Let's talk anime.

Baron Of Hell wrote:

Just started Fate/Extra Last Encore which isn't good so far but is still interesting.

Yeah, it’s my least favorite of the Fate/ anime so far. They tried to do something different than the source, which made for both some interesting and disappointing surprises, but really didn’t improve the series.

Baron Of Hell wrote:

In every Fate series there is at least one person with a crazy outfit. This time Saber got the crazy outfit with a dress that has a front window to show the legs and mini back window to show her butt. Reminds me of the time Harley asked Power Girl why does she has boob window in her costume.

It is not see-through..

Baron Of Hell wrote:

Besides not liking Saber's outfit I also don't dig her voice actress or personality this time around. Maybe she'll grown on me.

Yeah. She won’t be to everyone’s liking. I persoanally like her, but I’ve spent quite a bit more time with the character than someone just starting out on the anime.

What does bug me is that I’m so familiar with how she sounds that I can’t her anyone but her whenever Cardinal speaks in the current season of SAO.

In other opinions, last night I went to the theater to see I Want to Eat Your Pancreases. It was very good. I can’t believe the silly title was such an important, meaningful, and emotional part of the movie! I recommend seeing it if you don’t mind a bit of a romantic tear jerker.

Same goes for the anime I finally saw in the theaters last week, A Silent Voice. It’s a couple years old now, and I had missed it the first time it was shown, despite wanting to see it since the first trailers were released. I felt it was the more powerful of the two, probably because I felt more attached to the characters.

After those two, I’m kind of glad my next anime film, Fate/Stay Night [Heaven’s Feel] II. lost butterfly, should lean more towards the action side of things. Course these are characters I’ve loved for quite some time (last month marked the 15th anniversary of the first Fate/ game), so it really depends on what they do to them.

I finished up Gundam Unicorn last night. I enjoyed it quite a bit! Got into some over-the-top over-powered anime nonsense at the end, but I'd actually go back and rewatch this show, I think. I can see why people were talking about it in 2010. It kind of makes me interested in going back and rewatching the original Gundam.

If you got Netflix and never got to see it before, I'd highly recommend it.

ccesarano wrote:

Oh, here we go. You want to feel old? My niece was asking me for anime recommendations off Hulu and Netflix. "How about Cowboy Bebop?" I said. "What's that?" she asked.

It's a thing that Netflix is making.

Evidently it's Anime Season again for me because I've been watching stuff on Netflix quite a bit.

I watched the third Godzilla film and, yeah, it's Gen Urobuchi alright. What's that? A single sliver of hope to have you feeling good about things? Let me crush that with this massive hammer of nihilism. I'm a bit disappointed that the 3D animation didn't allow for them to do some impressive monster mashing in any of the films, instead relying purely on impressive camera angles to give the otherwise stiff Godzilla a greater sense of movement and mobility. Whatever technical or budgetary limitations were in effect, it was certainly fun, but it was primarily engrossing for the story.

Which... I mean, I'm getting the feeling Gen Urobuchi has a distinct style, and thus the best way to describe it is Gen Urobuchi Presents: Godzilla. If you're down for philosophical discussions within an interesting context that ultimately break down into nihilism and Nietzche's "those who fight monsters" quote, then it's a trio of movies just for you. If you want a more traditional Godzilla, you're out of luck. Nevertheless, creative use of familiar icons and even if all of Urobuchi's work comes down to the same things, I like his style. In fact, I may even rewatch Fate/Zero next.


I also watched Hi Score Girl throughout the week with my brother, and the both of us were surprisingly engrossed. I told a friend of mine at MAGFest that no one does romance like the Japanese, and I feel like Hi Score Girl is a perfect testament to this.

Before I go into spoiler tag territory, I want to note an interesting device I began to notice while watching. Whenever Ono is the primary girl of interest, the narration is purely from the perspective of Haruo. Whenever Hidaka is the primarily girl of interest, the narration is from her perspective. There are only a few moments they change this up, and I feel those moments are for very intentional purposes. A lot of the story is about trying to figure out what's going on inside someone's head, but there's enough information presented for members of the audience to all figure it out.

Which is what, I think, allows this show to work so well. I wouldn't agree with LarryC in calling it a "harem", though it's certainly a love triangle. However, I also define harem by having uninteresting protagonists, and while Haruo certainly makes a rough first impression, over time I think he makes a stronger one. Simultaneously, I can see and understand why the women in question would be interested in him, specifically. So this isn't much like Twilight at all, where characters like each other because the author dictated it be so.

