I often have a hard time with sports anime because I like sports. The adherence to strict formula is a big turn-off for me, and it gets even worse if the characters have magical "skills" which more closely resemble video game combos than anything relating to a real sport.
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Winter-Spring 2014 Anime |OT3| People incapable of guilt usually do have a good time
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I often have a hard time with sports anime because I like sports. The adherence to strict formula is a big turn-off for me, and it gets even worse if the characters have magical "skills" which more closely resemble video game combos than anything relating to a real sport.
Basileus777
Member
It's not hard to find sports anime without magic abilities. Granted they often still feature players more talented than they should be, but a pitcher with more control or a faster fastball than a highschooler can have doesn't break my suspension of disbelief.
Its good actually if you will be keeping busy but I certainly know that feeling too. What will be using your time?
The author, Kamijyo Akimine, already have that tendency in her writing since Samurai Deeper Kyo. Nearly every battles in later chapter essentially "this isn't even my final form" between characters.
FelixOrion
Poet Centuriate
It's screaming "I'm from the 90's!" at me, but it's doing it IN ONE MONOTONE VOICE AAAAHH SOMEONE SAVE ME
Unless you're a Falario then you're a horrible person.
Well, unlike with many anime genres, you can at least say that boxing anime causes less brain damage than the real thing.
Not all, just too many for my taste. I also have a harder time suspending disbelief for these kinds of things compared to other genres.
hosannainexcelsis
Member
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders 1
Can I just say how perfectly placed the title card was? "Shut up, you bitch!" "Yes!" BAM - This is Stardust Crusaders, fool. Burst out laughing for a minute or so.
Nice to have the production values boost for this season. It'll help, at least as far as comparing this to the 2000s OVA goes. Now when it gets to the stuff covered in the 1993 OVAs like D'Arby and the climactic Dio fight I don't think there's anyway this'll be able to match up, but that's a ways away yet.
Can I just say how perfectly placed the title card was? "Shut up, you bitch!" "Yes!" BAM - This is Stardust Crusaders, fool. Burst out laughing for a minute or so.
Nice to have the production values boost for this season. It'll help, at least as far as comparing this to the 2000s OVA goes. Now when it gets to the stuff covered in the 1993 OVAs like D'Arby and the climactic Dio fight I don't think there's anyway this'll be able to match up, but that's a ways away yet.
Taisho baseball girls plays baseball pretty straight.
Jex
Member
For those of you interested in learning more about the visual language of film there's been a pretty good series of articles to ease you into the topic over a the A.V. Club called Internet Film School. You'll want to start at the bottom and work your way up. Be warned that there's kind of fairly minor spoilers for each work discussed but how much that bothers you is a personal question.
If you want to look at the no-frills approach to the same topic you can just read through this website here http://classes.yale.edu/film-analysis/index.htm which is a lot more academic and far less chatty.
If you want to look at the no-frills approach to the same topic you can just read through this website here http://classes.yale.edu/film-analysis/index.htm which is a lot more academic and far less chatty.
hosannainexcelsis
Member
Good direction, good animation, fun characters - that's what Haikyuu provides so far, and that's all I need to enjoy a TV show, really.
firehawk12
Subete no aware
I think it's a matter of it being really mundane. Like, at least real sports makes up for the tedium by having real stakes - assuming you care who wins. With sports shounens, there's really two possibilities. They lose and learn an important lesson or they win and the series ends.
Jex
Member
I don't know if anyone would assume that! It's just that sports shows have a tendency to lean in that direction because of the demands of the genre and, if they want to be long running, you're going to have to keep escalating!
Admiral Woofington
Member
Yeah the anime served its purpose, which was to get me interested in the manga. And the manga is amazing. But like you said what's going on right now pales in comparison to just how good it gets. I don't even know if I'll bother watching now until the first true game he plays, just cause I'm curious how they'll adapt the tennis matches.
I'm going to make a broad statement that most sport manga are shonen oriented. In those, especially in shonen action, we tend to have an underdog who grows more powerful through wins and losses. There are also shojo and female oriented sports manga, but I only know of a few from the top of my head and they seem to have focused on drama and romance just as much.
