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Spring Anime 2015 |OT| The Disappearance of YEAARRT!
- Thread starter TUSR
- Start date
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Cornbread78
Member
It never too late for SAO, someone will always have an opinion for you on it.
Look at all the old stuff I've been watching, lol.
So much SAO talk in this thread.
Guys, Accel World is so much better. Y'all should be watching that instead.
It is actually a bit better but it also has the most insufferable MC I've ever seen.
Delta Assault
Member
nintendoman58
Member
Say what you like about Haru, at least we actually see him learn things and work to get his victories as opposed to Kirito almost always being handed them.
Cornbread78
Member
All this SAO talk today is making me want to go back and watch S1 again now that I have a ton more experience with anime.
Mikagura School Suite 07
"Because I wasn't manly enough, or something equally silly."
That's right, making fun of someone over those kinds of things is silly. And backwards. What's not backwards? Throwing a party for that person, even if you have to enlist Eruna to make it happen. She can't spell and her ideas for things to wear to parties are wacko, but she's got a good heart. And Otone is an interesting character with her minor tsundereness. So that's what Seisa's power is? She lives up to her name.
"Because I wasn't manly enough, or something equally silly."
That's right, making fun of someone over those kinds of things is silly. And backwards. What's not backwards? Throwing a party for that person, even if you have to enlist Eruna to make it happen. She can't spell and her ideas for things to wear to parties are wacko, but she's got a good heart. And Otone is an interesting character with her minor tsundereness. So that's what Seisa's power is? She lives up to her name.
MetroidPrimeRib
Banned
Sound! Euphonium 07
Show is still good, who knew. Don't have a lot to say though.
YURI GOGGLES: ON
Show is still good, who knew. Don't have a lot to say though.
Mikagura Gakuen Kumikyoku Episode 7:
I think we now have our core cast assembled with the formal introduction of Otone here, who seems to be a bit of a schizophrenic all things considered, certainly makes her one of the most interesting of the cast when even Eruna things you are a bit of an oddball. Also, if nothing else we are learning in great detail every single turn on and fetish that Eurna is packing in that head of hers. I am just going to assume that is a very long list that could fill an endless battle shonen length worth of time. Anyway, the real focus here was on Ashui and I suppose that was nice but nothing here made him more interesting then watching paint dry so call it a wash. I suppose that is my biggest problem with this series, the supporting cast is kind of shit.
I think we now have our core cast assembled with the formal introduction of Otone here, who seems to be a bit of a schizophrenic all things considered, certainly makes her one of the most interesting of the cast when even Eruna things you are a bit of an oddball. Also, if nothing else we are learning in great detail every single turn on and fetish that Eurna is packing in that head of hers. I am just going to assume that is a very long list that could fill an endless battle shonen length worth of time. Anyway, the real focus here was on Ashui and I suppose that was nice but nothing here made him more interesting then watching paint dry so call it a wash. I suppose that is my biggest problem with this series, the supporting cast is kind of shit.
SAO was almost instantly garbage. The hilarious attempts at drama matched with Kirito's protagonist invincibility, the absolutely godawful attempt at a romance worse than any teen fiction I've read or watched, watching Kirito and Asuna play house with their digimon and acting nothing like people in a relationship, the nonsense attempt to turn the guy who trapped and killed thousands of people because he wanted to into a sympathetic character that Kirito idolises. It's all shit.
AquaWateria
Member
Kekkai Sensen and Arslan Senki say otherwise
Both of those are P lame
Nah, Euphonium's much better.Kekkai Sensen and Arslan Senki say otherwise
MetroidPrimeRib
Banned
Cornbread78
Member
So this is weird, I just went to update my MAL and it says my account has been banned? I just opened it the other day and only made 1 short post in the Plastic Memories thread and 1 in the Fruit of Grisaia thread, neither of which would have a spoiler. Why would they do that? Does anyone know a mod over there to ask? I didn't get a message either... just weird..
Angry Grimace
Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
The idea of coping with being stuck in an MMO is one of things that was handled in a completely absurd way in SAO. You can't be a super-fucking-hero in an MMO. That's the point of an MMO.
At least Log Horizon attempted to actually address the realities of living in an MMO and how people cope with it. (By taking a kitty husband)
I think I read that the author of SAO never actually played an MMO.
Cornbread78
Member
Maybe I'm wrong here, but wasn't Kirito chosen to be as strong as he was from his beta experience and was granted the duel wield as confirmation of that later on? He OP'd himself as a loner and knowing the mechanics of Aincrad more than anyone.
