Also, I love how Jaeha's solution to every social problem is basically "flirt with anyone and anything regardless of gender or stated orientation."
Undertale: The Animation
Sort of. Although Yun is the androgynous one and he's a recovering misanthrope and... kind of reminds me of the beau, weirdly enough.
So. Finished the first season. The introduction of Zeno was a bit weird but it's definitely supposed to be in part: He literally just shows up because he's hungry. That's not even a spoiler, because it just happens. Alas, this happens in the *last episode* so there's no chance to develop his character, despite the fact that he leaves one curious impression. But hey, the new OVA is his arc, and apparently it might have been spun off because, people who've read the manga have said, it's violent enough that it would have pushed the whole show to a later broadcast slot. We're talking X-in-full-tragic-pomp levels of gory here. Soooo that's a thing! If it's online yet I will watch it tomorrow. ;w;
So I finally got around to finishing the Prison School anime on a whim. It was fun! The censoring was admittedly bothersome, mainly due to how upfront and in your face it was (as the series is wont to be), but it didn't get in the way too much. Still super raunchy, super goofy, and super theatrical; basically a nigh-perfect adaptation in terms of how faithful it was. Only other complaint was that the animation - despite Taniguchi capturing the ham well - left something to be desired on that front, and rarely matched the detail of the manga. Still, his style works and I still find it to be pretty nice. Voice acting was, of course, fantastic: Kiyoshi is voiced by Hiroshi Kamiya (Ararararararagi), and does an excellent job of capturing him, unsurprisingly; Konishi did a good job of playing Gakuto; and Kana Hanazawa did a pretty great job as Hana, naturally. Of course I'm biased in that I adore both KanaHana, and Hana is my favorite girl in the series.
Was time well spent. Very rarely indulging in some absurdity. Hope it gets a second season.
So, in my recent Yona of the Dawn binge, I discovered that there was a bonus OVA episode covering two of the manga's side stories floating around. Alas, the subs on the version on Youtube appear to have been run through an old version of Google Translate, so I'll have to wait until later and find Other Means to watch it. >~>
OK, mid-season rumblings I have heard: - Orange is very teen melodrama-y but fairly well-written and the direction is legendary. - Berserk is mostly very faithful but aside from the talking scenes, the pacing and animation suuuuuck. - Mob Psycho goes from good to great over several episodes. - The first Yona of the Dawn OVA (or OAD, technically) dropped in the last few days and another is expected at the end of the year, likely in advance of a second season so GET HYPE. 0w0
Osomatsu-san is kind of perfect for when I'm half-asleep and cannot meaningfully talk about most stuff... just not much else. Fine by me, it's more than entertaining.
yes, it does sound like we had more or less the opposite reaction to Nureha.
i don't mind extensive foundation-laying if it's interesting, but there needs to be something to hold my attention besides the anticipation of some future payoff, if that makes sense? LH didn't feel to me like it was just scene-setting, rather it felt like the writers had a concept and were exploring its implications carefully, which was fun
i tried to read Negima! one time but couldn't get into it at all . . . i can't remember much about it other than finding it very much not my cup of tea, i didn't make it past the first chapter
@Tachyon: TBH, I would say that Negima didn't really get to the point of decent for me until the Mahora festival arc, which was about 80 chapters into the manga, so I can't really blame you for not getting past the first chapter.
Yeah, it definitely took awhile before taking off. That was around the time with the spying, inter-school conflict courtesy of Chao (and possibly involving other schools?), and Evangeline playing a more prominent role right? I feel like I remember there being some big attack on school, or something, but am not sure...
Yeah, it definitely took awhile before taking off. That was around the time with the spying, inter-school conflict courtesy of Chao (and possibly involving other schools?), and Evangeline playing a more prominent role right? I feel like I remember there being some big attack on school, or something, but am not sure...
Yeah, I believe so. Though the attack on the school might be the short arc right before the Mahora festival arc, since that was when Kotarou became an ally. Or I might be thinking of something else. It's been about 4 years since I read it.
I see, I see. Yeah, that was about the time I really started getting into it. I'm sure I'll pick it up again and finish it in due time, just, geez, 38 volumes. Claymore is 27 and I'm still only 14 in.
Snow White With the Red Hair has been very pleasant thus far. Not blown away, seeing as it is a fairly standard European fantasy setting minus the magic and maybe a few centuries further down the line, and little about it is so striking as to demand attention, but it's... executed seemingly effortlessly, but not lazily, like all the moments of really top-notch animation are just off the cuff, no big deal, and really that's how the whole show feels. I'm not sure I'm in the right mood for that, however.
That is a show I've been very interested in, and is relatively high priority on my PTW list (like Yona), perhaps to no surprise. I just didn't watch it as it aired since I couldn't work it, and wanted to wait.