If we didn't have an underdog who gets better, it simply wouldn't be a sports manga imho. We might have a few about a prodigy who learns he still has rivals. But if most sports manga followed real sports that people cared about, it'd involve an upper-tier team who wins/loses by circumstances alone and not by skills.
This is why particularly I like Baby Steps. Not because they're beasts, but later on when everybody is pretty decent the reason somebody loses can be pure coincidence or a faulty maneuver/exploitation of momentary weakness.
AnathemicOne
Banned
Another point to the awesomeness that is Madoka Rebellion!
Colorful Vocabulary
Member
I figure I'd start posting here since 2014 holds an interesting line-up of shows.
I thought I'd give Mahouka a shot since there's been a lot of buzz surrounding it since its announcement.
Mahouka 1
Not gonna lie, I have no idea what's going on. I guess I must not have been paying very good attention. Something about a lack of supplies and then WW3? Then we got this badass guy with a sister complex, who goes undercover, or something, at the magical school of segregation. Did they give a reason why he's keeping on the down low? I think I missed it. Anyway, there's some fodder character introductions, more weed talk, and some fancy gizmos were shown off. That's really all I got out of it.
Based off this first episode I've got some mixed feelings about how this show will be. It looks pretty though. Perhaps it'll get better later on. Besides, first episodes rarely seem to do shows justice. I'll keep an open mind and continue watching.
I thought I'd give Mahouka a shot since there's been a lot of buzz surrounding it since its announcement.
Mahouka 1
Not gonna lie, I have no idea what's going on. I guess I must not have been paying very good attention. Something about a lack of supplies and then WW3? Then we got this badass guy with a sister complex, who goes undercover, or something, at the magical school of segregation. Did they give a reason why he's keeping on the down low? I think I missed it. Anyway, there's some fodder character introductions, more weed talk, and some fancy gizmos were shown off. That's really all I got out of it.
Based off this first episode I've got some mixed feelings about how this show will be. It looks pretty though. Perhaps it'll get better later on. Besides, first episodes rarely seem to do shows justice. I'll keep an open mind and continue watching.
killer rin
Member
One Week Friends 2
You know, I was totally expecting her 'curse' to erase the diary, or toss it in a ditch somewhere and rip off the paper from the door. I'm also thinking that sometime during this show, something is going to happen to that diary and cause a major strife.
You know, I was totally expecting her 'curse' to erase the diary, or toss it in a ditch somewhere and rip off the paper from the door. I'm also thinking that sometime during this show, something is going to happen to that diary and cause a major strife.
She can just pull a Memento and write on herself!
Basileus777
Member
That's pretty much a given. I'm expecting she will lose the diary somehow. Hopefully this doesn't get too heavy with the drama, it's enjoyable as a lighthearted show. I'd prefer to avoid amnesia angst.
Well the stakes come from the characters. If the show is successful at making you care about them, then the stakes become meaningful enough. It's not any different from any other genre in that regard. At least with sports there is a chance they will lose, the antagonists almost never prevail anywhere else.
Admiral Woofington
Member
Most buzz surrounding Mahouka, at least in GAF, has been negative. GAF doesn't tend to settle as a whole for otaku-pandering material. Outside of GAF I've noticed that there are more younger viewers who don't mind the drop in quality in writing if it means cool visuals and something that appeals to them. SAO appealed to many for self-inserting fantasies, and it's really damn popular. AoT appealed to many for their grim-dark love and action hunger. Mahouka will appeal to people who want an unbeatable gary stu. Even more than SAO.
LINDA. LINDAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA. I NEED LINDAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Spice and Wolf 7
It's neat to see how a series can take very boring activities and turn them into something interesting and enjoyable to watch. I mean exchanging coin is boring as hell and it's not like Lawrence even used his merchant skills for any trickery, they literally just went to exchange gold coins for silver ones. And then the second half of the episode was dedicated to buying clothes. However through great use of music that can create excitements for the idea of changing into new clothes, and characterization, the episode ended up being a good one.
firehawk12
Subete no aware
It's not really just anime though, all sports stories have the same arcs. The thing is, sports anime tend to focus so much on the sport to the detriment of the characters. Or the characters are so stock and stuck in their defined box that they aren't really interesting in the long term (Chihaya in Chihayafuru comes immediately to mind).
