In which Alice recommends random anime, because she can.
Steins;Gate: Pretty sure a lot of you have already watched this, but ya never know. Sci-fi drama focusing on two enormous dorks a college student/mad scientist (and co.) and his time-travel microwave. Starts off rather slow, but once it gets going, it really gets going. 1 season (24 episodes) and an OVA.
Humanity (Has Declined/Is Declining)/Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita: Surrealist comedy set in a post-apocalyptic world. Focuses on a young (and rather sarcastic) girl known only as "Mediator", a mediator between the UN and a race of permanently smiling fairies/"neo-humans" with a love of sweets. 1 season (12 episodes) and 6 shorts.
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (2012): Extremely faithful adaptation of the classic fighting manga, covering the first two parts. Action! Drama! Vampires! Band references! Homoeroticism! Snazzy hats! Unfortunately, however, it was made on a budget that couldn't afford shoestrings. 1 season (26 episodes), with the 3rd part getting its own adapatation that starts airing this week.
Haibane Renmei: Slice of life focusing on a group of haibane (people with wings and halos) living on the outskirts of a small town surrounded by walls. Incredibly laid back and slow paced for the most part, but that's not a bad thing in this case. 1 season (13 episodes).
Daily Lives of Highschool Boys/"Nichibros": A comedy that is essentially a more down to earth version of Nichijou, which as the name suggests, focuses on a (couple of) group of young boys. Uses a skit format, thanks to being an adaptation of a 4koma. 1 season (12 episodes).
Chihayafuru: Josei/sports drama focusing on a teenage girl, her love of the card game karuta, and her friends. Knowledge of karuta isn't required to understand the show, and the character writing is really what makes it. 2 seasons (25 episodes each.)
So Madoka Magica: Rebellion. Holy crap that was an amazing movie whose ending was cut off and then replaced with the ending of a completely different anime. I'm not sure if I like
Spoiler:
the whole "devil Homura" thing.
On the other hand, had they gone with Urobuchi's original ending, it might've felt more like an encore than it already was. I dunno.
Really, people are putting way too much emphasis on the "original ending" Urobuchi mentioned - it's really more of a first outline of an ending before even writing the first draft of the film.
And I do think the ending we got does fit thematically with the series in its own way, if you see it as sort of a darker parallel to the series' ending.
I'll be interested what the rest of you guys think of it when I stream the film for Anime Night after we're done with Samurai Champloo~
Mamoru, a hikikomori, is browsing around the internet when he stumbles on a trailer for a new series debuting in the fall. The voice of the main character sounds familiar… and he realizes it’s his SISTER! The more he watches, the more he learns about the show - it’s about incest, and her acting sounds very convincing!!!
When she arrives home that night, Mamoru isn’t sure what to do. What do their parents think? Do they even know? Will they find out? And why is she able to act the part SO WELL?
Find out in 2014’s newest smash-hit light novel series, “My Little Sister Can’t Be In This Shitty Incest Anime!”
I honestly cannot believe that this is a thing now. That used to be serious niche fetish porn stuff, and now there's at least one every season, if not as many as three...
Mamoru, a hikikomori, is browsing around the internet when he stumbles on a trailer for a new series debuting in the fall. The voice of the main character sounds familiar… and he realizes it’s his SISTER! The more he watches, the more he learns about the show - it’s about incest, and her acting sounds very convincing!!!
When she arrives home that night, Mamoru isn’t sure what to do. What do their parents think? Do they even know? Will they find out? And why is she able to act the part SO WELL?
Find out in 2014’s newest smash-hit light novel series, “My Little Sister Can’t Be In This Shitty Incest Anime!”
You say that, but they are probably trying to get that made right now.
^^ Yeah, but it tends to be kind of paedolicious in a lot of these shows because the male lead is high school age and the sister is generally a few years younger. And it's usually tied to the whole moe infantilisation thing. Pretty skeevy.
Moe tends to assume things about young children that are, well, just plain wrong. In particular, it seems to assume they're not children, but small adults acting like children. I don't think I need to elaborate on how dangerous that can be.
I guess it's partially because of the people who really do slobber over this stuff, and that for every relatively innocuous series like Azumanga Daioh or Lucky*Star, there's a Boku no Pico or a KnJ (which, if there is anything good in the world, has not been adapted into an anime...) lurking out there someplace.
