That was a weird show. It tried to achieve the same sort of creeping dread-tone you see in the likes of Shin Sekai Yori, but it was just so plodding and drawn out it just didn't work. One of those shows that would have benefited from being much shorter and tighter.
Meow was the driver of the plot in all three of these, and her infectious desire to be the hero is a lot of fun to watch. This comparison isn't perfect, and the two shows are wildly different in many other respects, but an episode involving a painter and another one involving a set of hot springs, featuring a skilled lady samurai and her overenthusastic partner... this is something I haven't really seen since Manyuu Hikenchou. I don't know if that's blasphemous or not, and Ran has basically zero fanservice while that has all the fanservice, but they're at least quasi in the same genre. Ran is a lot of fun so far. Extremely formulaic, in a fun way.
Sailor Moon (S) 106-107
Ooh, Haruka's backstory. And hell worms. And a dark-skinned girl who does track and field and likes grabbing other peoples' butts. That was a nice episode, and the music that accompanies Haruka and Michiru's transformation sequences is lovely. The Chibs episode was also cute - and had Eudial destroying a community center for no apparent reason. And everybody being mean to Usagi, but that's expected.
Now theres a show I havent seen mentioned here in a long time. Lady Meow is adorable. Tsukikage Ran is a fun comedy show. Its only formulaic because it was old enough to be part of establishing the formula.
The worst part is that the manga uses the safest, most boring and pedestrian interpretations of these concepts ever (maybe not EVER but the manga certainly doesn't do anything interesting with them)
To be fair, they had to make the girls cute and not scary or off putting. Theres a balance between unique design and scaring off the target demographics.
Look up "net characters" on google and you should see the first entry is on wakachan. for NSFW reasons I wont link it here but thats a great place to find fanart of all these -girl characters that people come up with. It seems to have stopped updating finally in 2014.
Not really fond of music animes so I'll pass on Hibike Euphonium. As for the other recs, I'm not really into fighting genres (with a few exceptions) but more of a slice-of-life/romance type person in terms of anime. I think it will boil down to either Is it Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon or Grisaia with me leaning more on the latter given the seemingly interesting description above.
I've been watching anime since I was young but this is the first time I've been closely following one on a weekly basis. Streaming is really difficult for us given the internet speed in our country (I live in PH) and there are no notable merchandisers who sell anime stuff here given piracy and is rampant in SE Asia. It's really hard to support this hobby here but I think I'll manage somehow.
Forget about whatever else the author has done, Escaflowne is one of the all-time great animes, period. It somehow is both a shonen mecha show, and a shoujo romance drama, at the same time... and the mix works great!
Chobits ep. 14-17:
Ok, so we just took another dive into the deep end right at the end of ep.17. So now the property manager is
a per second specialist that really has always known Chi, plus there is s super computer in the building attac. Also,now bad guys are coming to get Chi?
weird stuff. Also it looks like he won't be going after Yumi, which is unfortunate. Also Sumomo is really annoying, but so damn cute also.
I'm on the second half of SAO now, (after avoiding it for a long time for being mainstream), and man...
I'm enjoying it way more than I expected.
Good characters, good animation, variety in sub-plots, not abussive fan service, and I love the Alfheim world setting.
I'm on the second half of SAO now, (after avoiding it for a long time for being mainstream), and man...
I'm enjoying it way more than I expected.
Good characters, good animation, variety in sub-plots, not abussive fan service, and I love the Alfheim world setting.
From manga to anime to video games, Comic Market (also known as Comiket) is a haven for subculture fans. Twice a year, in summer and in winter, fans gather at Tokyo Big Sight, an international exhibition center in Japan. Dojinshi or self-published works from a variety of genres are exhibited and sold. Considered the best of subcultural festivals, Comiket celebrates its 40th year in 2015.
Unparalleled in scale and in history, the 3-day event brings 600,000 people from around the world. Despite its enormity, however, much remains unknown about the event. Who attends the event? What goes on inside? What new things are formed? This program offers an inside look at the seemingly familiar yet hidden world of Comiket. How does Comiket continue to attract more than half a million people every year?
And it really doesn't go into any new territory other than following some interesting people (a priest who is into manga in his spare time, a girl who made her own game, and so on), but it was neat to see some of the behind the scenes stuff. I have no idea why I would be surprised that Comiket is run like any other con, but I suppose it was nice to know how it comes together.
They showed a time lapse of the tables being put up, and it only takes them an hour to get everything read.