Like, there was a thread about the 25th anniversary of Major League. It's a classic baseball film about a group of losers coming together to unexpectedly win the pennant and save the team.
Mighty Ducks, also about a bunch of losers coming together to beat the big bad evil hockey team to win the tournament (in all three movies lol).
The Longest Yard, The Replacements, A League of Their Own, Friday Night Lights, The Blind Side, and so on. It's a story that is and has been told as long as there have been sports and people writing stories about sports.
The thing is, part of the reason why those stories are sustainable is because the stories last 2 hours, so there isn't time to dillydally. In many cases, there's also something about the characters that makes them more than just men/women who want to play a game. Whether it's because they're retiring soon, or it's a son trying to deal with the death of his father, a country hosting the Rugby World Cup hoping to show the world that blacks and whites can live together, or a kid breaking his arm and being offered a major league contract, there's usually something that allows the character to hook onto a character or characters beyond their enthusiasm.
I don't necessarily dislike sports stories, but most sports anime just don't have that hook. Whether it's because the manga feel the need to draw things out in order to continually put out new chapters or that's just the type of story that Japanese audiences like, I don't know. But very often, they don't have the same intangibles that make sports movies great.
lol
killer rin
Member
Just imagined that and broke out laughing. That would be hilarious to see happen.
Lol, I don't have time to pick up random reading but I'm sure I will anyway because I hate being productive. :<
For anyone who hasn't looked at the first article yet, the images are out of order. It threw me for a loop for a little bit lol.
Do not. Do not. Do not have your first run in with FSN be with the most redundant visual novel I've ever had the displeasure of sitting through, and I've played my share of VNs. Fate Stay Night is a a VN that respects no ones time or intelligence, reiterating the same glossy point time after time within the same scene, then having the nerve to reiterate it again, because you just might not have gotten it the six previous times it went through the talk. And it's not as if it's (if I'm allowed to get really personal here) interesting points of conversation--no; it's usually the same dry world-building exposition regurgitated.
That said; the FSN story as a skeleton, the bare-bones pieces behind all of that, and the scenarios--when they get going--are really good. It's just that neither the VN (ironically enough) nor the first adaptation really make on its promise.
I wasn't a fan of Fate/Zero, the story bored, but I saw that quality was there. I fully expect Ufotable to deliver on something I really enjoy, with the FSN story as a base, and their usual QA in tow.
None of what's there now is worth it. Just wait.
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This season is garbage. I've given The World is still Beautiful (or something like that) a couple episodes, but honestly; I don't even know why. It's boring. And predictable. And kind of stupid.
Baby Steps is the nyquil of shonen romance mangas, and I expect the anime to be no different. There's nothing any director could do to Baby Steps, other than make in not Baby Steps, to make it not an audio/visual sleeping aid. Pass. Hard.
Captain Earth, I see it getting a lot of hype in here, but I took one look at the promotional art and the girl in orange looks like the lost cousin of Angelica from the Rugrats. Pass.
Those are the only ones I've even let cross my mind.
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It's been largely a backlog season for me, since I've actually been largely out of the anime loop for a loooongg while now. Silver Spoon, Noragami (Best BONES show last season, even I have to admit), and Space Dandy being the only recent shows I kept up with.
I finished Hyouka not too long ago (;_
and finished the second season Moyashimon just last night. Hyouka was legit incredible, absolutely incredible. And Moyashimon is my cup of tea to the hilt, so I can't not be biased with that, though the show seemed kind of lazily done throughout. Space Battle Yamoto (or Star Blazers 2199) is next on my list as soon as my blu-ray arrives
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Thats why I like Taisho. Its really short and has a story similar to those classic sports movies.
then this happens
Bahaha, beautiful.
Wait you're watching Ping Pong right? And JoJo of course.
Also you could always work on Gundam Build Fighters from last season!
then this happens
How do yall edit these pictures like that?