And then you have what are ostensibly grown women or teenage girls acting like either stereotypes of what children are like or, to put it bluntly, pets that talk...
^^ I'm talking about stuff like Air or Kanon. Lucky Star is a reference-gag comedy that happens to incorporate broadly "moe" concepts as fanservice in the non-sexual sense (i.e. for the amusement of those who know what the tropes are).
I guess it's partially because of the people who really do slobber over this stuff, and that for every relatively innocuous series like Azumanga Daioh or Lucky*Star, there's a Boku no Pico or a KnJ (which, if there is anything good in the world, has not been adapted into an anime...) lurking out there someplace.
I wouldn't put it like that for a couple of reasons.
Firstly, as noted above, referencing a concept for the sake of humour or incidentally fitting into a trope associated with something is not the same as being of that thing.
Secondly, lolicon, while closely related to the skeevier side of moe, is waaaaay more niche and extreme than the vast majority of even the worst of that stuff. The latter is subtext, nodding and winking; the former is just, well, what it is.
Thirdly, I wouldn't say that the characters in either of the first two shows are sexualised, although some of the characters are clearly idealised to fit archetypes (Lucky Star) or exaggerated for humour (Azumanga Daioh).
Finally and most mildly, I kind of resent resent the comparison between Azumanga Daioh and Lucky Star. It's really overused and doesn't do either any favours. It also just doesn't work on close scrutiny. It's like comparing Saved By The Bell and Freaks And Geeks. Or something.
Well, I've often heard them described in the same breath, so I've been kind of sloppy about that in the past. I haven't seen Lucky*Star, but Azumanga Daioh is actually pretty good.
Also...yeah, Air and Kanon. Two more shows I haven't seen, but heard about. I think it says a lot that at least Kanon is based on an H-game...
Azumanga Daioh was the show that actually got me to watch more anime in the first place. It's just really fun and wacky in a way that doesn't feel hideously forced.
Kanon is the "uguu~"one. It's... I haven't really watched it, but I've seen enough to be seriously put off. Same goes for Elfen Lied, which is like the moe fetish thing crossed with violent misery porn.
Oh, jeez, the verbal tic is one thing, but...this girl has no brain. And apparently being clumsy and baby-like is supposed to be attractive somehow? People used to obsess about the Rozen Maiden dolls and their verbal tics, but at least they had personalities beyond "I'm a puppy dog that happens to look like a human woman"...
And then you have what are ostensibly grown women or teenage girls acting like either stereotypes of what children are like or, to put it bluntly, pets that talk...
^^ I'm talking about stuff like Air or Kanon. Lucky Star is a reference-gag comedy that happens to incorporate broadly "moe" concepts as fanservice in the non-sexual sense (i.e. for the amusement of those who know what the tropes are).
I don't think I've ever actually heard of either of those.
I guess it's partially because of the people who really do slobber over this stuff, and that for every relatively innocuous series like Azumanga Daioh or Lucky*Star, there's a Boku no Pico or a KnJ (which, if there is anything good in the world, has not been adapted into an anime...) lurking out there someplace.
I wouldn't put it like that for a couple of reasons.
Firstly, as noted above, referencing a concept for the sake of humour or incidentally fitting into a trope associated with something is not the same as being of that thing.
Secondly, lolicon, while closely related to the skeevier side of moe, is waaaaay more niche and extreme than the vast majority of even the worst of that stuff. The latter is subtext, nodding and winking; the former is just, well, what it is.
Thirdly, I wouldn't say that the characters in either of the first two shows are sexualised, although some of the characters are clearly idealised to fit archetypes (Lucky Star) or exaggerated for humour (Azumanga Daioh).
Finally and most mildly, I kind of resent resent the comparison between Azumanga Daioh and Lucky Star. It's really overused and doesn't do either any favours. It also just doesn't work on close scrutiny. It's like comparing Saved By The Bell and Freaks And Geeks. Or something.
I think they're compared so often because they're sort of the two founding stones for the "schoolgirl sitcom" genre. More recent examples being things like Yuyushiki, which incidentally, you should watch if you liked AzuDaioh.