Also, Log Horizon did do a much better job with the life with an MMO, which reflects the difference in focus between the two different animes. If they merged the two stories types it would be near perfect, however, they are separate. .
MetroidPrimeRib
Banned
SAO probably gets hated on too much, but it's not good. It has merits, mostly what dimb said in the talented animators and that it looks pretty
AquaWateria
Member
Euphonium is good but I'm meh on the Yuri pandering, plus I'm not into band as others are.
Angry Grimace
Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
It gets hated on just the right amount. Its several levels down from, say, F/SN which gets hated on about equally despite being demonstrably better than SAO in every appreciable way.
Come at me bros
The story of SAO is basically entirely about Kirito da God and his gigantic harem of hot chicks (who coincidentally look exactly like their idealized computer game avatars) lusting after his dick. An MMO story needs an ensemble cast almost by definition.
MetroidPrimeRib
Banned
I watched 7 episodes of FSN before I bailed out, compared to like 40 of SAO.
Both are better then Mahouka and I watched all of that. So I dunno.
Both are better then Mahouka and I watched all of that. So I dunno.
I stopped watching bad shows a few episodes into SAO 2. Feels good.
MetroidPrimeRib
Banned
The good news is I got better this season.
The bad news is the lineup for next season.
Time to quit anime altogether.
KuwabaraTheMan
Banned
I can't say that anything in Euphonium has even remotely struck me as "pandering". Yeah, it features a largely female cast who interact with one another, but there's not anything that I would call pandering. The closest I could see anyone even coming to that would be the Kumiko/Kousaka stuff, but that's more just shown as Kumiko being really awkward around her, and not really presented in any sort of "yuri" way. Most of the character relationships are presented in a pretty down to earth way, as opposed to your yuri pandering shows which generally go out of their way to constantly be putting characters into yuri situations, fill the scenes with pandering imagery and double meanings, and really play everything up.
If Euphonium is "yuri pandering", then every series that has ever had two female students interact with one another is yuri pandering.
MetroidPrimeRib
Banned
I've come this far, I can't bail out before Prison School and Monster Musume.
Oh and Gatchaman and Dragon Ball but those are secondary
I think I did watch 1 or 2 episodes and found it dull as dishwasher. And knowing that it apparently gets worse than that with full on harem and hmm other tentacle related things, didn't exactlywant to make me press on. And I have a general aversion to all MMORPG things so that didn't help either.
I lasted like 3 minutes. At least SAO didn't take its MMORPG setting very seriously.
Understandable, how can you not like sexy mofo like Ken.
SAO does take its MMORPG setting very seriously. At first it does anyway. Both shows start much the same way but then go wildly different directions.
SNAFU - SOLD. Been waiting for bluray and passed on DVD. another great decision!
Sabagebu I dont even have to say lol. So happy.
Yeah basically SAO part 1 and SAO2 are watchable for me, so its like one half of a good show and should have stopped there. Instead it pushed further into squicky territory and just got horrible. There is no reason for awful characters like Suguha, Leafa, the rapey antagonist, or for Kirito to be so untouchable and flawless. these things arent fun. They ruin the experience.
Angry Grimace
Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
Tear apart shows those people like; feels good man.
No seriously, I think a lot of the underground shows that are popular on GAF/fora in general are actually pretty boring.
MikeHattsu
Member
They've been hacked (again) and lots of people got fake ban messages.
Wait, first anime ever?!? Jesus, that combined with your high tolerance for terrible kind kind of explains a lot
I lasted like 3 minutes. At least SAO didn't take its MMORPG setting very seriously.
Man log horizon taking its mmo-ness seriously is the best part
AquaWateria
Member
Gangsta is gonna be real good.
Jex
Member
The Vision of Escaflowne (1996, Sunrise) – Episodes 1 to 14
Love triangles, amazing artwork, hot* guys, fantastical locations, robot-knights, great action scenes, cat girls and awesome music.
When I say “Escaflowne” those are probably some of the ideas that spring to your mind (not necessarily in that order). If I told you an anime contained all of the above elements then you’d probably conclude that the end result would be a pretty fun show. And you wouldn’t be wrong. Escaflowne, taken purely as a piece of gloriously indulgent escapist entertainment, is an entertaining series composed of lots of really cool elements.
Unfortunately, the underlying story that weaves all these pieces together into a coherent story just doesn’t work. In other words, the script it a mess and this undermines everything which is built ontop of that script.