I do find it funny that they mention the gray area of most of what is sold there and that it is important that creators pay their taxes though. lol
Kyoukai no Rinne, or Rin-ne: Circle of Resurrection, is an adaptation of Rumiko Takahashi's current manga. The manga is now over 200 chapters long, so there's a lot to adapt to anime if this series is successful enough to continue. I very much hope it is, because so far this is a great adaptation. It'd been far too long since the last Rumiko Takahashi anime; I loved both Ranma 1/2 and Inuyasha, and while Rin-ne is a smaller-scale series than Inuyasha, it's still pretty good. I think it's fine that she chose to make this series instead of another big fantasy epic, this kind of episodic comedy (/drama) series is good too.
The main character of Rin-ne is a girl, Sakura. She's a good protagonist, amusing while also sometimes being more sensible than the often-crazy shinigamis. Sort of like Kagome of Inuyasha, she's a normal Japanese schoolgirl who gets drawn into a magical world, and meets a guy with magic-ish powers who is her love interest, not that that'll go anywhere fast of course (this is a Rumiko Takahashi series, after all!). But unlike that series, this one is set on Earth. The other world is the world of the dead, the land that the dead go to. The male lead, Rinne, is a (half-) shinigami, a person who guides souls to the great Wheel of Resurrection in the sky over the land of the dead. The land of the dead is a lot like Japan, except with some monsters, a traditional Japanese-style theme, and that wheel. Only shinigamis should be able to see spirits and go to the land of the dead, but the protagonist can because she was brought there as a child; watch the show for details, it's near the beginning of the series. Most other major characters are shinigamis, apart from one other fully human guy, the would-be spirit-cleanser Tsubasa. (Tsubasa's... a bit obsessed. :lol)
One of the major drivers of comedy in the series is that Rinne is super poor; he has no money. He needs to spend money on shinigami tools, and literally cries tears of blood sometimes when he loses some money. This makes him different from past Rumiko Takahashi main male characters, which is a good thing; even if this series has similarities to her others, it is also different. In one of the later episodes I've seen so far, his spirit-cat helper has joined the show. He's amusing too, his interactions with the others are often pretty silly stuff. Heh. I like the main cast here quite a bit, they're all pretty amusing. I do have one issue with the cast & story in the manga, but I'll save that for once those characters actually get introduced into the anime, if it gets that far.
The manga has had some changes over its run, but the first part is sort of "dead highschool student ghost spirit of the week who our heroes must satisfy the wish of so that they can pass on" stories. I find it a bit weird, this comedy series has so many horribly tragic stories early on! It's a bit much sometimes, and I think Rumiko Takahashi realized that eventually, because the manga eventually changes. There are still stories about spirits, but they aren't always highschool students, and more often they're varios other kinds of created spirits
, sort of like the Hanako episode if she just came into being because of the stories, for instance.
The other major category of chapters are about the antics of the characters. Let's just say... people who can't see spirits aren't major characters in this series. This is a comedy at heart, so this makes sense; what's the fun of characters who couldn't see any of the shinigami characters, who are where most of the action, and humor, come from?
So yeah, the series so far is interesting. It's a good adaptation of the manga, which means that the tone is quite different from the way the manga is today. I like the more comedy-focused manga today better than the constant tragicomic dead-highschooler-spirit stories of the early series, but there's some great stuff here. The characters and character interactions are all classic Rumiko Takahashi stuff, and I love it. Her sense of humor is great, and this is a pretty funny series.
As for the episodes in specific, the first episodes introduce the two main characters and explain why Sakura can see spirits.
Rinne's family sure are characters, huh... ]
Several episodes get into that spirit-of-the-week thing as well, sometimes of dead teenagers, such as one who they brought to an amusement park because his dying wish was to go on a date before he died but it didn't happen, and other times of other spirits, such as Hanako, the spirit of elementary school bathrooms (there's more drama in the episode than that sounds!). I don't want to spoil much; watch the show, it's great fun! Several new characters have joined, including Rinne's black cat and Tsubasa, but this is a somewhat slow-paced series, as usual from this author, so it'll be introducing new characters for some time yet. The large cast of crazy-silly weirdos definitely reminds me of Ranma 1/2, and that's a good thing.
So yeah, Rin-ne is good stuff! It's funny, silly, entertaining, and also serious. The comedy and tragedy cross is a bit odd, and the series does have some issues there -- the focus on comedy while bad stuff is or has happened doesn't always work -- but even so, it's a very good anime, and easily my favorites of the season, unsurprisingly; I did love Ranma and like Inuyasha, after all, and I like the Rin-ne manga, so I was expecting to like this, and I do. Watch it for sure.
Yamada and the Seven Witches 1-5 & OVA 1
Yamada and the Seven Witches is another fun manga that I like and is getting an anime adaptation this season. And as with the above, it's a series that I hope gets more than one season, because there's plenty more to cover! There isn't quite as much here as with Rin-ne, but it's not too far off, there's a lot to cover and I hope it happens eventually, it's such a fun series.