And Mushishi! Don't forget Mushishi!
I don't know, I like this season. Jojo, Mushishi, and Ping Pong are all really good so far, and I've got a handful of smaller status shows I'm enjoying. But then I just ignore all the crap that's apparently airing.
firehawk12
Subete no aware
Taishou and even RKB have an easy gimmick - they're girls being discriminated against by boys. So there's a reason why you care about their trials and tribulations and want them to succeed.
Colorful Vocabulary
Member
So I guess I shouldn't expect much from Mahouka? If so, that's okay. I don't mind the pandering either. Even though I may have sounded a bit cynical with my first impressions, I've got guilty pleasures. that is, If you'd even call them "guilty". lol
Basileus777
Member
Claiming that sports anime have bad characters is a pretty lazy generalization. And it doesn't fit with what I've watched at all.
Well, it's just as well since I'd rather get an official localization if it can be helped and the Vita version's still new enough to have SOME hope there short of Aksys shooting it down, and hopefully if Aksys gets it they can fix some of that. I remember seeing people gush about it in the past though, and I'll go with a newer/better anime adaption if that does pan out.
I really can't agree with this as a sports fan. There's a great deal of natural drama and even comedy that comes about from competition that is enjoyable even when you don't have a figurative dog in the fight. Although you are right in that stakes matter. They just don't have to align.
Woah! Yuasa is on Ping Pong? I had no clue. I'll give that one a shot for sure.
Gundam build fighters isn't really me. And I haven't actually finished the last season of JoJo.
And Mushishi! Don't forget Mushishi!
I don't know, I like this season. Jojo, Mushishi, and Ping Pong are all really good so far, and I've got a handful of smaller status shows I'm enjoying. But then I just ignore all the crap that's apparently airing.
Coming clean time:
I've never watched but an episode or two of the 1st Mushishi series. A long time ago. I saw how heralded it was and gave it a shot, but I dunno; it didn't click with me at all, though it's something I should like, knowing myself. I just may not have been in the right place when I first watched it, I dunno. I see the second season is reviewing well too, so it's actually sitting @ the #2 spot on my backlog, starting with the 1st season.
I'm watching a Matsumoto-Yuasa collab before you, lol, what bizzaro world did I fall into.
He's been gone a while, like a soldier returning home from Iraq.
Basileus777
Member
But you often do have a dog in the fight. I don't have any problem with stakes, because good sports anime make you invested in the characters. Firehawk doesn't seem to care for the characters in these shows, so that's where the divergence comes from.
Are we like, the family dogs who still remember him?
Maybe the old neighbors who tells him about what happened.
striferser
Huge Nickleback Fan
What do you think about Cross Game?
firehawk12
Subete no aware
It's not all sports anime, but it's quite a bit of it - particularly the ones that get adapted. And I watched quite a bit of sports anime in the last 4-5 years. There are a few I missed that I thought might be promising (Major, despite the silly premise of having a dad who died playing baseball), but a lot of it focuses on having a similar and mostly uninteresting arc. In anime, there are no class struggles, no race struggles, and almost everyone is straight, so the only real interesting source of angst is gender.
I liked it, but Cross Game has the One Week Friends problem of having an incredibly reality bending twist at the midway point of the series that almost made me drop the show. lol
But I quite liked how it handled the characters and the use of baseball.
The only time I can watch sport for the sake of sport is when I'm interested in learning the rules of a game. But once I get a basic understanding of it, if I don't care about the players/teams, then I can't be assed.
For example, there's a reason why women's sports are just not popular. The people who pay to watch sports just aren't interested in watching women play - for whatever reason - and if it wasn't for Title IX, one would even wonder if women's collegiate sports (and perhaps the WNBA) would even exist in America (beyond gymnastics or figure skating, I suppose).
haha
I have noticed a sizable uptick in Gintama love in here, though. A flower from the ashes.
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^^
Firehawk, give the manga Teppu a read. It's about a girl who takes to mixed martial arts, for the short brush stroke. I think you'll find it avoids everything you think a sports anime/manga to be.
Jex
Member
Yeah they really need to fix that.
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