Now, I don’t want to sit around and pick this show to pieces. Nitpicking for the sake of nitpicking can be a very tiresome exercise which often fails to illuminate anything important. You can quite easily miss the forest for the trees if you go down that route. I’m honestly not too fussed about the small stuff when there are so many bigger issues which I feel that writers completely bungle.
Overall Story (Episodes 1 – 14)
So I’m roughly half way through this series and I can honestly say I have no idea what is going on or why. I don’t really know who the protagonist of the story is. I don’t know what the stakes are. I have no idea why characters are doing what they’re doing or why they’re going where they are going.
Don’t get me wrong, I know there are bad guys and good guys in the story. The bag guys are bad because they use flamethrowers on civilians, just like in Vietnam. The good guys are good because they’re potential romantic interests for Hitomi, the protagonist. This much is clear. I’m just not clear on how any of these elements work together, on a mechanical level, to create a narrative.
This isn’t a joke. I’m honestly trying to sum up the plot of the 1st half of the series and it’s really difficult. I can tell you that we meet a bunch of characters and I can tell you that the characters visit a lot of locations, but I can’t honestly explain why they’re doing what they’re doing or what their plans are. I vaguely understand what the bad guys are up to, but I don’t really care because I feel like the stakes have been poorly developed.
Still, I promised to stay away from focusing on minor details so I’m just going to move onto my next major issue with the show.
Hitomi, our ostensible protagonist
Hitomi is a normal highschool girl who gets transplanted to a fantasy land where she gets caught up in this war thing between the evil Zaibach Empire and some other people. But who is Hitomi? What are her hopes and dreams? What defines her character? What are her flaws?
I don’t know the answers to any of those questions and that’s one my biggest problems with the series as a whole. For a protagonist, she’s extremely bland and poorly defined. I can’t describe her personality because she doesn’t have one.
What do we know about Hitomi? Well let’s examine how she’s introduced in the first episode:
- Athletic. Note how this isn’t a character trait, it’s just a skill that she has.
- In love with the captain of her Track Team, but she’s too shy to tell him her feelings. Well, now we’re starting to get a character with a goal that needs to be achieved but who can’t achieve it because she isn’t brave enough. Great! Maybe she’ll go on some kind of magical adventure and along the way develop and grow as a person to the point where she can come right out and express her feelings!
- Or not. Surprisingly, for a shoujo protagonist, she actually musters the courage to confess to her crush minutes after we learn that she even has a crush. Which neatly completes this very brief arc for Hitomi. Unfortunately, as a character, that’s basically all we learn about her within this episode. Which basically leaves her a blank slate for the rest of the show. Whoops.
- To be fair, we also learn that she has some ability to predict the future. Again, not a character trait, just a skill.
It doesn’t really get any better for Hitomi’s character. From the end of the first episode Hitomi witnesses a man fight a dragon and is then transported into a magical world. You’d normally expect a human being to have some reaction to these events. You know:
- Disbelief
- Fear
- Curiosity
- Excitement
How does Hitomi react? She doesn’t. She doesn’t react like a human being. She doesn’t ask anyone questions about the new world she’s in, or how she got there or why. She doesn’t freak out, either about being in another world, or to the fact that another world exists, or that it’s populated with talking giant animals*. She doesn’t wonder how she’ll get home. She doesn’t even bring it up – one of the other characters makes an offhand remark about getting her home, eventually, but it’s literally just a line with no further explanation given. We see a brief scene of her daydreaming about her love interest but that’s it.
Now, I’m not saying I want to see scene after scene of Hitomi freaking out about the magical world with tons of characters dropping exposition all over the place – but you need to address the issue. In what normal “Characters gets sucked to another world” story do you see a character apparently not care that they got sucked to another world? It takes about 8 episodes for Hitomi to even briefly discuss the fact that she’s away from home.
There are other problems with Hitomi, too. Apart from being a bland protagonist she also does very little to actually drive the story forward in any meaningful way. This is because she has no goals. You might think that her goal is to get home but she barely even mentions it and she never takes any steps to help her achieve that objective. At heart, Hitomi is a reactionary character. She reacts to things other people do. She reacts to her visions of the future. She has no agency.
I can see someone saying, “But Hitomi is clearly an important character! How often has she saved Van’s life? Or used her powers to find and rescues Van? Or used her powers to work out how to help Van?” The problem here, is that Hitomi exists largely as a tool that lets other characters achieve their goals.