Not that there weren't other schoolgirl sitcom shows before them but I think those were the first two to really gain any popularity and traction.
Oh, jeez, the verbal tic is one thing, but...this girl has no brain. And apparently being clumsy and baby-like is supposed to be attractive somehow? People used to obsess about the Rozen Maiden dolls and their verbal tics, but at least they had personalities beyond "I'm a puppy dog that happens to look like a human woman"...
Yup. It's the desire to have a living sex doll posing as a desire to protect something hapless. Skeevy.
I'll be honest, I feel like you're misrepresenting the Key works (Clannad, Air, Kanon, Planetarian etc.) here. If they're known for anything, it's for being incredibly depressing. (There's actually a Japanese term for them, "Utsuge/鬱ゲ" (lit. "depressing game")). And it should be noted that Air and Kanon in particular were made before the moe concept really came into the mainstream, being made in 1999 and 2000.
I'll be honest, I feel like you're misrepresenting the Key works (Clannad, Air, Kanon, Planetarian etc.) here. If they're known for anything, it's for being incredibly depressing. (There's actually a Japanese term for them, "Utsuge/鬱ゲ" (lit. "depressing game")). And it should be noted that Air and Kanon in particular were made before the moe concept really came into the mainstream, being made in 1999 and 2000.
Eh, being depressing doesn't keep those two in particular from being fetishistic and creepy in the subtext; if anything, that whole "I MUST PROTECT HER" thing has serious sexist overtones a lot of the time. I'm talking specifically about stuff that infantilises the characters through the character writing, art and emotional milieu, not just stuff that jerks tears and has cutesy art. I mean, Clannad seems pretty benign, if not super deep, but Kanon? Really?
Also, if anything, pioneering such an insidious concept only makes matters worse...
for all i know the show might be good but i can't seem to get past that
The only artist who I can think of in that particular school of cutesy character design whose work I actually like rather than dislike or tolerate is probably Ume Aoki, who can be genuinely charming. But otherwise... eh.
Comments
Steins;Gate: Pretty sure a lot of you have already watched this, but ya never know. Sci-fi drama focusing on two enormous dorks a college student/mad scientist (and co.) and his time-travel microwave. Starts off rather slow, but once it gets going, it really gets going. 1 season (24 episodes) and an OVA.
Humanity (Has Declined/Is Declining)/Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita: Surrealist comedy set in a post-apocalyptic world. Focuses on a young (and rather sarcastic) girl known only as "Mediator", a mediator between the UN and a race of permanently smiling fairies/"neo-humans" with a love of sweets. 1 season (12 episodes) and 6 shorts.
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (2012): Extremely faithful adaptation of the classic fighting manga, covering the first two parts. Action! Drama! Vampires! Band references! Homoeroticism! Snazzy hats! Unfortunately, however, it was made on a budget that couldn't afford shoestrings. 1 season (26 episodes), with the 3rd part getting its own adapatation that starts airing this week.
Haibane Renmei: Slice of life focusing on a group of haibane (people with wings and halos) living on the outskirts of a small town surrounded by walls. Incredibly laid back and slow paced for the most part, but that's not a bad thing in this case. 1 season (13 episodes).
Daily Lives of Highschool Boys/"Nichibros": A comedy that is essentially a more down to earth version of Nichijou, which as the name suggests, focuses on a (couple of) group of young boys. Uses a skit format, thanks to being an adaptation of a 4koma. 1 season (12 episodes).
Chihayafuru: Josei/sports drama focusing on a teenage girl, her love of the card game karuta, and her friends. Knowledge of karuta isn't required to understand the show, and the character writing is really what makes it. 2 seasons (25 episodes each.)
Honestly it was kinda cool seeing how the team doing JJBA worked with such a low budget
at one point she gets an anime because realism and it's about incest or whatever
don't judge me (judge me)
I just consider something like Lucky*Star a comedy and don't understand why it's assumed I want to fuck the characters because I watch it.
Not that there weren't other schoolgirl sitcom shows before them but I think those were the first two to really gain any popularity and traction.
Since I cannot find it, here is a gif from the OP combined with the ED song.
for all i know the show might be good but i can't seem to get past that