It's just very light, and while I knew that going in, I feel like Yona hit a real sweet spot with respect to tone, setting and character that it's hard for other contemporaneous shoujo fantasy stuff to live up to for me. Even if I'm not comparing the two and know I'm in for different experiences with each, I can't help but compare them in some aspects, if you know what I mean.
Mostly I just want to see the characters and world get more fleshed out. Which I'm sure they will, but I'm not in that kind of fluffy mood right now, at least not quite in that way.
Yeah, I get what you mean about overlap well enough.
Personally, SWWtRH is another show I would be just fine binging. I'm generally fine with fluffy stuff at any point, but by God, those character designs and just watching what I've seen is so much my thing, particularly Shirayuki herself. Just, man. Or the plot which is something I really, really look forward to seeing.
Even though there's been an uptick in this sort of anime since, at a guess, at least around Free!, I'm still unhappy by default (and on principle), with the lack of "cute boys doing cute things" stuff out there. From what I can tell. Alongside, of course, a lack of focus on adults but that's pretty much par for the course by now.
That reminds me: Apparently the sole remotely notable thing about the manic comedy with cutesy art Doki Doki School Hours is that one of the major recirring characters is a non-stereotypical gay dude with a huge crush on a lunkheaded soccer player who is himself implied to be gay and just kind of oblivious to the obvious option, and it's... no big deal, really. The character's a dweeb, but his being gay isn't the joke.
I wish that happened more, incidentally.
(I felt that was relevant because for some reason I was reminded of Nichijou and things that tried and failed to nail a similar absurdist, Marxian formula.)
oh yeah, it was one of the stylistic ancestors of Azumanga Daioh, the show that is arguably responsible for every "schoolgirls (or boys) doing stuff" comedy that exists today.
I've heard it's mostly kind of forgettable compared to what followed it. But it does look like a cute, silly diversion.
On that note, "cute boys doing cute things," when it happens, always seems to be done in a more detailed, quasi-realistic, I guess you'd call it "high shoujo" style, where I'd personally prefer something a bit softer and broader. Like, you see the really hyper-stylised moe-moe look in shows aimed at straight teen boys and young men for obvious reasons, and in certain sorts of shows aimed at young women, but rarely in that particular context.
Which is kind of a shame if you're anything like me...
That no one seems to hold AzuDaioh in high regard kind of bothers me.
I value it historically, just my personal take is practically nonexistent.
^ Heh. I'd prefer more of the "high shoujo" for my CGDCT, although that is at least in fair part due to familiarity with the alternative. Still, I get you. That said, my tastes as concerns CBDCT is the reverse of what you described, aaaas can easily be the case now that I think about it.
That no one seems to hold AzuDaioh in high regard kind of bothers me.
You are running in very different circles from me. I thought that most people in the anime community at large regarded it as a minor classic and really important.
That no one seems to hold AzuDaioh in high regard kind of bothers me.
You are running in very different circles from me. I thought that most people in the anime community at large regarded it as a minor classic and really important.
I just never see anyone talk about it.
I suppose silence is not necessary a negative judgment it's just not brought up in the same breath as more "serious" works that were equally influential. Like, it's not quite the Gundam of schoolgirl comedies, but it's in the same general area.
I've had a somewhat similar experience as concerns AzuDai. Like, I see it come up more often when discussing older shows in general, as opposed to the genre.
(Two notes: 1. I am talking less the Key adaptation look than, say, Ume Aoki—kind of a "low shoujo" look, if you will—which I personally find fairly charismatic and endearing. 2. I have seen many, many fragments of Azumanga Daioh and found it hilarious, but I find watching such comedy at length quite difficult and thus have taken a long time to get around to it [cf. Nichijou, Cromartie, etc.].)
That no one seems to hold AzuDaioh in high regard kind of bothers me.
You are running in very different circles from me. I thought that most people in the anime community at large regarded it as a minor classic and really important.
I just never see anyone talk about it.
I suppose silence is not necessary a negative judgment it's just not brought up in the same breath as more "serious" works that were equally influential. Like, it's not quite the Gundam of schoolgirl comedies, but it's in the same general area.
Its influence is ubiquitous to the point of being invisible and everyone is kind of just expected to have seen it at this point if they are serious about anime, to the point that it is almost becoming something of a lost classic because of how important it is—which I think is what you are seeing now, unfortunately. It will likely see a revival after the moe cycle turns again.
I really want to enjoy Alderamin more than I currently am right now. It doesn't even seem lacking overall, and has enough promise to where I'd definitely watch a second season (which I hope for), but... my thoughts are relatively subdued, right now.
I dunno, what I heard about it sounded... not very good, from a storytelling perspective, although apparently it does get better later? But a bunch of unlikeable people flatly describing themselves and their world for the benefit of the audience for thirty minutes doesn't sound like a promising introduction.
