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[Exalted]

Just watched Ep 19 of TTGL.

I'm not feeling this second half to be honest.

That's not good to hear I have also been watching TTGL alongside you for the first time, and have stopped at episode 16 the recap one, to finish next week ( thinking that the best is yet to come). While i have been really loving and enjoying the show, it didn't blow me away, as i expected from all the insane praise that this show got.

Yeah, the stuff after the recap episode isn't that great. I kinda had to force myself to finish it.

This doesn't help.

 

[Man God]

God, as much as I prefer dubs, I absolutely DESPISE the ADV ones from the 90s. They were truly terrible in every sense.

ADV dubs are wildly inconsistent.

 

[Quasar]

Curious to see how this impacts the future. CR and funi had been heavily competing for rights to shows which had driven up prices.

 

[Sibersk Esto]

TTGL's "Rossiu is all aggro now" arc is pretty drawn out and bad.

 

[zulux21]

Anything that could get more Conan available, either dubbed or legal subs would be great.

If nothing else, I wonder if this will mean that Crunchyroll can put up subs for the first 123 episodes of Conan. That would still leave a 600+ episode gap on their site, but it would at least be better than nothing.

I dare not even dream of the possibility of new dubbed material.

I had thought about it, and while I would love to own conan, it's pretty much dub or bust for me as the only way I would buy subtitled only conan was if it was like $20 per 26 episode set.

but yeah, if they could work together and fill that gap to have legal subs streaming that would be great.

I would adore new dubbed stuff though.

 

[MetroidPrimeRib]

TTGL is a good show but its quality doesn't precede its reputation.

 

[T-Rex.]

Just watched Ep 19 of TTGL.

I'm not feeling this second half to be honest.

Yeah, the stuff after the recap episode isn't that great. I kinda had to force myself to finish it.

 

[GoldCrusader]

TTGL is really one of those shows that is good, but not as good as everyone makes it out to be. It gets really sluggish at some points.

 

[Cornbread78]

Saekano and Konosuba S2 are both airing this winter, right?

 

[Eumi]

'Original joke about the series throwing me into despair'

 

[Basileus777]

Danganronpa 3 - Despair Arc - 09
So lame it even makes Danganronpa 2 worse as well.

 

[nintendoman58]

TTGL's "Rossiu is all aggro now" arc is pretty drawn out and bad.

TTGL is really one of those shows that is good, but not as good as everyone makes it out to be. It gets really sluggish at some points.

I hate hate HATE it when people say stuff like this.

It's like people flat out ignore all the character development that goes on in this arc. The stuff that comes after it is only great because of how much build up there was to it.

Rossiu's arc works because it continues his arc from episode 5. He becomes literally everything he promised he wouldn't become, and he knows it, and you can see it killing him inside.

Yeah, it's easy to overlook this with how much of an ass he is to Simon, but really, it only shows how tough his inner turmoil is in this arc in the long run.

Then there's Kittan. He's the guy the audience basically roots for in this arc, not realizing just how much has changed and how different the enemy is. He's trying to keep up appearances but everybody's just so occupied with their own conflicts (Rossiu and Simon's entire situations, Dayaka's family, and not to mention his own siblings for that matter) that the guy just feels lost and confused.

I hate how this stuff is flat-out ignored when people talk about the second half and call it "boring" and "sluggish". It's a freaking false statement because it also has GIGA DRILL MAXIMUM and Kittan running to take on a giant alien robot to protect his family with a freaking SHOTGUN.

This is of course, just referring to the stuff before episode 22. If people are calling everything after that boring, then these people are liars.

This doesn't help.

Don't listen to them. They're wrong.

 

[Aki-at]

See it in italics? 26-29 be OLD!

Welp that does it, looks like I'm going to have to tell everyone to start calling me Ojisan.

 

[SuperSah]

That's not good to hear I have also been watching TTGL alongside you for the first time, and have stopped at episode 16 the recap one, to finish next week ( thinking that the best is yet to come). While i have been really loving and enjoying the show, it didn't blow me away, as i expected from all the insane praise that this show got.

