a different character focus, but it did have a decent amount of action. Something I wish the series had a bit more of.
It wasn't actually deliberate. As disappointed as I was with the direction the show went in its second half, I would still say Chihayafuru is worth watching.
So 2010. Then here's a list of shows I'd recommend from 2011 until now, in no particular order:
Wandering Son
Usagi Drop
Mawaru Penguin Drum
Fate/Zero
Kaiji S2
Level E
Madoka Magica
Hanasaku Iroha
Working'!!
Daily Lives of High School Boys
Ano Natsu de Matteru
And you can check back in a bit to see what shows of this new season come out on top.
This is fairly complete, but I'd add House of Five Leaves and Steins;Gate. Oh, and the first part of Kaiji Season 2, assuming you've already seen the first season.
It wasn't actually deliberate. As disappointed as I was with the direction the show went in its second half, I would still say Chihayafuru is worth watching.
I'm marathoning the second half of the series today, and while the decline in quality is clearly visible to me, the series as a whole is still so strong that I have no qualms calling it one of the best of 2011.
So, do you guys remember that time where I said that if To Love Ru Darkness got an anime it's gonna be borderline hentai, and I would watch the shit out of it and buy all of it?
It wasn't actually deliberate. As disappointed as I was with the direction the show went in its second half, I would still say Chihayafuru is worth watching.
I thought it was a good introduction to a completely new show. The best mindset to come in is basically to forget the original series since they don't give a shit about it. The fight scenes are pretty cool but other than the action scenes, there's barely any animation in the other parts. They overuse the long shots quite a bit and while thats not necessarily a bad thing, its quite jarring compared to the nicely animated fights.
The story, well, its pretty straight and to the point. Evil, gotta beat it, etc.
Fuck no pandora boxes and the mahou shounen though.