This series is about Yamada, a 'yankee' type punk boy who's going to a school where most students are serious about studying. At first he doesn't fit in, but then he gets a magical power and learns about the Witches, girls each with their own power. After this he joins the Supernatural Studies Club, along with some other crazy or interesting characters who form the rest of the main cast. In this series, girls have powers, and the boys with powers (there are only a few) have modifiers -- so Yamada
can copy powers, for example.
So far, some but not all of the 7 titular witches have been introduced. The most important one is Urara. When they accidentally kiss in the first episode, they switch bodies, which leads to much entertainment. Eventually they learn that kissing is how he activates his power. So yes, there's a lot of kissing in this series, which makes it quite different from your usual "kissing is super rare and equals a serious relationship and you'll never see it outside of shoujo" kind of anime. It's fun stuff. There's lots of amusing comedy, including some with Yamada and other guys (Miyamura especially). The series has some nice variety.
There is a bit of a formula, though. Throughout the series, it has a fairly traditional arc-based format, where Yamada helps out one witch at a time, while the main plot goes on in the background. The current witch girl that Yamada is helping and/or her power somehow will inevitably affect the main plot, of course. So yeah, the series is both episodic, in the focus on one girl at a time, and a continuing dramatic and relationship story, that of the main characters, the MC's relationship, and their rivals at school. It's a decent formula, and it works.
Manga spoilers!
I do think this first arc might be the best part, though. Later in the manga the focus changes away from the club, and away from these witch powers. I miss the bodyswap power, it was one of the things that got me interested in the manga and I wish it'd come back! Ah well... at least the story's still interesting, for sure. I do still like the manga.
Anyway, so far this is a good adaptation. The mixture of comedy and drama works; the drama is real but not super-serious. The cast is likeable, and they're all interesting and amusing characters. This is a pretty good anime for sure, I'd definitely recommend it to anyone interested in this kind of show who hasn't watched it yet. I would say more about this show, but it's impossible for me to continue without saying major spoilers about stuff that happens later in the manga, so I'll stop now. But do watch the show, it's good.
Dungeon no Deai 1
Since I guess I like to watch bad animes and then say things I don't like about them, I watched episode 1 of this. I have also read some of the manga version, and this seems like a faithful adaptation. Unfortunately, that means it's still terrible. This is, of course, a harem-action anime about a guy who gets a harem without trying, doesn't realize they like him, etc etc. If that sounds generic, it is!
The setting is Generic JRPG World. Basically everything is excatly like a JRPG, except there is (presumably) no resurrection, so they're in a permadeath server on this MMO I guess. It's kind of stupid that the series tries to pretend that this is a real world, because, seriously... it's got levels, experience points, a Guild where people get quests, a dungeon that people go in to get drops from monsters and grind experience, the usual modern Yen-based money pricing system, the works! The concept is, the gods descended to earth and now are living as (special) humans. Each god has a Familia, a group of humans sworn to the deity who go into the dungeon or do their dungeon-related jobs and build levels and prestige for their deity. The deities in the series are mostly a mixture of Greco-Roman and Norse deities, though there are a few others. Oddly Loki is female, though I have no clue why; other deities are their correct genders. It's also a bit weird that this fantasy world has gods from real Earth mythology, but whatever, I'll give it that one.
The main character is annoying. I forget his name, but it doesn't really matter. He's far form the worst kind of protagonist, as he's a decent person and such, but he is one of the more annoying kinds. His primary character trait is that he is completely, totally obsessed with getting stronger. He starts out the series as a low-level adventurer, and he does not have any insane superpowers, but wants strength, and constantly goes into the dungeon alone, going deeper than he should, in his obsession to level up as fast as he can. But why? The series doesn't do a good job of setting up his motivations for this. There's no clear reason for his actions, so far as I've seen, but something was needed.
Other than his obsession with gaining strength that he currently does not have any other major character traits, other than being the object of a variety of girls' affections for no reason other than that he is a harem series protagonist. He certainly didn't do anything to deserve them! He seems to like one girl, Aiz Wallenstein, but is quite unable to notice the other girls hitting on him, of course. He does like the idea of girls liking him because of his actions in the dungeon, and wants to protect girls if he can.
His god is Hestia, and he is her only Familia member, so she's a LOT less popular here than the real Roman goddess was (she was the goddess of the hearth, for the record, not that that ever matters here at all). Hestia loves the MC, but is too shy to tell him this, of course, so she's constantly frustrated at the MC's inability to notice this. Her costume is kind of ridiculous, as plenty of people have noticed -- a miniskirt-dress with this weird floating ribbon thing. The two of them are poor and have little money. She does odd jobs, working at stalls and the like, to make some money, though the MC would rather she just sit around at home and let him do everything, of course. He's a bit sexist that way, though he doesn't push the point.