TTGL 22
Okay well, I just watched up until the end of Ep 22. It has gotten a lot better, but honestly I enjoyed the first half a LOT more. It had me smiling a lot and just having fun. So far, this half is very serious (I know that is intended) but it feels like it's 'missing' something.

Though that said, I found myself really enjoying 22 quite a bit and I'm fairly excited to see what happens next!

 

[Eumi]

Okay well, I just watched up until the end of Ep 22. It has gotten a lot better, but honestly I enjoyed the first half a LOT more. It had me smiling a lot and just having fun. So far, this half is very serious (I know that is intended) but it feels like it's 'missing' something.

Though that said, I found myself really enjoying 22 quite a bit and I'm fairly excited to see what happens next!

The second half has this weird tonal shift for a while. Some people really like it, some people don't. It's not bad but don't feel like you're wrong for maybe not enjoying it as much, you're not alone.

Spoiler

I mean I loved it but still.

 

[Line_HTX]

Saekano and Konosuba S2 are both airing this winter, right?

Konosuba is Winter, Saekano is Spring.

 

[SuperSah]

The second half has this weird tonal shift for a while. Some people really like it, some people don't. It's not bad but don't feel like you're wrong for maybe not enjoying it as much, you're not alone.

Spoiler

I mean I loved it but still.

It's the tone which is what causes this weird jarring transition IMO. The first half had a lot of good gags, great fights and pretty neat character development. The overall tone of that was 'adventure' and kind of 'growing up' if that makes any sense. The second half removed all of that for a dead serious plot. Whilst it has AWESOME character building, it isn't as fun to watch.

For example, in the first half there was always something going on but each episode you saw Simon grow stronger and stronger and learn more lessons. This goes for all characters, Yoko, Veril and the like. It felt very intertwined and done in a masterful way. The second half, at least the first part of the second half doesn't have the same coherency and thus favours character development (which is awesome) without any other substance to work alongside it.

Like I said, I'm still enjoying it and Ep 22 got good pretty fast but I cannot deny there is a large slump here.

 

[Cornbread78]

Konosuba is Winter, Saekano is Spring.

Something funny to look forward to each season... very niiiice!


Code Geass ep.14

Shirley, noooooooo! Dammit Lelouch, why, why, why? You coukd have worked it out with C.C, Shirley and Redhead for a nice harem, lol. That was actually pretty sad though. I felt bad for him, which is surprising since he is such a PoS most of the time.

 

[ShinRPGamer]

Crunchyroll, Funimation Announce Partnership to Share Content Via Streaming, Home Video, EST

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/new...-content-via-streaming-home-video-est/.106234

I quoted most of the stuff in the article.

The good news is since funimation will distribute crunchy's titles, I will be able to afford them! Bless funimation and crunchyroll!

A bit late to properly respond but I think this will prove to be very fruitful for us. I wonder if I'll need both a Funi and Crunchyroll subscription once more content migrates to CR and vice versa.

 

[Clov]

the funimation/crunchyroll news is great.

I mean for the people that were dead set on paying aniplex prices for anime this is likely bad news since funimation will be producing and releasing the crunchyroll home video releases.

I'm not sure what the first part of this sentence is supposed to mean. This news has literally nothing to do with Aniplex. Crunchyroll was going to be releasing anime on their own, not partnering with Aniplex. What would anyone, including people who buy Aniplex releases lose from Crunchyroll not adopting Aniplex's model? Nothing, though you seem to think otherwise for some reason.

On the second part, Crunchyroll is still doing their own releases. Funimation is distributing the releases (as in, getting Crunchyroll's disks on shelves) and dubbing some of Crunchyroll's titles (similar to how season 1 of Free was dubbed using Funimation's studios, despite Funimation not having the rights to it). From what I read, there was nothing about Funimation producing the discs at all.

It is possible that this agreement is similar to the agreement Sunrise has with RightStuf, where RightStuf produces and distributes their discs. That would be disappointing, given Funimation's often subpar video quality, but nothing I saw in the press release has led me to believe that's the case.