...I mean... I mean that's the reality of any fiction, but the characters feel real enough that you can logically comprehend why the girls have all developed feelings for the kid.

Now then, spoiler-y thoughts.

Spoiler:

I suppose the reason I like Haruo is because he has clearly defined flaws, which is already a one-up on most protagonists of harem or otherwise wish-fulfillment anime. Perhaps he's more common than I'm aware, but the core of the character is that he owns up to the expected degeneracy society has deemed gamers to be. He is passionate about the medium, but he is also quite self-absorbed. It causes him to struggle to understand or see the feelings of others and, as it turns out, himself. However, there are also many instances where it is clear that he is self-absorbed but not selfish. One of the key examples is actually the final episode, where he up front offers to lend his Sega Saturn to Hidaka as she is lending him her PlayStation. There are other smaller moments, some that are blink and you'll miss (such as him handing Hidaka some popcorn before immediately engulfing the rest in a distracted rage (I mean, it doesn't sound polite or considerate, but given the context and his one track mind it's amazing he remembered she was there at all)).

So why would a girl like Ono be interested in Haruo? That they're both gamers is the superficial reasoning, but he's also the only person in her life that treats her like a regular human being. He doesn't care about her status, and though he lightly mocks her for being in "such a degenerate place" as an arcade at first, he's far more interested in discussing their shared hobby. He's the one person in the world that she can have a normal relationship with. He is not bothered by or intimidated by her status, and he doesn't want to impress her even when they're competing. Not like others wish to impress her, at least.

What's perhaps most interesting is that, despite her lack of speech, he's also the only person that truly understands her (well, except for the driver as it turns out). Haruo might be bone-headed and self-absorbed, but he's still capable of ascertaining her way of thinking. This means he's the only person that actually listens to her.

It's easy to understand, then, why she'd have the feelings for him that she does.

So how about Hidaka? Well, it's a lot easier to figure that out since she's narrating a lot of the time. She's never felt really passionate about anything before. She's drawn to Haruo's passion more than she is his passion for games specifically. However, once again he's willing to treat Hidaka as a person. He tries to encourage her to play as if it's nothing unusual. He doesn't treat her differently because she doesn't play many games, and his passion ultimately sparks her own interest in games.

But there's that decision to swap narrators I mentioned earlier. We think we have an understanding of Haruo, but it isn't until we're in his perspective that we understand his blindness to Hidaka's affection is caused by his focus on seeing Ono again one day. The one time we don't get to experience what's going on in Hidaka's head is when they've all become freshmen and her hair has grown out. However, that's because we already have enough information about Hidaka to understand ourselves. Instead, it's all about understanding Haruo's own thoughts and that his complete focus on Ono and her skill level prevents him from understanding Hidaka's motives.

Sometimes I feel like I'm stating the obvious since much is said in the show itself, but I recall as we watched telling my brother that Hidaka refuses each of Haruo's challenges because, once he has closed the gap and beaten her, she'll practically be invisible to him. This turns out to be the premise of the cliffhanger, of course, but that I figured that out in the moment without the characters saying it outright goes to show how fully developed each one is.

Which is why it's painful to watch a love triangle like this and know it's going to end with someone getting hurt.

It's amusing to me that one of my problems with the show at first was the constant narration. As it turns out, the narration is not only a useful device, but doesn't actually tell you everything. It just seems that way for the first episode or two.

I also grew to appreciate some of the gaming throwback. It became clear over time that this was a creation that loved the old stuff, but was not relying on it as heavily as I first thought. Video games may be the gimmick to tell an otherwise classic love triangle story, but that story is told well. In fact, when you think about it, these characters actually try to do a lot of their communication through the games themselves.

Spoiler:

Ono using friendly-fire when she's not physically attacking Haruo, for example. Hidaka's efforts to impress Haruo by beating him in games. Hidaka only finding the courage to ask Ono what her feelings are for Haruo while they play Virtua Cop. Be it helping them find the words or communicating what they can't in words, video games are a tool for these characters to communicate in their own way.

I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this. I have no idea if Netflix is going to get the three OVA episodes or how, but I hope they provide them in some fashion and not just leave everyone hanging.

So, yeah, I recommend Hi Score Girl.

Well. My first proper harem anime was Love Hina, and in that one, the protagonist was Keitaro whose primary defining trait was that he was a total failure in nearly every way. His redeeming qualities were that he doesn't give up, and that he is cheerful in the face of adversity that would and has crushed the life out of many Japanese.

To be fair, Keitaro does become super OP about halfway into the manga, but by that time, Narusegawa was practically the primary protagonist anyway.

