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[Lalalandia]

God how did I miss the PV for Ancient Magus Bride, it looks soooooo good

That looks gorgeous, not so keen on the 'dude buys a 15 year old to be his bride' aspect (from ANN) but I'll give it a chance just for that art

Edit: Also 1080p50? Can I presume this is just a remastering by the YT channel for that all important 'I only watch high frame rate YT vid' crowd or has this actually been made at 50 fps instead of the traditional 25?

 

[blurr]

Kiznaiver has great characters.

Also, Colorful is a beautiful film, and my favorite Keiichi Hara film.

Kiznaiver characters are indeed "great" in a sense but I personally felt a bit lacking within a drama where they needed to feel more genuinely human.

Any other films worth checking out by Keiichi Hara?

 

[Eumi]

Kiznaiver's characters are pretty generic, to me what makes it is how they interact. Unlike most anime groups they actually feel like a group of teenagers hanging out. It's not super realistic or anything but they all have different dynamics with each other and bounce off each other really well. That's probably the reason the show's getting better over time: the characters are getting to know each other more.

 

[hosannainexcelsis]

Kiznaiver characters are indeed "great" in a sense but I personally felt a bit lacking within a drama where they needed to feel more genuinely human.

The characters are being well fleshed out and developed; they feel like believable people. It's fair to say that their introduction in the first episode makes them feel shallow, but then that's the way people work - we don't really understand them until we get to know them. I remember similar comments being made about Hyouka, which has a similar process of the characters feeling shallow and simplistic at the start but gradually revealing more and more to them as the series progresses.

Any other films worth checking out by Keiichi Hara?

I can recommend Summer Days with Coo and Miss Hokusai. I haven't watched Hara's Crayon Shin-chan films he made before Summer Days with Coo, or his one live-action film yet.

 

[names2hard4you]

Kiznaiver's characters are pretty generic, to me what makes it is how they interact. Unlike most anime groups they actually feel like a group of teenagers hanging out. It's not super realistic or anything but they all have different dynamics with each other and bounce off each other really well. That's probably the reason the show's getting better over time: the characters are getting to know each other more.

Yeah the show's main strength is using character archetypes that we all have seen before in many anime before. You have them all here, the listless character with no emotion, the hotheaded buff, the good looking snub, the masochist, the almighty smartass, the childhood friend, the silly and childish girl and lastly the super serious but often silly leader figure. We all know these characters. If this had been some other anime, you could have called it "Generic Anime: The Show". The interesting thing is in the writing and direction. How these characters interact, how they grow as individuals and let themselves accomodate others into their lives, sharing a bond. Really this show is about friendship.

I'd say this is why it's becoming one of my favourite shows of all time. Because it used conventions and things that we all know from the medium and expanded on them and gave them something that all other generic characters lack: life.

 

[blurr]

The characters are being well fleshed out and developed; they feel like believable people. It's fair to say that their introduction in the first episode makes them feel shallow, but then that's the way people work - we don't really understand them until we get to know them. I remember similar comments being made about Hyouka, which has a similar process of the characters feeling shallow and simplistic at the start but gradually revealing more and more to them as the series progresses.

That's definitely true and I was hoping that would be the case eventually but honestly, I'm not satisfied with what I've seen (yet). Character motivations (Chidori and Maki so far) make sense (to an extent) but the overcoming aspect feels a bit abrupt.

 

[Thoraxes]

That's definitely true and I was hoping that would be the case eventually but honestly, I'm not satisfied with what I've seen (yet). Character motivations (Chidori and Maki so far) make sense (to an extent) but the overcoming aspect feels a bit abrupt.

I wouldn't really say any of them have overcome their weaknesses yet though. They just learned how to share their flaws with others to work on dealing with them.

 

[Cornbread78]

Date a Live S2 ep.1-2

Oh, we get new spirits right away; a nice set of twins for season 2. The comedy was pretty good, but you can already tell trouble is brewing, plus we never really did see him seal clock girls powers, so.....