Edit: Looking over the press release again, Crunchyroll had already started work on several titles prior to the agreement. I think it's likely that the discs will be authored by them or an outside company, and manufactured wherever Funimation does their titles. Think of how Warner distributes for Viz.

 

[nintendoman58]

It's the tone which is what causes this weird jarring transition IMO. The first half had a lot of good gags, great fights and pretty neat character development. The overall tone of that was 'adventure' and kind of 'growing up' if that makes any sense. The second half removed all of that for a dead serious plot. Whilst it has AWESOME character building, it isn't as fun to watch.

For example, in the first half there was always something going on but each episode you saw Simon grow stronger and stronger and learn more lessons. This goes for all characters, Yoko, Veril and the like. It felt very intertwined and done in a masterful way. The second half, at least the first part of the second half doesn't have the same coherency and thus favours character development (which is awesome) without any other substance to work alongside it.

Well, the stuff in the first few episodes of the show's second half really isn't meant to be fun to watch. It's supposed to establish why the Anti-Spirals are a much greater threat than the Spiral King, and that there's much more at stake.

But as you'll find out in the later episodes after episode 22, not letting go of that sense of spirit and motivation seen in the first half despite all that is one of TTGL's greatest strengths, and it's especially great in the last few episodes of the show.

 

[GoldCrusader]

Naruto 474

So two things from this episode

- I really love the opening and it made me remember why I liked Naruto so much in the past. OG Naruto was sooo good.

-Naruto saying his good byes to his father had me in freakin tears! It was too much....

Even after not watching Naruto episodes for years because of fillers, this right here makes it obvious I still really like it.

 

[names2hard4you]

So uh... There's a new Working anime next season?? What is this?!

 

[Syrinx]

So uh... There's a new Working anime next season?? What is this?!

Spinoff or something like that.

 

[Clov]

Danganronpa 3 Despair Arc 09

Spoiler

So they are going with the whole "brainwashing anime" for the Danganronpa 2 cast. That's disappointing. Was really hoping my whole idea about using it on the reserve course would pan out, though maybe that's still possible? Still, not a fan of the direction the story's taking.

Poor Ryota, though! I felt so bad for him. I know it's called "despair arc" and all, but I just want to see him happy for once.

 

[names2hard4you]

Spinoff or something like that.

Did some more research, it seems to be adapting a web novel that has been ongoing since 2002:

https://myanimelist.net/manga/91866/Working_Web-ban

 

[MetroidPrimeRib]

if Danganronpa V3 doesn't ditch the hope vs despair angle and this plotline i swear 2 fucking god kodaka. DR has reached the point where it either evolves as a series or become stuck in the same rut forever.

Danganronpa 3 Despair Arc 09

Spoiler

So they are going with the whole "brainwashing anime" for the Danganronpa 2 cast. That's disappointing. Was really hoping my whole idea about using it on the reserve course would pan out, though maybe that's still possible? Still, not a fan of the direction the story's taking.

Poor Ryota, though! I felt so bad for him. I know it's called "despair arc" and all, but I just want to see him happy for once.

Spoiler

They did use it on the Reserve Course in Zero.

 

[Basileus777]

if Danganronpa V3 doesn't ditch the hope vs despair angle and this plotline i swear 2 fucking god kodaka

There's no way he ditches that.

 

[Clov]

if Danganronpa V3 doesn't ditch the hope vs despair angle and this plotline i swear 2 fucking god kodaka

Spoiler

They did use it on the Reserve Course in Zero.

I think V3 is going to stand on its own storywise, but I'd be surprised if they ditched hope vs despair. Monokuma is pretty much despair's symbol in the series.

Regarding your spoiler text...

Spoiler

Well, that makes sense! I've only read some brief summaries of Zero, so I wasn't sure.

 

[hosannainexcelsis]

Witchcraft Works 9

Kazane must be half-American, because only an American would be smoking FREEDOM EAGLE cigarettes.