You’ll remember earlier that I said Hitomi is athletic and that she has the ability to predict the future? She largely uses these two powers not to further any goal of her own, but to keep Van from getting horribly killed. This reduces her to less of a person and more of a tool because all she does with her powers is let other characters keep living so that they can have their own stories. Because Van is saved by Hitomi, Van can continue on his story which, presumably, is to get revenge for his people. If Van was less useless, or had some kind of newtype-esque power, Hitomi would serve literally no purpose in the story but to tag along with the gang.
I could go on and on (and on), but hopefully you get the picture. There are serious, fundamental problems with the core elements of the story. I haven’t even had time to get to any of the other characters, or the dialogue itself. It’s a deeply flawed show.
*Several episodes later Hitomi is freaked out by giant talking animals when she goes to visit a market. However this doesn’t make any sense because she already saw them in the second episode. And why is this the ONE thing that freaks her out? She’s been hanging out with a cat girl for ages!
Love triangles, amazing artwork, hot* guys, fantastical locations, robot-knights, great action scenes, cat girls and awesome music.
When I say “Escaflowne” those are probably some of the ideas that spring to your mind (not necessarily in that order). If I told you an anime contained all of the above elements then you’d probably conclude that the end result would be a pretty fun show. And you wouldn’t be wrong. Escaflowne, taken purely as a piece of gloriously indulgent escapist entertainment, is an entertaining series composed of lots of really cool elements.
Unfortunately, the underlying story that weaves all these pieces together into a coherent story just doesn’t work. In other words, the script it a mess and this undermines everything which is built ontop of that script.
Now, I don’t want to sit around and pick this show to pieces. Nitpicking for the sake of nitpicking can be a very tiresome exercise which often fails to illuminate anything important. You can quite easily miss the forest for the trees if you go down that route. I’m honestly not too fussed about the small stuff when there are so many bigger issues which I feel that writers completely bungle.
Overall Story (Episodes 1 – 14)
So I’m roughly half way through this series and I can honestly say I have no idea what is going on or why. I don’t really know who the protagonist of the story is. I don’t know what the stakes are. I have no idea why characters are doing what they’re doing or why they’re going where they are going.
Don’t get me wrong, I know there are bad guys and good guys in the story. The bag guys are bad because they use flamethrowers on civilians, just like in Vietnam. The good guys are good because they’re potential romantic interests for Hitomi, the protagonist. This much is clear. I’m just not clear on how any of these elements work together, on a mechanical level, to create a narrative.
This isn’t a joke. I’m honestly trying to sum up the plot of the 1st half of the series and it’s really difficult. I can tell you that we meet a bunch of characters and I can tell you that the characters visit a lot of locations, but I can’t honestly explain why they’re doing what they’re doing or what their plans are. I vaguely understand what the bad guys are up to, but I don’t really care because I feel like the stakes have been poorly developed.
Still, I promised to stay away from focusing on minor details so I’m just going to move onto my next major issue with the show.
Hitomi, our ostensible protagonist
Hitomi is a normal highschool girl who gets transplanted to a fantasy land where she gets caught up in this war thing between the evil Zaibach Empire and some other people. But who is Hitomi? What are her hopes and dreams? What defines her character? What are her flaws?
I don’t know the answers to any of those questions and that’s one my biggest problems with the series as a whole. For a protagonist, she’s extremely bland and poorly defined. I can’t describe her personality because she doesn’t have one.
What do we know about Hitomi? Well let’s examine how she’s introduced in the first episode:
- Athletic. Note how this isn’t a character trait, it’s just a skill that she has.
- In love with the captain of her Track Team, but she’s too shy to tell him her feelings. Well, now we’re starting to get a character with a goal that needs to be achieved but who can’t achieve it because she isn’t brave enough. Great! Maybe she’ll go on some kind of magical adventure and along the way develop and grow as a person to the point where she can come right out and express her feelings!
- Or not. Surprisingly, for a shoujo protagonist, she actually musters the courage to confess to her crush minutes after we learn that she even has a crush. Which neatly completes this very brief arc for Hitomi. Unfortunately, as a character, that’s basically all we learn about her within this episode. Which basically leaves her a blank slate for the rest of the show. Whoops.
- To be fair, we also learn that she has some ability to predict the future. Again, not a character trait, just a skill.