Y'know, for some reason whenever people mention Love Hina! I think of the woman from Ah! My Goddess instead.

These were not anime that were on my radar. I think the first harem anime I saw was Ranma 1/2, and I viewed it as more of a fighting anime with a cat's cradle of love connections.

Dubbed Attack on Titan is terrible.
I watched season 1 subtitled and have been itching to watch season 2. Unfortunately the only way I can watch is Adult Swim on demand which is dubbed. I can't make it past the 4th episode

I got around to starting Mob Pyscho 100 to keep my language skills fresh now that I'm not working in a Japanese language environment anymore, and it did a good job reawakening those old fiery "hell yeah" feelings the way a good shonen show does, minus a decent amount of the anime bullsh*t that led me to stop watching the stuff in the first place.

I figured it would be good as I liked One Punch Man by the same dude. Suspicions confirmed.

In case anyone does not already own this seminal series, Amazon has Cowboy Bebop (Digital) for $10. As for me, I now own it in three different formats.

I fired up Boruto this weekend. I'd been avoiding it, but thought I'd give it a chance. Once again, Prozd has a video to help me out in explaining why it is now a hard pass for me.

Bfgp wrote:

IMO Kaguya-sama is a must watch series airing this season.

Oh my goodness this show is amazing.

Hey, nice. Retro anime discussion. When I think harem anime, my favorite is Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki (the original OVA series). The 3rd season that came out a few years ago was...interesting. I'm glad they tried to explore the crazy universe they left the viewers with but I'm not entirely sure I like the direction it took.

Ranma 1/2 was the first anime series I started watching outside of RobotTech and Voltron. One of my favorites back from college.

Oh, and since I'm perpetually years late to the party, I'm 139 episodes into Bleach and am still enjoying it a lot.

Don't recall if I said anything about Broly. Oh well, I only send a funny dubbing of the original. Though the original is probably funny enough on its own.

The movie was ok. I liked the look and fights were cool. If you like dragon ball you'll probably like it. The one thing I didn't care for is something I don't like in general with dragon ball. I don't like how Broly didn't work for his powers. One of the best things about dragon ball is watching characters master their abilities and then pulling them off later. Seeing duds using the power without putting in the work is meh. In the tv show you have kids and babies going super saiyan. If it was that easy why wasn't planet vegeta cheese filled with them.

Anyway its a ok movie. See in theaters if you can. It was playing down the street from lucky enough and for some reason the full movie is on youtube. I mean like a perfect 1080p copy. I have no enough why youtube hasn't banned the guy and kicked him off.

I've heard a lot of people speak positively about the film. I recall liking the original Broly a lot but I cannot remember if it was for any reason more sophisticated than "He's so strong yo!" I get the feeling now that he's kind of like, the Brock Lesnar of DBZ.

I think that comparison is accurate...

ZombieCoyote wrote:

Oh, and since I'm perpetually years late to the party, I'm 139 episodes into Bleach and am still enjoying it a lot.

How far in is that again? For the second time I reached the part when Ichigo and company get into the castle of Hueco Mundo and I just gave up. Granted, this viewing I skipped right on past the Pseudo-Vampires filler, which is funny because the only thing you miss out on are the three stuffed animal characters and why they're around in the first place. Moreover, you can actually tell they probably don't appear in the comic. If you were to remove them from every fight they take part in, it would feel like nothing in the battle really changed at all.

Speaking of older anime, though, I watched a few more episodes of Fist of the North Star on Crunchyroll. Even though the animation is clearly not as smooth as modern anime, I appreciate the detail that goes into the different frames. The art style is clearly based around trying to draw people, rather than trying to draw anime specifically. Makes it somewhat refreshing.

Fist of the Northstar was the first anime I seen. I watched it in Japanese in anime club. We had one guy that spoke Japanese that translated for use. Only seen the movie. Haven't watched the OVA.

Baron Of Hell wrote:

Fist of the Northstar was the first anime I seen. I watched it in Japanese in anime club. We had one guy that spoke Japanese that translated for use. Only seen the movie. Haven't watched the OVA.

Me, too! Sunday nights on Channel 62, they had a Japanimation block and as I was flipping past, I saw an oil tanker stuck through a skyscraper and stopped. Thus began my (heavily pixelated) viewing of my first anime.

ccesarano wrote:

How far in is that again? For the second time I reached the part when Ichigo and company get into the castle of Hueco Mundo and I just gave up. Granted, this viewing I skipped right on past the Pseudo-Vampires filler, which is funny because the only thing you miss out on are the three stuffed animal characters and why they're around in the first place. Moreover, you can actually tell they probably don't appear in the comic. If you were to remove them from every fight they take part in, it would feel like nothing in the battle really changed at all.