 

[KuwabaraTheMan]

if Danganronpa V3 doesn't ditch the hope vs despair angle and this plotline i swear 2 fucking god kodaka. DR has reached the point where it either evolves as a series or become stuck in the same rut forever.

At the very least it should be free from the larger continuity of the first two games, which is something.

I hope V3 will just return to focusing more on the class trial/killing game aspect, and not the wider lore.

I'm okay with hope vs despair as a motif used in the game as long as the focus is more on the characters and the crazy murder methods, and not Ultra Despair Girls type garbage.

 

[hosannainexcelsis]

I could have told you after Danganronpa 1 that trying to go into the details of the apocalypse meltdown would be a bad idea. Danganronpa 2 managed to make a direct follow-up mostly work, but in both cases the key was isolating the cast in a small closed space and letting the background of the setting stay vague. Explaining too much can be fatal to a story.

 

[names2hard4you]

I could have told you after Danganronpa 1 that trying to go into the details of the apocalypse meltdown would be a bad idea. Danganronpa 2 managed to make a direct follow-up mostly work, but in both cases the key was isolating the cast in a small closed space and letting the background of the setting stay vague. Explaining too much can be fatal to a story.

Some things are better left unknown. Although I say this, I am enjoying Despair a lot more than Future.

 

[Aki-at]

My Love Story!! - 10

Holy shit Kazuma Kiryu is Takeo's dad. It all makes sense now, all of it.

Also mini-review of 8-9: Takeo and Sunakawa are really best bros.

Occult Academy - 2

Okay, I completely misjudged the spoon bender guy. I expected some slightly overpowered cocky street smart kind of protagonist but instead get a bumbling buffoon, series has gone up my rankings already.

But boo at the principle's daughter ditching her one piece dress at the end.

 

[MetroidPrimeRib]

I think the elaboration done on the world in Ultra Despair Girls isn't as bad as the elaboration that is going into the Tragedy in Despair. UDG may have been unneeded, but Despair is kind of breaking the series?

 

[Basileus777]

I think the elaboration done on the world in Ultra Despair Girls isn't as bad as the elaboration that is going into the Tragedy in Despair. UDG may have been unneeded, but Despair is kind of breaking the series?

UDG is still rock bottom in that regard.

 

[KuwabaraTheMan]

I could have told you after Danganronpa 1 that trying to go into the details of the apocalypse meltdown would be a bad idea. Danganronpa 2 managed to make a direct follow-up mostly work, but in both cases the key was isolating the cast in a small closed space and letting the background of the setting stay vague. Explaining too much can be fatal to a story.

Yup. Danganronpa 2 managed to keep things mostly working by isolating stuff and still making it mostly about the characters, but Ultra Despair Girls attempting to explore the wide world was a complete disaster. I haven't watched the anime at all because I figured that's the road it would go further down.

The whole "most horrible, most awful, most tragic event in human history" thing worked in the first two games because it didn't have to be believable or make much sense. It's comically over the top, but it just exists as an excuse for the game's plot to function and the characters to work. It serves to support the general themes of the game, and not much else. But there's no need to think much more deeply on it. But once you're actually setting stories out in the wider world, it just draws attention to the fact that "the tragedy" is a fucking idiotic thing that makes no sense, that the story doesn't hold up, and then it even gets undercut because things don't seem anywhere near as bad as we were lead to believe, too.

 

[Basileus777]

Yup. Danganronpa 2 managed to keep things mostly working by isolating stuff and still making it mostly about the characters, but Ultra Despair Girls attempting to explore the wide world was a complete disaster. I haven't watched the anime at all because I figured that's the road it would go further down.

The whole "most horrible, most awful, most tragic event in human history" thing worked in the first two games because it didn't have to be believable or make much sense. It's comically over the top, but it just exists as an excuse for the game's plot to function and the characters to work. It serves to support the general themes of the game, and not much else. But there's no need to think much more deeply on it. But once you're actually setting stories out in the wider world, it just draws attention to the fact that "the tragedy" is a fucking idiotic thing that makes no sense, that the story doesn't hold up, and then it even gets undercut because things don't seem anywhere near as bad as we were lead to believe, too.