It doesn’t really get any better for Hitomi’s character. From the end of the first episode Hitomi witnesses a man fight a dragon and is then transported into a magical world. You’d normally expect a human being to have some reaction to these events. You know:
- Disbelief
- Fear
- Curiosity
- Excitement
How does Hitomi react? She doesn’t. She doesn’t react like a human being. She doesn’t ask anyone questions about the new world she’s in, or how she got there or why. She doesn’t freak out, either about being in another world, or to the fact that another world exists, or that it’s populated with talking giant animals*. She doesn’t wonder how she’ll get home. She doesn’t even bring it up – one of the other characters makes an offhand remark about getting her home, eventually, but it’s literally just a line with no further explanation given. We see a brief scene of her daydreaming about her love interest but that’s it.
Now, I’m not saying I want to see scene after scene of Hitomi freaking out about the magical world with tons of characters dropping exposition all over the place – but you need to address the issue. In what normal “Characters gets sucked to another world” story do you see a character apparently not care that they got sucked to another world? It takes about 8 episodes for Hitomi to even briefly discuss the fact that she’s away from home.
There are other problems with Hitomi, too. Apart from being a bland protagonist she also does very little to actually drive the story forward in any meaningful way. This is because she has no goals. You might think that her goal is to get home but she barely even mentions it and she never takes any steps to help her achieve that objective. At heart, Hitomi is a reactionary character. She reacts to things other people do. She reacts to her visions of the future. She has no agency.
I can see someone saying, “But Hitomi is clearly an important character! How often has she saved Van’s life? Or used her powers to find and rescues Van? Or used her powers to work out how to help Van?” The problem here, is that Hitomi exists largely as a tool that lets other characters achieve their goals.
You’ll remember earlier that I said Hitomi is athletic and that she has the ability to predict the future? She largely uses these two powers not to further any goal of her own, but to keep Van from getting horribly killed. This reduces her to less of a person and more of a tool because all she does with her powers is let other characters keep living so that they can have their own stories. Because Van is saved by Hitomi, Van can continue on his story which, presumably, is to get revenge for his people. If Van was less useless, or had some kind of newtype-esque power, Hitomi would serve literally no purpose in the story but to tag along with the gang.
I could go on and on (and on), but hopefully you get the picture. There are serious, fundamental problems with the core elements of the story. I haven’t even had time to get to any of the other characters, or the dialogue itself. It’s a deeply flawed show.
*Several episodes later Hitomi is freaked out by giant talking animals when she goes to visit a market. However this doesn’t make any sense because she already saw them in the second episode. And why is this the ONE thing that freaks her out? She’s been hanging out with a cat girl for ages!
RurouniZel
Asks questions so Ezalc doesn't have to
Yahari SNAFU S2 - 07:
It's gonna suck when this show inevitably devolves into a harem (granted it can be argued it already has), but I like how the show currently has interesting characters and stories that don't revolve around dressing up as maids and shit.
It's gonna suck when this show inevitably devolves into a harem (granted it can be argued it already has), but I like how the show currently has interesting characters and stories that don't revolve around dressing up as maids and shit.
Not what I had in mind, but sure.
Angry Grimace
Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
They dressed up as maids in episode 5 of Season 1, there was a mostly meaningless and random swimsuit/beach episode in Episode ~8 and Yui's attempted to ask Hachiman out in a roundabout way like 4 times already.
(lol I don't really think its a harem)
8 X 11 Printer Paper
Member
Man the publisher of Etotama's Blu-rays completely fucked up and have killed any chance of there being a second season. It already released it's Vol 2 BR, it sold 586 units the first week which is slightly better then Vol 1 which 494. Difference being they had the 'smart' idea of releasing Vol 1 before the 2nd episode even aired....and no the anime hasn't done anything for the manga sales wise.
KenjiGlove
Banned
Hibike! 07
I didn't really care about the whole "last year" conflict so it's good that that's finally out of the way.
I'm really hyped for next episode if it's gonna involve Hazuki's love story though.
This is one cozy looking bedroom, I want it
I didn't really care about the whole "last year" conflict so it's good that that's finally out of the way.
I'm really hyped for next episode if it's gonna involve Hazuki's love story though.
Cornbread78
Member
Oh, so it will be corrected sooner or later? Should I not have my info there?
Yeah, outside of jrpgs and some of the Studio Gibli stuff, it was my first.
the OVA is the best episode. Waifu contest.
AquaWateria
Member
I would add Prison School, Monster Musume, and Jitsu wa Watashi wa but chances are they might turn out mediocre due to bad management. Plus considering they are ecchi, if the execution/direction is terrible then all hope is lost.
Isn't Etotama an original and the manga was merely a promotional tool?
RurouniZel
Asks questions so Ezalc doesn't have to
I had completely forgotten about that. *bangs head against desk*
I was only deluding myself...
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