Aiz Wallenstein is probably the main female character; it's either her or Hestia, and Hestia doesn't have much of a chance really. Aiz is a very strong warrior in Loki's familia. (Yes, I still find it weird Loki is a girl.) Naturally, she doesn't really understand feelings, and has had gaining strength and power as her only goal, without any thoughts of romance... until she sees the MC, who of course she instantly likes for no reason at all other than that he's the main character. She saves the MC early in the first episode here. Somehow that, and the bar scene at the end of the episode, make her like him, though there's no sane reason for it. Naturally, as fitting her mostly unemotional, strength-focused personality, Aiz has a super-short mostly backless miniskirt dress with thigh-high boots. Naturally. She'd be better-designed with actual armor.
As for other girls, a girl who works at a restaurant also seems to like him for no reason. The same goes for a girl at the guild. From the manga, I know several other goddesses also like him, similarly for no apparent reason. There's also Lili, of course, though she has a more stereotypical reason for liking him.
So, in the episode, he goes into the dungeon alone again, going deeper than he should. Seriously, soloing in a dungeon in a level deeper than you should be in in permadeath servers )) is dumb, you idiot, stop doing that. Anyway, he gets in trouble, and Aiz appears and saves him. He fell in love with her at first sight, but runs away afterwards; strong women are scary, or something like that, I guess. He then makes it back to town, goes to see Hestia, and there are some silly antics centered around how much she likes him and his ignorance of the obvious. Then, he goes to a restaurant, and there Loki's Familia appear. One guy gets drunk and starts taunting Aiz about the MC, without knowing that he was there. The stuff the drunk jerk is saying is not too plausible; why would this guy be saying 'do you like him or me more' and such when it's just some guy she randomly saved and saw for two seconds or something? I mean, the whole situation seemed ... overly convenient, to say the least. Not something plausible, but a setup for plot development -- the MC to want to gain strength even more, and Aiz to gain sympathy for him as a reaction against the jerk guy.
So yeah, this show is terrible. The MC is really annoying, the female characters all love him for no reason (& he doesn't deserve it), I don't really like any of the characters, the world design is about as generic as possible... there isn't much good to say here, beyond the fairly high quality art direction. And even there, the focus on fanservice over sense in female character design is annoying from a plausibility standpoint, even if it is accurate to JRPG/MMO world outfit design as well. I don't think I'll be able to take much more of this before I drop it.
And whats wrong about liking SAO : D It may not be the best show but it's enjoyable and doest things right. In a world full of fan service and stupid plots, its enough for me.
And whats wrong about liking SAO : D It may not be the best show but it's enjoyable and doest things right. In a world full of fan service and stupid plots, its enough for me.
First half is ok, second half is too rapey for me.
Plus the hsow seems happy to just pretend certain characters I really liked dont exist in favor of a bunch that I couldnt care less existed.
And whats wrong about liking SAO : D It may not be the best show but it's enjoyable and doest things right. In a world full of fan service and stupid plots, its enough for me.
First half is ok, second half is too rapey for me.
Plus the hsow seems happy to just pretend certain characters I really liked dont exist in favor of a bunch that I couldnt care less existed.
I didnt say it does not have fan service, I said it doeesnt abuse.
SAO have fan service in more than a correct measure, thing that a lot of anime cant say.
But well I'd better shut up. Haters gonna hate. Be happy my friends.
I mean, I want to argue, but I've said it all a thousand times and there's not much point really at the end of the day.
...But I will say this: I'm not a hater for no goddamn reason. I watched all of SAO s1 and I have very good reasons for hating that show.
though maybe it's less that the show is god-awful and more that people don't seem to recognise how bad it is. That's probably what really infuriates me about it I guess.
Anyway, since I don't really have any games I want to play other than trying to #$*(ing beat Mr Sandman in Punch-out, I guess I should probably watch some anime again. What's on my Watchlist besides JoJos...
I didnt say it does not have fan service, I said it doeesnt abuse.
SAO have fan service in more than a correct measure, thing that a lot of anime cant say.
But well I'd better shut up. Haters gonna hate. Be happy my friends.
for one thing it hung Lisbeth and SIlica out to dry, amongst other things.
Im ok with SAO2 with Sinon though. that redeemed it. I even ordered part 1 of Season 2 already.
This show is way way better than it has any right to be. Aside from just being really really cute, it also balances elements of hot blooded personalities and action, monster fights, drama, and maintains excellent use of CG and even throws in actual 2D drawn cars!