The 2nd game was already stretching it at points, but I suppose when you have a series this successful and you have a ton of multimedia projects and sequels lined up you end up filling in blanks that you should have never touched.

 

[Clov]

I could have told you after Danganronpa 1 that trying to go into the details of the apocalypse meltdown would be a bad idea. Danganronpa 2 managed to make a direct follow-up mostly work, but in both cases the key was isolating the cast in a small closed space and letting the background of the setting stay vague. Explaining too much can be fatal to a story.

It's exactly this. What we imagined happened turned out to be way better than what the author later decided on. Not everything needs explaining, and a lot of stuff works much better without a full explanation for certain things.

Using an example from outside of anime, Samuel Beckett's play Endgame wouldn't really work if we fully understood what happened outside Hamm's home. We know that it must be apocalyptic in scale, since there's not many (or any?) people outside, that outside the house somehow isn't safe anymore. Many items that are common are now scarce in the play (candies, bicycles), so clearly it must have been something devastating. Yet we never find out what happened, and that makes a particular character's action (or inaction?) at the end of the play all the more powerful. The complete lack of knowledge regarding what happened outside conjures up powerful imagination in the audience; that type of uncertainty really fascinates me.

 

[Squishy3]

i hated udg but i like despair soooooooooo

it also helps i'm not playing a bad videogame with terrible pacing

 

[MetroidPrimeRib]

The thing is DR Zero didn't really feel like it was over-explaining despite taking place at the same time (almost) as DR3 Despair and it still left things vague because you're right, if you really look at it The Tragedy is pretty fuckin' stupid, but I can't imagine Kodaka had some master plan worked out from the get go and he didn't expect it to blow up and become popular. DR2 handled a sequel pretty well. I'll defend UDG up to a certain point, but I wouldn't say the world building stuff was the strong point of the writing, and you can say Monaca hardly even adds anything.

The real problem is that DR3 is far, far, far too ambitious for its own good. The intertwined prequel/sequel story its trying to tell on 13 episodes each with a mediocre studio while trying to tie up EVERY SINGLE PLOT THREAD including ones in Zero and UDG is...ambitious to the point of foolishness. On paper it sounds fucking awesome - and if it had come together well it would be awesome. But I'm going to leap ahead and say its not going to come together. Its not the clusterfuck I expected (production aside) but its not satisfying. Of course its not over and there are certainly good parts but I don't really see myself at the end saying that this was the crescendo the series needed. But the story it could've told about the ending of DR2 and the prequel series for DR2 in Despair could have been great...it was all set up and there to be put together, but Kodaka opted for some mind hack bullshit. Lame.

At least V3 isn't being pushed back to make a 3 game and try and fit this scenario into it. That's the good thing.

-------------------------------------------------------------

Tangentially related to anime - The Attack on Titan manga has reached the basement. No bullshit, they're there. S2 ending spot confirmed!!!!

 

[nintendoman58]

Tangentially related to anime - The Attack on Titan manga has reached the basement. No bullshit, they're there. S2 ending spot confirmed!!!!

Watch as the only thing they find there turns out to be a locked door/box/something, ensuing 100+ chapters of searching for the key.

 

[MetroidPrimeRib]

Watch as the only thing they find there turns out to be a locked door/box/something, ensuing 100+ chapters of searching for the key.

By "reached the basement" I mean "Went into the basement and found a thing" so NOPE.

That's all I'm saying. That's been your AoT catchup minute

 

[Gvitor]

The whole "most horrible, most awful, most tragic event in human history" thing worked in the first two games because it didn't have to be believable or make much sense. It's comically over the top, but it just exists as an excuse for the game's plot to function and the characters to work. It serves to support the general themes of the game, and not much else. But there's no need to think much more deeply on it. But once you're actually setting stories out in the wider world, it just draws attention to the fact that "the tragedy" is a fucking idiotic thing that makes no sense, that the story doesn't hold up, and then it even gets undercut because things don't seem anywhere near as bad as we were lead to believe, too.