 

[MetroidPrimeRib]

Bakuon 08

good faces

 

[Dedication Through Light]

Cerberus Episode 8 – The Dark Shadow

Hiiro being cool and caring nothing for what the others think is the best, when he pointed to the sky even, lol.

Spoiler

But Giruu Please have hidden healing power Soratta. And also did the guy think there was some other way to get Dagan Zolt other than Hiiro???

 

[NaDannMaGoGo]

Unfortunately that's what began to bother me from episode 4, I felt it made for a less than compelling drama. I really enjoyed the first 3 episodes but because they were primarily composed of light humor which would've been fine for the characters of the show. The main narrative however is heading in an interesting direction.

The movie I just saw on the other hand...

Colorful

Yeh that's a pretty good example of doing it right.

hosannainexelsis comparison to Hyouka has me raising my eyebrows. Okada writing won't go anywhere near that quality in characterization. I mean, I'll see for myself soon but I'll eat a mecha sized shoe (let's go with TTGL endgame scale if you want) if that's to be found in Kiznaiver after all. Can't say I found the characters in kuromukuro any particularly good either, so it's likely I won't share that view here, too.

 

[phaze]

I should have listened. This S2 of Tokyo Ghoul is sorta ass. I'm not entirely sure who or why they're fighting anymore and the animation took a massive dive...

Warned ya.

s2 could've been really cool if they actually went in on the premise of Kaneki joining Aogiri but it just comes across as a weird adaptation of the 2nd half of the manga with a few scenes changed so what was the point

As for why anyone is fighting, let me tell you about Tokyo Ghoul :RE - Too Many Fucking Groups

I remain confused over how can this bother you in TG which has like 3 main factions for 220 chapters now and not in OP which has dozens of those.

I don't think Kiznaiver would be very enjoyable from what I've seen 2 episodes in and knowing that Okada can't write characters that genuinely feel human. I doubt that core issue I have with her will go away even when instructed by a competent director. But, given that the reception has been really rather great I'll check out another episode or two. Am not watching much this season anyways and might as well drop AoTrain soon.

Wait, wait didn't you try try to sell me on Nagi no Asukara at one point?

 

[TUSR]

Is there a harem better than Love Hina?

 

[phaze]

Evangelion.

Speaking of harems...

Ouran High School Club 04-13

This remains an enjoyable and very well executed comedy but I've to say, some of its luster has worn off since those first three episodes. The jokes and the writing just don't hit quite the highs they used to at the beginning.

 

[hosannainexcelsis]

Yeh that's a pretty good example of doing it right.

hosannainexelsis comparison to Hyouka has me raising my eyebrows. Okada writing won't go anywhere near that quality in characterization. I mean, I'll see for myself soon but I'll eat a mecha sized shoe (let's go with TTGL endgame scale if you want) if that's to be found in Kiznaiver after all. Can't say I found the characters in kuromukuro any particularly good either, so it's likely I won't share that view here, too.

I stand by my comparison with Hyouka. After all, I don't think the writing in itself in Hyouka is particularly amazing - I've actually read some of the Hyouka novels, and they're pretty middle-of-the-road - but the execution of the series as a whole by the staff at Kyoto Animation is what makes Hyouka the anime a masterpiece. Kiznaiver is a less "realistic" show, but I don't think it loses when it comes to carefully considered characterization.

I'm sorry if you have different standards for what constitutes good characters, but all I can do is report on what I find to be effective characterization. As soon as the first episode of Kuromukuro, with the addition paid to visually characterizing the various character with quirks of movement, and the second episode of Kiznaiver, which paid deliberate attention to breaking down the stereotypes we would have assumed from the first episode, I was sold on each show.

 

[Kyuur]

I was going to make a bunch of gifs and post episode impression but I got lazy, so I'll just tldr;

Kiznaiver and Re:zero were super good this week
Academia and Kabaneri remain solid
Joker Game was average
Swagamoto had a mediocre first half but a hilarious second

What happened with Kuromukuro that everyone is singing its praises? The first few episodes were super generic mech anime with fantasy twist to me. Is it just that it does it well?

 

[NaDannMaGoGo]

Warned ya.