Its a little bit of everything well measured and executed to perfection. Incredibly enjoyable show with solid writing and animation and a stellar soundtrack. What a joycake of a series.
Based Bones.
Kyoukai no Rinne, or Rin-ne: Circle of Resurrection, is an adaptation of Rumiko Takahashi's current manga. The manga is now over 200 chapters long, so there's a lot to adapt to anime if this series is successful enough to continue. I very much hope it is, because so far this is a great adaptation. It'd been far too long since the last Rumiko Takahashi anime; I loved both Ranma 1/2 and Inuyasha, and while Rin-ne is a smaller-scale series than Inuyasha, it's still pretty good. I think it's fine that she chose to make this series instead of another big fantasy epic, this kind of episodic comedy (/drama) series is good too.
The main character of Rin-ne is a girl, Sakura. She's a good protagonist, amusing while also sometimes being more sensible than the often-crazy shinigamis. Sort of like Kagome of Inuyasha, she's a normal Japanese schoolgirl who gets drawn into a magical world, and meets a guy with magic-ish powers who is her love interest, not that that'll go anywhere fast of course (this is a Rumiko Takahashi series, after all!). But unlike that series, this one is set on Earth. The other world is the world of the dead, the land that the dead go to. The male lead, Rinne, is a (half-) shinigami, a person who guides souls to the great Wheel of Resurrection in the sky over the land of the dead. The land of the dead is a lot like Japan, except with some monsters, a traditional Japanese-style theme, and that wheel. Only shinigamis should be able to see spirits and go to the land of the dead, but the protagonist can because she was brought there as a child; watch the show for details, it's near the beginning of the series. Most other major characters are shinigamis, apart from one other fully human guy, the would-be spirit-cleanser Tsubasa. (Tsubasa's... a bit obsessed. :lol)
One of the major drivers of comedy in the series is that Rinne is super poor; he has no money. He needs to spend money on shinigami tools, and literally cries tears of blood sometimes when he loses some money. This makes him different from past Rumiko Takahashi main male characters, which is a good thing; even if this series has similarities to her others, it is also different. In one of the later episodes I've seen so far, his spirit-cat helper has joined the show. He's amusing too, his interactions with the others are often pretty silly stuff. Heh. I like the main cast here quite a bit, they're all pretty amusing. I do have one issue with the cast & story in the manga, but I'll save that for once those characters actually get introduced into the anime, if it gets that far.
The manga has had some changes over its run, but the first part is sort of "dead highschool student ghost spirit of the week who our heroes must satisfy the wish of so that they can pass on" stories. I find it a bit weird, this comedy series has so many horribly tragic stories early on! It's a bit much sometimes, and I think Rumiko Takahashi realized that eventually, because the manga eventually changes. There are still stories about spirits, but they aren't always highschool students, and more often they're varios other kinds of created spirits
, sort of like the Hanako episode if she just came into being because of the stories, for instance.
The other major category of chapters are about the antics of the characters. Let's just say... people who can't see spirits aren't major characters in this series. This is a comedy at heart, so this makes sense; what's the fun of characters who couldn't see any of the shinigami characters, who are where most of the action, and humor, come from?
So yeah, the series so far is interesting. It's a good adaptation of the manga, which means that the tone is quite different from the way the manga is today. I like the more comedy-focused manga today better than the constant tragicomic dead-highschooler-spirit stories of the early series, but there's some great stuff here. The characters and character interactions are all classic Rumiko Takahashi stuff, and I love it. Her sense of humor is great, and this is a pretty funny series.
As for the episodes in specific, the first episodes introduce the two main characters and explain why Sakura can see spirits.
Rinne's family sure are characters, huh... ]
Several episodes get into that spirit-of-the-week thing as well, sometimes of dead teenagers, such as one who they brought to an amusement park because his dying wish was to go on a date before he died but it didn't happen, and other times of other spirits, such as Hanako, the spirit of elementary school bathrooms (there's more drama in the episode than that sounds!). I don't want to spoil much; watch the show, it's great fun! Several new characters have joined, including Rinne's black cat and Tsubasa, but this is a somewhat slow-paced series, as usual from this author, so it'll be introducing new characters for some time yet. The large cast of crazy-silly weirdos definitely reminds me of Ranma 1/2, and that's a good thing.
So yeah, Rin-ne is good stuff! It's funny, silly, entertaining, and also serious. The comedy and tragedy cross is a bit odd, and the series does have some issues there -- the focus on comedy while bad stuff is or has happened doesn't always work -- but even so, it's a very good anime, and easily my favorites of the season, unsurprisingly; I did love Ranma and like Inuyasha, after all, and I like the Rin-ne manga, so I was expecting to like this, and I do. Watch it for sure.