I'm not as far as that but I'm probably close? I don't know since this is my first viewing. Ichigo is still training and the other Shinigami are having adventures with random people in the real world. I just finished the episode where the 3 rogue arrancar who stole a fake gem from Aizen just got taken out. That was one fight where the three modified souls actually helped Renji at the end. Without them he probably wouldn't have won. Otherwise, yeah, they're basically cheerleaders.

ccesarano wrote:

Evidently it's Anime Season again for me because I've been watching stuff on Netflix quite a bit.

I watched the third Godzilla film and, yeah, it's Gen Urobuchi alright. What's that? A single sliver of hope to have you feeling good about things? Let me crush that with this massive hammer of nihilism. I'm a bit disappointed that the 3D animation didn't allow for them to do some impressive monster mashing in any of the films, instead relying purely on impressive camera angles to give the otherwise stiff Godzilla a greater sense of movement and mobility. Whatever technical or budgetary limitations were in effect, it was certainly fun, but it was primarily engrossing for the story.

Which... I mean, I'm getting the feeling Gen Urobuchi has a distinct style, and thus the best way to describe it is Gen Urobuchi Presents: Godzilla. If you're down for philosophical discussions within an interesting context that ultimately break down into nihilism and Nietzche's "those who fight monsters" quote, then it's a trio of movies just for you. If you want a more traditional Godzilla, you're out of luck. Nevertheless, creative use of familiar icons and even if all of Urobuchi's work comes down to the same things, I like his style. In fact, I may even rewatch Fate/Zero next.

That trilogy of movies was such a waste of time for me. A bunch of uninteresting philosophical mumbo jumbo. Sometimes simpler is best.

Why? Just why?

The Your Name Remake Just Landed a Spider-Man Director

Marc Webb, director of two Amazing Spider-Man movies as well as the whimsical 500 Days of Summer, has been hired by J.J. Abrams, Bad Robot and Paramount to direct the live-action remake of Makoto Shinkai’s masterpiece, Your Name.
In this reimagined version, a young Native American woman living in a rural area and a young man from Chicago discover they are magically and intermittently swapping bodies. When a disaster threatens to upend their lives, they must journey to meet and save their worlds.

I loved the movie so this makes no sense to me and as Americans we have a lot of baggage around Native Americans so I can't think of much dumber than what they are doing.

I look forward to seeing it bomb.

I started Hero Mask tonight. Only the first episode, but I like the aesthetic and style of it. Looking forward to more.

I, uh... have managed to uncover more information regarding Hi Score Girl and I desperately hope it can get a second season. This is a really good story, and while I know it's technically not "the same thing", I feel like this puts the anime Gamers to such massive shame.

On a whim I purchased a manga called Wotakoi: Love is Hard For an Otaku. It evidently originally started as a webcomic in Japan, and then got picked up for legit publishing. I read the first volume and I... don't know how I feel about it! I'll at least say I like the art style. I have a feeling this is by a woman and aimed at women. The general idea is a Fujoshi Otaku originally tried to conceal her Otaku tendencies but has had bad experiences with relationships. Her childhood friend and openly Otaku co-worker, who actually has feeling for her, basically proposes that they enter a relationship. And... they do! And from then on it's basically a matter of Otaku working through relationship troubles, but something about it feels... I dunno.

I feel like, however, this would likely appeal to female gamers and anime fans in ways that Genshiken and Hi Score Girl appeal to me. It's got a lot of reference to games and anime that should appeal to folks in their 20's to 30's, and certainly seems like it simultaneously wants to be light-hearted and yet challenging still. I'm just not really sure how much connection I have to the different characters.

So maybe check it out if you'd like. I've got volume two to read (the book I got is evidently two tankoban combined), and from there I'll decide if I want to keep reading or not.

Wotokoi has already been adapted into an anime which is available to watch on Amazon.

I liked the Wotokoi anime a bunch, but then I'm weird that way. I watched Free as well, and that's adamantly a fujoshi-aimed show, moreso than Yuri on Ice.

Ironically, I find Seinen and Josei works - adult works - to actually be aimed at adult audiences, so they have sensibilities and aesthetics that would appeal to older audiences.

Middcore wrote:

Wotokoi has already been adapted into an anime which is available to watch on Amazon.

Huh. I never seen it mentioned or advertised. Then again, no one in here seems to be bringing up much of what Netflix and Amazon have, it's all about the latest season on Crunchyroll, and it's reaching the point where I don't think I'd be too heart broken if I dropped my Crunchyroll subscription.