I remain confused over how can this bother you in TG which has like 3 main factions for 220 chapters now and not in OP which has dozens of those.


Wait, wait didn't you try try to sell me on Nagi no Asukara at one point?

I told you to go with that instead of Hanasaku Iroha if you were to watch a beautiful P.A. works show written by Okada. And the writing is by far the worst aspect of NagiAsu, it's just one of the few shows that has everything else working for it so much that I still enjoyed it to a certain degree. Thematically it's even interesting here and there, but in the end little comes of it and the plot just gets worse.

 

[duckroll]

I don't think Kiznaiver really compares to Hyouka. It's not a quality thing so much as a totally different style of characterization. I think Kiznaiver shares more in common with Ikuhara and Murakami narratives and characterizations. They're weird, they're tropey, but there are layers and subtleties which make them feel more and more real as the story progresses.

I told you to go with that instead of Hanasaku Iroha

Wow, maybe you just have terrible taste...

 

[hosannainexcelsis]

I don't think Kiznaiver really compares to Hyouka. It's not a quality thing so much as a totally different style of characterization. I think Kiznaiver shares more in common with Ikuhara and Murakami narratives and characterizations. They're weird, they're tropey, but there are layers and subtleties which make them feel more and more real as the story progresses.

That's a fair point. I'm not trying to say they're exactly the same thing, just that they give me a similar feeling of progression in that the characters reveal more depth as the show moves forward. (As compared to some other shows I've watched recently where the characters become more shallow as the story progresses!)

 

[MetroidPrimeRib]

I remain confused over how can this bother you in TG which has like 3 main factions for 220 chapters now and not in OP which has dozens of those.

Easily. Because people in One Piece look distinct. I can't blame someone for not remembering every single character but I can at least figure out what kind of group they are in or what their personality is just by looking at them. Most of the fodder are confined to one arc anyway.

I don't give a shit about the CCG. 40 guys in suits blend together really easily for me and it doesn't help when all their names run together. I also don't know what anyone wants in Tokyo Ghoul. To me it seems like everything in Tokyo Ghoul happens to make you wonder why it is happening to prolong a mystery, and thats why nobodies actions make any sense.

 

[Cornbread78]

Is there a harem better than Love Hina?

Yeah, most are better than Love Hina....

 

[NaDannMaGoGo]

I stand by my comparison with Hyouka. After all, I don't think the writing in itself in Hyouka is particularly amazing - I've actually read some of the Hyouka novels, and they're pretty middle-of-the-road - but the execution of the series as a whole by the staff at Kyoto Animation is what makes Hyouka the anime a masterpiece. Kiznaiver is a less "realistic" show, but I don't think it loses when it comes to carefully considered characterization.

I'm sorry if you have different standards for what constitutes good characters, but all I can do is report on what I find to be effective characterization. As soon as the first episode of Kuromukuro, with the addition paid to visually characterizing the various character with quirks of movement, and the second episode of Kiznaiver, which paid deliberate attention to breaking down the stereotypes we would have assumed from the first episode, I was sold on each show.

Oh sure, in extremely good works the writing and direction is strongly correlated and characterization in anime isn't solely a matter of writing to me. What makes Hyouka's characterization so damn good for me is consistency and detail. The smallest bit of behavior is always tuned to who exactly they are. I mean i haven't seen it in a longer while but I think just about nothing that happened ever seemed out of character.

Among other aspects its this kind of consistency that makes characters feel like actually people to me and might as well be my nr1 selling point in a character-driven show.

And yeh I didn't mean to be overly negative, everyone has their own standards for what makes good characters.

According to duckroll my taste is terrible anyways. But so is his, so whatever

 

[Haly]

Is there a harem better than Love Hina?

urusei yatsura or to-love ru

 

[phaze]

I told you to go with that instead of Hanasaku Iroha if you were to watch a beautiful P.A. works show written by Okada. And the writing is by far the worst aspect of NagiAsu, it's just one of the few shows that has everything else working for it so much that I still enjoyed it to a certain degree. Thematically it's even interesting here and there, but in the end little comes of it and the plot just gets worse.