Yamada and the Seven Witches 1-5 & OVA 1
Yamada and the Seven Witches is another fun manga that I like and is getting an anime adaptation this season. And as with the above, it's a series that I hope gets more than one season, because there's plenty more to cover! There isn't quite as much here as with Rin-ne, but it's not too far off, there's a lot to cover and I hope it happens eventually, it's such a fun series.
This series is about Yamada, a 'yankee' type punk boy who's going to a school where most students are serious about studying. At first he doesn't fit in, but then he gets a magical power and learns about the Witches, girls each with their own power. After this he joins the Supernatural Studies Club, along with some other crazy or interesting characters who form the rest of the main cast. In this series, girls have powers, and the boys with powers (there are only a few) have modifiers -- so Yamada
can copy powers, for example.
So far, some but not all of the 7 titular witches have been introduced. The most important one is Urara. When they accidentally kiss in the first episode, they switch bodies, which leads to much entertainment. Eventually they learn that kissing is how he activates his power. So yes, there's a lot of kissing in this series, which makes it quite different from your usual "kissing is super rare and equals a serious relationship and you'll never see it outside of shoujo" kind of anime. It's fun stuff. There's lots of amusing comedy, including some with Yamada and other guys (Miyamura especially). The series has some nice variety.
There is a bit of a formula, though. Throughout the series, it has a fairly traditional arc-based format, where Yamada helps out one witch at a time, while the main plot goes on in the background. The current witch girl that Yamada is helping and/or her power somehow will inevitably affect the main plot, of course. So yeah, the series is both episodic, in the focus on one girl at a time, and a continuing dramatic and relationship story, that of the main characters, the MC's relationship, and their rivals at school. It's a decent formula, and it works.
Manga spoilers!
I do think this first arc might be the best part, though. Later in the manga the focus changes away from the club, and away from these witch powers. I miss the bodyswap power, it was one of the things that got me interested in the manga and I wish it'd come back! Ah well... at least the story's still interesting, for sure. I do still like the manga.
Anyway, so far this is a good adaptation. The mixture of comedy and drama works; the drama is real but not super-serious. The cast is likeable, and they're all interesting and amusing characters. This is a pretty good anime for sure, I'd definitely recommend it to anyone interested in this kind of show who hasn't watched it yet. I would say more about this show, but it's impossible for me to continue without saying major spoilers about stuff that happens later in the manga, so I'll stop now. But do watch the show, it's good.
Dungeon no Deai 1
Since I guess I like to watch bad animes and then say things I don't like about them, I watched episode 1 of this. I have also read some of the manga version, and this seems like a faithful adaptation. Unfortunately, that means it's still terrible. This is, of course, a harem-action anime about a guy who gets a harem without trying, doesn't realize they like him, etc etc. If that sounds generic, it is!
The setting is Generic JRPG World. Basically everything is excatly like a JRPG, except there is (presumably) no resurrection, so they're in a permadeath server on this MMO I guess. It's kind of stupid that the series tries to pretend that this is a real world, because, seriously... it's got levels, experience points, a Guild where people get quests, a dungeon that people go in to get drops from monsters and grind experience, the usual modern Yen-based money pricing system, the works! The concept is, the gods descended to earth and now are living as (special) humans. Each god has a Familia, a group of humans sworn to the deity who go into the dungeon or do their dungeon-related jobs and build levels and prestige for their deity. The deities in the series are mostly a mixture of Greco-Roman and Norse deities, though there are a few others. Oddly Loki is female, though I have no clue why; other deities are their correct genders. It's also a bit weird that this fantasy world has gods from real Earth mythology, but whatever, I'll give it that one.
The main character is annoying. I forget his name, but it doesn't really matter. He's far form the worst kind of protagonist, as he's a decent person and such, but he is one of the more annoying kinds. His primary character trait is that he is completely, totally obsessed with getting stronger. He starts out the series as a low-level adventurer, and he does not have any insane superpowers, but wants strength, and constantly goes into the dungeon alone, going deeper than he should, in his obsession to level up as fast as he can. But why? The series doesn't do a good job of setting up his motivations for this. There's no clear reason for his actions, so far as I've seen, but something was needed.
Other than his obsession with gaining strength that he currently does not have any other major character traits, other than being the object of a variety of girls' affections for no reason other than that he is a harem series protagonist. He certainly didn't do anything to deserve them! He seems to like one girl, Aiz Wallenstein, but is quite unable to notice the other girls hitting on him, of course. He does like the idea of girls liking him because of his actions in the dungeon, and wants to protect girls if he can.