That's what I've been saying for forever now, thank you.

DR1 and 2 leave the event up to the player's imagination, so if you have decent creativity, you can make the most out of it (or ignore it altogether). Once they set the game in the outer world, it escapes from player control and becomes a narrative choice, and the creators have to convince you that the situation is credible. In UDG they use kids. Kids. Subjugating adults. With gundam robots.

Sorry, but no.

 

[names2hard4you]

By "reached the basement" I mean "Went into the basement and found a thing" so NOPE.

That's all I'm saying. That's been your AoT catchup minute

*Everyone runs into the basement and looks to the furthest corner*

*...*

"Kept you waiting, uh?"

ED goes on.

 

[Erheller]

Neon Genesis Evangelion 1-24 + End of Evangelion

wtf

 

[ibyea]

On the Danganronpa discussion, personally I don't care much about how much they reveal because the apocalypse and everything about Danganronpa was super ridiculous, so I imagined whatever they were going to reveal was going to be really silly. So I am in it just for the chance to see the characters one last time and whatever fun thing they had planned.

Despite all I have said however, I was still disappointed when the revelation was brainwashing anime. Why would you need to have brainwashing anime when she can naturally be manipulative? Oh well.

 

[cj_iwakura]

Terror by Resonance 01

Kind of ballsy to open a show like that in this day and age.

Still intrigued to see where it goes, I like the cast.

 

[MetroidPrimeRib]

That's what I've been saying for forever now, thank you.

DR1 and 2 leave the event up to the player's imagination, so if you have decent creativity, you can make the most out of it (or ignore it altogether). Once they set the game in the outer world, it escapes from player control and becomes a narrative choice, and the creators have to convince you that the situation is credible. In UDG they use kids. Kids. Subjugating adults. With gundam robots.

Sorry, but no.

UDG didn't go hard enough with the kids being the villains aspect like it could've. It wimps out on it. It also introduces non-Ultimates as being faceless mobs, which thematically makes sense but it kind of makes it all less horrifying. Take this Despair episode for example, when one of them takes a hacksaw to their own throat for despair. Maybe that's supposed to be the point and i can drum it up to artistic intent but I don't really like it.

I think by not having the class trial, murdering and pacing of a 20+ hour game the anime loses out on a lot of how Danganronpa's writing ends up working. I also don't think The Tragedy was supposed to really be detailed in how it went down, and that it wasn't really meant to be taken super seriously because it didn't have a whole lot to do with the conflict on the inside.

Spoiler

Remember how when Junko shows you what the outside looks like the Sphinx and Statue of Liberty have goddamn Monokuma heads? When her plan in DR2 is to turn everyone in the world into Junko's? I don't think you are really supposed to take that seriously.

Spoiler

Despair's showing of the student council killings...doesn't really add anything. It just feels like over elaboration on stuff we already know, or going back and retconning stuff like Izuru or the Ultimate Despairs.

I think DR3 is leaning to hard into the black of DR's black comedy trappings, in the end. Its gone from "That's fucked up but funny" with the executions to "Thats just fucked up" with the guy handsawing his own neck.

Maybe its just really hard to end a series you didn't expect to be popular. Look at Zero Time Dilemma, DR3 has like the same plot element

Spoiler

MIND HACC

that makes people not like that game.

Future is a whole other ball game though. That could end up going anyway and the reveal at the end of episode 6 (I think?)

Spoiler

where they show Hajime seeing the FF ships approach and he says "How boring" made me lose my mind.

Not too keen on Ms. Bacon Hands dying-obviously-not-dying at the moment right now tho. Its written in a way that

Spoiler

if she doesn't die, you already pulled this trick with Asahina. If she does die, that makes no sense. Kyoko would've figured some shit out or at least tried to discuss it.

 

[jgminto]

Terror by Resonance 01

Kind of ballsy to open a show like that in this day and age.

Still intrigued to see where it goes, I like the cast.

Don't get your hopes up.