Ahhh alright. You're hereby cleared of suspicion of delibarately recommending bad anime to people.

Easily. Because people in One Piece look distinct. I can't blame someone for not remembering every single character but I can at least figure out what kind of group they are in or what their personality is just by looking at them. Most of the fodder are confined to one arc anyway.

I don't give a shit about the CCG. 40 guys in suits blend together really easily for me and it doesn't help when all their names run together. I also don't know what anyone wants in Tokyo Ghoul.

Guys in suits = CCG - Voila !

TG doesn't have the freedom of going for superbly grotesque design for its characters given its relatively grounded nature. I'd say that it's already pushing that with quite a lot of its designs.
---
Aogiri - Break the Cage
CCG - Keep the Cage
Kaneki - Beat Shinji in amount of mental meltdowns.

There you go !

------

Only when rewatching latest Kiznaiver did I "get "that that weird smoke Maki was looking at came from Ruru's cremation.

 

[Joe Molotov]

Is there a harem better than Love Hina?

Dokidoki Precure

 

[MetroidPrimeRib]

To Love Ru is the Ur-Harem. I don't know why anyone tries to beat Yabuki. He must have dirt on the people running the magazine with the shit he gets away with.

 

[blurr]

I wouldn't really say any of them have overcome their weaknesses yet though. They just learned how to share their flaws with others to work on dealing with them.

Yea but even that doesn't entirely feel convincing given the kind of characters they are (Chidori a very shy person and Maki a very secretive one).

I will say that with personality extremes like them, they can be difficult to comprehend/empathize within an episode or two.

 

[Haly]

To Love Ru is the Ur-Harem. I don't know why anyone tries to beat Yabuki. He must have dirt on the people running the magazine with the shit he gets away with.

The dirt is that everyone he works with loves reading to-love ru and he knows it.

 

[Dedication Through Light]

NagiAsu has bad writing, since when?

 

[Shard]

Sailor Moon Crystal Season III Episode 8:

Is anyone else still watching this? Was anyone else even watching in the first place? At any rate, at the heart of this episode is the first true mid-season power up for Sailor Moon via this continuity as previous seasons had the power-up roll in at the end of a given arc. Also of importance is we get SUPER HAPPY MIRACLE RETCON as we are now told how the Silver Millennium really collapsed and why the Outers couldn't hustle their collective asses to lend a hand. Oh and the real reason they have been acting as an opposing force against The Inners is that they are also kind of the wetworks team that sometimes might have to get the hands dirty and of course that isn't going to sit well with Sailor Moon.

 

[pbayne]

NagiAsu has bad writing, since when?

Since it paired up the least two compatible people in the show...

Edit: God i hope Kiznaiver doesn't shoot for any pairings. MC and Sonazaki-sure that's dead on arrival, might as well pair two mannequins together. MC and Chidori, meh it might be tolerable but it still any interest is killed by the MCs personality and its extremely one-sided so far. Tenga and Chidori?-You think you want it but realize then you how out of place it would be if it actually happened. Maki and Yuta?-probably not happening now since their arc is over anyway.

 

[Basileus777]

I stand by my comparison with Hyouka. After all, I don't think the writing in itself in Hyouka is particularly amazing - I've actually read some of the Hyouka novels, and they're pretty middle-of-the-road

I really hope you're not judging the quality of this (or anything) via baka-tsuki translations.

Is there a harem better than Love Hina?

Is there one worse?

 

[hosannainexcelsis]

I really hope you're not judging the quality of this (or anything) via baka-tsuki translations.

Ha ha, I'm well aware that those translations may as well be spit out from Google.

 

[Cornbread78]

Speaking anime....


I just rolled through my list really quick and noticed, how much harem trash I have watched...