His god is Hestia, and he is her only Familia member, so she's a LOT less popular here than the real Roman goddess was (she was the goddess of the hearth, for the record, not that that ever matters here at all). Hestia loves the MC, but is too shy to tell him this, of course, so she's constantly frustrated at the MC's inability to notice this. Her costume is kind of ridiculous, as plenty of people have noticed -- a miniskirt-dress with this weird floating ribbon thing. The two of them are poor and have little money. She does odd jobs, working at stalls and the like, to make some money, though the MC would rather she just sit around at home and let him do everything, of course. He's a bit sexist that way, though he doesn't push the point.
Aiz Wallenstein is probably the main female character; it's either her or Hestia, and Hestia doesn't have much of a chance really. Aiz is a very strong warrior in Loki's familia. (Yes, I still find it weird Loki is a girl.) Naturally, she doesn't really understand feelings, and has had gaining strength and power as her only goal, without any thoughts of romance... until she sees the MC, who of course she instantly likes for no reason at all other than that he's the main character. She saves the MC early in the first episode here. Somehow that, and the bar scene at the end of the episode, make her like him, though there's no sane reason for it. Naturally, as fitting her mostly unemotional, strength-focused personality, Aiz has a super-short mostly backless miniskirt dress with thigh-high boots. Naturally. She'd be better-designed with actual armor.
As for other girls, a girl who works at a restaurant also seems to like him for no reason. The same goes for a girl at the guild. From the manga, I know several other goddesses also like him, similarly for no apparent reason. There's also Lili, of course, though she has a more stereotypical reason for liking him.
So, in the episode, he goes into the dungeon alone again, going deeper than he should. Seriously, soloing in a dungeon in a level deeper than you should be in in permadeath servers )) is dumb, you idiot, stop doing that. Anyway, he gets in trouble, and Aiz appears and saves him. He fell in love with her at first sight, but runs away afterwards; strong women are scary, or something like that, I guess. He then makes it back to town, goes to see Hestia, and there are some silly antics centered around how much she likes him and his ignorance of the obvious. Then, he goes to a restaurant, and there Loki's Familia appear. One guy gets drunk and starts taunting Aiz about the MC, without knowing that he was there. The stuff the drunk jerk is saying is not too plausible; why would this guy be saying 'do you like him or me more' and such when it's just some guy she randomly saved and saw for two seconds or something? I mean, the whole situation seemed ... overly convenient, to say the least. Not something plausible, but a setup for plot development -- the MC to want to gain strength even more, and Aiz to gain sympathy for him as a reaction against the jerk guy.
So yeah, this show is terrible. The MC is really annoying, the female characters all love him for no reason (& he doesn't deserve it), I don't really like any of the characters, the world design is about as generic as possible... there isn't much good to say here, beyond the fairly high quality art direction. And even there, the focus on fanservice over sense in female character design is annoying from a plausibility standpoint, even if it is accurate to JRPG/MMO world outfit design as well. I don't think I'll be able to take much more of this before I drop it.
About your criticism about danmachi, I think you are way too dismissive about it. I mean, first you don't have to see the motivation of being an adventurer if that's a way of earning big money, which is established in the show. Char development is actually better than what I have expected. I do think it just annoys you more that it's an JRPG setting than the actual quality itself. I can't blame you because of SAO lol.
just angry log horizon doesn't have danmachi's production values
danmachi seems relatively inoffensive for what it is. i might watch more, but i wasn't exactly hooked (except the gorgeous looking backgrounds and, well, hestia)
SAO is a statement on modern culture. Lolis getting groped by plants isn't fanservice, it's subversive. It parallels our struggle as a society to move on from archaic traditions and better ourselves.
I mean, I want to argue, but I've said it all a thousand times and there's not much point really at the end of the day.
...But I will say this: I'm not a hater for no goddamn reason. I watched all of SAO s1 and I have very good reasons for hating that show.
though maybe it's less that the show is god-awful and more that people don't seem to recognise how bad it is. That's probably what really infuriates me about it I guess.
Anyway, since I don't really have any games I want to play other than trying to #$*(ing beat Mr Sandman in Punch-out, I guess I should probably watch some anime again. What's on my Watchlist besides JoJos...
I think we all know that SAO have its flaws, and that SAO is not TOP.
There's some wasted potential for being more of a love story than an MMO fighting anime. But I'm taking it as an story focused show, and not a fighting one. I can deal with it.
But If you are angry because some people things SAO is the best thing ever, I'm with you there. But that happened with Naruto, One Piece, and will happen with every fighting anime with badass protagonists for the casual anime viewers.
for one thing it hung Lisbeth and SIlica out to dry, amongst other things.