I've heard it gets better, yeah. Supposedly the manga and LN do it a better job in various respects, like making more characters more likable (and their deaths stronger), fleshing out the world and thus war conflicts better, so on. I'll probably pick either or both of those up, since I do want to see where at least three characters go.
Ultimately I'm mixed. Like the world part you're referencing is, while still sadly weak does only make up roughly half of the first episode, and it's more being bland than unlikable. Yatori is probably the most interesting in her single-minded dedication and contrast to Ikta, whom I've also enjoyed seeing interact with her and the others (the flashback episode was at least somewhat nice for contextualizing how and why they work with each other, even if I was still left wanting more). After that it's immediately throwing them into enemy territory, which I feel could have been done concurrently and without the straightforward and beat-by-beat but was at least cutting to the meat of things. That's one thing I like, such as skipping over things I'd expect it to as it goes straight into, you know, war junk. Especially since it made for an entertaining watch given that Ikta got roped into doing all of this "war" stuff anyway, before later getting roped into being an official and high-ranking soldier in what was probably my favorite episode. In that episode the Princess was politically smart enough to take advantage of them in an understandable yet still selfish way, in turn forcing us to see more of Ikta and why he hates wars so much, throw more fire onto the white-and-black dynamic he has with Yatori, alongside fanning the rather obvious flames of him doing something to minimize war in the world or somesuch stuff from within. Not calling that particular overall segment just off-the-walls fantastic, so much as, as I said, something which makes me think there could be something fulfilling enough in the end (or from the other sources), and if nothing else quite fun.
More personally I find all of the art styles for it very personally appealing, and points in its favor. There're other hazy things I'm thinking of that I suddenly can't find the words for after getting involved in searching for the LNs. So I'm mixed. I can't really call it bad myself, and mediocre is overstating my hot take on it... I will say "gets better later on" is accurate to my reading, and part of why I'm sticking with it. Like, it's not particularly novel to me so far. And that's fine (blah blah mixed opinions on that front), since what it has setup as its strongest points (the Princess, Ikta's ideology and how he seeks to act on it, Ikta and Yatori), are fine enough for what they try to be that I am content, and can see where the fans are coming from, eeeeeven if I'm not as enthused.
I just realized that meandered a little bit more than I meant, which is at all, but I'm too tired to make it more compact so eh.
Now I'm thinking about how Love Live! Sunshine!! is, beyond appealing to my basic sensibilities in several ways, just a consistently entertaining and solid show that is good at what it tries to be (or, works, just not for everyone), and I want more now. And in turn, the same or similar, except more focused on people my age. Hrmph.
If you ever do get back to Magi I'm curious what you think, that's something I've been on the fence about for the longest time.
Comments
Sort of. Although Yun is the androgynous one and he's a recovering misanthrope and... kind of reminds me of the beau, weirdly enough.
So. Finished the first season. The introduction of Zeno was a bit weird but it's definitely supposed to be in part: He literally just shows up because he's hungry. That's not even a spoiler, because it just happens. Alas, this happens in the *last episode* so there's no chance to develop his character, despite the fact that he leaves one curious impression. But hey, the new OVA is his arc, and apparently it might have been spun off because, people who've read the manga have said, it's violent enough that it would have pushed the whole show to a later broadcast slot. We're talking X-in-full-tragic-pomp levels of gory here. Soooo that's a thing! If it's online yet I will watch it tomorrow. ;w;
I did like OPM though I never got around to watching beyond episode 6 or so
i am dead, it is me who is lying on the floor, devoid of life
It's just very light, and while I knew that going in, I feel like Yona hit a real sweet spot with respect to tone, setting and character that it's hard for other contemporaneous shoujo fantasy stuff to live up to for me. Even if I'm not comparing the two and know I'm in for different experiences with each, I can't help but compare them in some aspects, if you know what I mean.
Mostly I just want to see the characters and world get more fleshed out. Which I'm sure they will, but I'm not in that kind of fluffy mood right now, at least not quite in that way.
I wish that happened more, incidentally.
(I felt that was relevant because for some reason I was reminded of Nichijou and things that tried and failed to nail a similar absurdist, Marxian formula.)
On that note, "cute boys doing cute things," when it happens, always seems to be done in a more detailed, quasi-realistic, I guess you'd call it "high shoujo" style, where I'd personally prefer something a bit softer and broader. Like, you see the really hyper-stylised moe-moe look in shows aimed at straight teen boys and young men for obvious reasons, and in certain sorts of shows aimed at young women, but rarely in that particular context.
Which is kind of a shame if you're anything like me...
You are running in very different circles from me. I thought that most people in the anime community at large regarded it as a minor classic and really important.
Its influence is ubiquitous to the point of being invisible and everyone is kind of just expected to have seen it at this point if they are serious about anime, to the point that it is almost becoming something of a lost classic because of how important it is—which I think is what you are seeing now, unfortunately. It will likely see a revival after the moe cycle turns again.
So Medjed.