Amaenaide yo!!
Campione!
Date A Live
Gakusen Toshi Asterisk
Goshuushou-sama Ninomiya-kun
Grisaia
Hyakka Ryouran: Samurai Bride
IS: Infinite Stratos
Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou
Jitsu wa Watashi wa
Kami nomi zo Shiru Sekai
Kanojo ga Flag wo Oraretara
Kono Naka ni Hitori, Imouto ga Iru!
Kore wa Zombie Desu ka?
Love Hina
Mashiro-iro Symphony: The Color of Lovers
Mayo Chiki!
Monster Musume no Iru Nichijou
Nisekoi
Ore ga Ojousama Gakkou ni "Shomin Sample" Toshite Gets♥Sareta Ken
Oretachi ni Tsubasa wa Nai: Under the Innocent Sky
Rakudai Kishi no Cavalry
Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!?
Rosario to Vampire
Saenai Heroine no Sodatekata
Saijaku Muhai no Bahamut
School Days
Shinmai Maou no Testament
Shuffle!
Sora no Otoshimono
Strike the Blood
To LOVE-Ru
Trinity Seven
Walkure Romanze
White Album
Yamada-kun to 7-nin no Majo
Zero no Tsukaima

 

[dimb]

I would say that Kiznaiver is really not even trying to create believable or realistic characters. Its focus is definitely on short-term storytelling, and as a result we see most character behavior traced back to a single moment in their often near past.

I wouldn't really say any of them have overcome their weaknesses yet though. They just learned how to share their flaws with others to work on dealing with them.

There is definitely an element of overcoming shortcomings in Kiznaiver. It most often comes in the form of reestablishing emotional connections through socialization. You can find this across almost the entire cast.

 

[Thoraxes]

Is there a harem better than Love Hina?

Is there another harem with Matoko and Shinobu in it?

 

[brawly]

Is Seven Deadly Sins any good? Ep 3 is insufferable.

 

[MetroidPrimeRib]

Is Seven Deadly Sins any good? Ep 3 is insufferable.

Not really

 

[Dedication Through Light]

Is Seven Deadly Sins any good? Ep 3 is insufferable.

Watch Fairy Tail instead.

 

[Cornbread78]

NagiAsu has bad writing, since when?

The final scene could have been written better more than anything.... 4 feet apart... c'mon now..

Watch Fairy Tail instead.

I need to get back on this. I stopped at ep. 50 a few weeks ago and have gotten grossly sidetracked from my power of friendship fix..

 

[MakotoYuki]

Koutetsujou no Kabaneri 5-6
Didn't enjoy them as much as the first four episodes. I hope that they arrive at their destination before the season ends.

 

[TUSR]

Is there one worse?

Nisekoi.

Is there another harem with Matoko and Shinobu in it?

There's one with a Shinobu.

Yeah, most are better than Love Hina....

wow pls no flame

urusei yatsura or to-love ru

Unsure about that second one.

Dokidoki Precure

Isn't Precure magical girls?

 

[Envelope]

Is there a harem better than Love Hina?

considering love hina is garbage and Ken akamatsu should be banned from writing anything ever again


probably all of them

 

[Cornbread78]

wow pls no flame

No flame, no flame, lol. I was juz sayin'


besides:
Campione!
Grisaia
Trinity Seven

These are probably the best three with a few more like:
Sora no Otoshimono
Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!?
Kore wa Zombie Desu ka?
Amaenaide yo!!
Strike the Blood


These aren't far behind, but they all have different paths also, so...

 

[Theonik]

P.S. UY is the only good harem anyway

I agree though.

 

[Line_HTX]

Love Hina is complete doo-doo.

 

[TUSR]

thanks for the recommendations

I wanted to watch some garbage harem in the background while I do other things.

 

[Envelope]

I agree though.

believe it

P.S.

jesus what is your avatar

 

[Cornbread78]

thanks for the recommendations

I wanted to watch some garbage harem in the background while I do other things.

If you want garbage, it might be time for TUSR to ride the Green Green express.


Speaking of, it's Hundred time! I have to wait to watch though, lol.

 

[Theonik]

believe it

P.S.

jesus what is your avatar

Mascot character from the latest PreCure. Specifically it's a pun from the OP.
WANderfuru deshou~

Latest episode actually features this. (yes you should watch the latest PreCure it's legit so far, though not in the same way as HeartCatch)