Well, guess when I'm done with volume two I'll give the Amazon adaptation a whirl.

The Wotakoi anime is quite enjoyable and I think it actually promotes a lot of positive ideas about relationships, although I have misgivings about some viewers with less experience in relationships seeing the way the secondary couple treats each other as a model.

Of all things YouTube recommended a compilation of moments from an anime called One Outs. I watched the whole video thinking the main character was actually the villain the good guys were going to overcome in the show. It's great, it's basically Akagi the gambler but if he was a pitcher instead. It has such a different feel from normal sports anime. Wound up watching all of it through the compilations on YouTube.

I liked wotakoi. There's a lot of apparent stigma in the whole Otaki/fujoshi thing, it came across as a lighter version of Genshiken.

It's funny you say that, because Genshiken Nidaime presents a far more confrontational separation between Fujoshi and Otaku, with the younger Fujoshi looking negatively upon the Otaku characters. The prior generation didn't seem to have that identity disparity, nor does it seem present in Wotakoi. Just seems a curiosity to me.

Even divorced from that angle, I think what keeps me from loving Wotakoi is the fact that it doesn't seem to have a narrative intent behind it, if that makes sense. Having... discovered more of Hi Score Girl's narrative, and having read through all of Genshiken, I feel like each of those stories is specifically trying to say or present something. Wotakoi feels like it's basically "comfort food", so to speak.

But it's comfort food I'm growing to enjoy, so I might get that second volume after all. I'll probably check out the anime version on Amazon first, though.

I didn't get that sense from Nidaime, though. Sasahara doesn't make much of an appearance in there, but of course he's Oguie's boyfriend so he's just considered beyond the reach of any of the younger fujoshi characters. He isn't just Oguie's boyfriend, but he's also a consistently employed editor, so he's not that far removed from the revered "salaryman" figure, and yet retains his otaku sensibilities and cred. He's basically best boy at that point. Madarame is, well, he's the central romantic interest in Nidaime, so of course they all literally love him. The only otaku that's actually hated by the new Genshiken is Kuchiki, because he's obnoxious and offensive; and to be honest, I'd hate him, too.

If you're primarily focusing on the first generation characters then sure, but there are a lot of times where Yajima and Yosh*take look at Madarame and company with a negative attitude towards their "Otaku" nature. They seem to view themselves as Fujoshi exclusively, as if that's something separate from what it means to be an Otaku. Ogiue and Ohno don't have that attitude themselves, and even if you look back at when Ogiue hated "Otaku", it was largely a self-denial thing rather than a legit hatred.

It could just have been Yosh*take and Yajima, but given they're such large personalities in Nidaime and are focused on... mentoring? Hato, it could come off that their distaste for Madarame's conversations with other male Otaku feel more representational than character-based. Basically, once Madarame has someone he's talking directors and production with, they tune out and get bored and address it as "lame" or "filthy" Otaku stuff, then jump right into figuring out whose penis goes into whose butt.

While Wotakoi doesn't have the same inside baseball talk the characters of Genshiken engaged in, Fujoshi seems to be treated purely as a subset of Otaku rather than a separate entity as Yajima and Yosh*take treated it.

Hm. Well, I'm not Japanese so I can't say either way, but my take on it was that in Wotakoi, all the people in it are adults and having had similar experiences in being ostracized, their outlier interests are bonding rather than divisive. Narumi is the heroine, of course, but the primary love interest here is Nifuji, and his character as an otaku is definitively played as a positive, since he not only manages it effectively enough to be a productive member of society, but also because he's really rather flawless any other way. He's a fantastic gamer, and he's considerate enough to help Narumi farm on Monster Hunter, but assertive enough to defend his boundaries against his brother's intrusions.

As an otaku, he doesn't even try to hide it, not because he's hopeless at it like Madarame, but because he's so self-assured and self-confident that he genuinely doesn't give a F what anyone else thinks about how he spends his free time. That's sexy, not a turn-off. And he lives by himself in a spotless apartment. Man, how perfect can you be?

Yajima and Yosh*take do tune out when the boys start talking about "lame otaku stuff," but that sounds to me like they're simply not interested in the material, not that they view themselves as being superior. "Filthy" is just because a lot of it is sexy fanservice, and that's how it usually coded, though at least Yajima is self-aware enough to know that she has absolutely no leg to stand on if she were to be honestly judgmental about it the way Saki was. So my impression is that it's largely a lack of interest in the subject, which is understandable. Do note that they're also similarly uninterested when Yosh*take goes all-in on her historical mania.