Im ok with SAO2 with Sinon though. that redeemed it. I even ordered part 1 of Season 2 already.
Well I understand now. Lisbeth and Silica were cool, and like you said, since they never appeared again I forgot about them. Yeah that sucks. But I'm with Leafa now and I do enjoy her too. SAO takes waifus away, but always gives you a new one : D
just angry log horizon doesn't have danmachi's production values
danmachi seems relatively inoffensive for what it is. i might watch more, but i wasn't exactly hooked (except the gorgeous looking backgrounds and, well, hestia)
I think we all know that SAO have its flaws, and that SAO is not TOP.
There's some wasted potential for being more of a love story than an MMO fighting anime. But I'm taking it as an story focused show, and not a fighting one. I can deal with it.
But If you are angry because some people things SAO is the best thing ever, I'm with you there. But that happened with Naruto, One Piece, and will happen with every fighting anime with badass protagonists for the casual anime viewers.
It's not that. People like Naruto and Bleach and OP for what they are, shonen fighting shows with all that entails (though I can't really fathom people who like the anime, the pacing is atrocious on all of them). But people seem to like SAO for... well, I dunno. A myriad of different reasons. The thing is, with the big shonen, there's a spark of quality there I recognise pretty instantly. But SAO is just... bad. I mean, it's not that I don't think it's top. It's definitely not top. And it's not that it's spectacularly train-wreck bad, either, apart from a few really, really low points. But when it's not bad, it's never good. The best SAO can aspire to is mediocrity.
It's not a very good love story by the way, though it has some elements there I like.
maybe one day if i'm really bored i'll go back and get those toonamigaf reactions, that was a real riot groupwatching that show. it was pretty good for groupwatching, I'll give it that
No Understand Husbando s2 07
Seriously, this show richochets so wildly between comedy and heartstrings, I can't believe it's so effective at it. Weird.
Imma cook dinner and watch a JoJos and start a new series (or maybe continue Love Lab, idk)
Weirdly not tired of hearing Japanese today despite having a meeting conducted almost entirely in Japanese today. Bizarre!
maybe one day if i'm really bored i'll go back and get those toonamigaf reactions, that was a real riot groupwatching that show. it was pretty good for groupwatching, I'll give it that
No Understand Husbando s2 07
Seriously, this show richochets so wildly between comedy and heartstrings, I can't believe it's so effective at it. Weird.
Imma cook dinner and watch a JoJos and start a new series (or maybe continue Love Lab, idk)
Weirdly not tired of hearing Japanese today despite having a meeting conducted almost entirely in Japanese today. Bizarre!
Lol there's no defense force haha I just say I'm enjoying it. Nothing more : D
I dont know why you got blamed, but if someone can get the joke, it's you = )
Actual character growth and development for Yamada and the story was well done with the test resolution. Also, even through all the kissing, there is clearly a deeper relationship with Urara and Yamada which adds an extra dynamic to the show.
Lol there's no defense force haha I just say I'm enjoying it. Nothing more : D
I dont know why you got blamed, but if someone can get the joke, it's you = )
Actual character growth and development for Yamada and the story was well done with the test resolution. Also, even through all the kissing, there is clearly a deeper relationship with Urara and Yamada which adds an extra dynamic to the show.
Well, despite its flaws, enjoy it! It's not half as bad as some of the other stuff I've watched recently, lol.
So, umm, what is the attraction here? Girls love adventure?
Synopsis
Hatsuki is a highschool student living with her sister, Hatsumi, who she has a huge crush on. On Hatsumi's 16th birthday, she is suddenly surrounded by a green light and disappears in front of Hatsuki. She manages to follow Hatsumi with the help of a being resembling a fat baby chick (literally), ending up in a place called "The Great Library", which is full of different worlds stored in books. Hatsumi wasn't there, though, so the search for Hatsuki's great love begins and involves traveling from book to book.
So, umm, what is the attraction here? Girls love adventure?
Synopsis
Hatsuki is a highschool student living with her sister, Hatsumi, who she has a huge crush on. On Hatsumi's 16th birthday, she is suddenly surrounded by a green light and disappears in front of Hatsuki. She manages to follow Hatsumi with the help of a being resembling a fat baby chick (literally), ending up in a place called "The Great Library", which is full of different worlds stored in books. Hatsumi wasn't there, though, so the search for Hatsuki's great love begins and involves traveling from book to book.
Its difficult to comprehend. Even if someone explains it or you are paying close attention, its such a trainwreck that it still wont make sense. However thats the beauty of it. The show as an incredibly entertaining clusterfuck that it loops back on itself and becomes a masterpiece. and then THE ENDING.
