Finally watched Kantai Collection. Honestly, I wasn't expecting much out of tv adaptation of online card strategy game, and for the most part it did indeed look like a moe fest (not that it's a bad thing by itself) without much plot (oh yeah, another alien race fought by teen girls). Well, I'll be damned if I was ever so wrong about anime series in my life. Sure, I knew the girls were based on real ships, but either moe was too strong in this show or I just forgot most of my history studies over the years, so it wasn't until much later that I recognized the events for what they really were. Once I did, the plot has taken an entirely new meaning, and considering it was specifically Japanese navy that fascinated me the most during my studies of naval warfare - not German, Russian, British or American (and that was years before I got into anime, go figure), - the finale turned out most excellent. So many shows get ruined by the weak ending, and even fewer get a really good one, that I can't even recall offhand another that I liked as much. Maybe Kanon. The downside, of course, is that you gotta know history to really appreciate it.
Idk, the historical revisionism and glorification of Imperial Japan kind of ruined the thing for me. I'll stick with Arpeggio of Blue Steel as far as shipgirls go.
Yeah, I get what you mean, I myself once skipped Lime-Iro Senkitan series because it had my country playing villains of the story. However, KanColle somehow didn't feel like revisionism to me, but more what the characters said themselves about it, the looming shadow of the past. I guess having the enemy played by abstract Abyssals instead of specific country helped too.
Hah this reminds me of Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei and its incredibly racist portrayal of China and Chinese in general. Funnily enough it's fairly popular in China (in a "watch the car crash" kind of way) because it's so ridiculous they can't bring themselves to feel insulted.
Same with "drunken bears with nukes" in Russia, we actually find it quite amusing On that note, I'm watching Girls und Panzer right now, and Katyusha made me roll under the desk
There's also Putina from My Girlfriend is the President for really weird Russian characters. Well technically she's from "Rusia"
Watching Yuri!!! on Ice at the moment, "the anime to save all anime" according to tumblr. It's surprisingly good for a yaoibait series in that it doesn't fetishize rape or dubious consent and the homolust actually goes somewhere instead of just being the elephant in the living room. I still think tumblr exaggerates but that's almost a pleonasm.
And it was glorious too. My absolutely favorite part was the expression on Washington's face when she realized those 18' shells fired in return from the dark didn't exactly belong to Kirishima or Hiei
I binge watched the first season and halfway into the second season... THE DRAGON PRINCE IS A STINKING PILE OF BRAINWASHING SOCIAL JUSTICE GARBAGE. It is more of a SJW brainwashing propaganda and social re-engineering agenda than a show.
The stinking pile of garbage was just one social justice trope after another, one political identity propaganda after another, one feminist BS after another. The show just slowly and gradually feed those SJW BS to its viewers for optimal brainwashing results, and even I could not take it halfway through the second season. I stopped watching when the little queen's parents were revealed to be some LGBTQ couple... IN A MEDIEVAL FANTASY. (There had been a lot of SJW BS littered and force-fed all over the show, but that was the point when I stopped watching.)
And this is coming from someone who NEVER vote Republican and consider himself a democratic socialist. Even I could not take this much social justice BS.
So sorry I recommended this garbage. Avoid this show.
Finally watched Hunter x Hunter (I know, super late. Its a thing I do). It was a bit of a slow burn, but by the end I was pretty much consumed by it.
Let's see, the new Dororo is super good, I'm slowly watching it with a friend. The animation is super smooth (barring a certain episode), the action is good and the characters are likeable as needed or hateable as needed.
Been keeping up with JoJo as well. My favoite anime by far, and is just super enjoyable in its insanity.
Watched Darling in the FranXX. Frankly, based on a few reviews I've seen, I expected some generic ecchi mecha with comedy, and the first few episodes did nothing to correct those expectations. Then the show took itself a little more seriously and began to remind me of Evangelion, Elfen Lied, Guren Lagann, and a movie whose I'll put under spoiler to avoid, well, spoilers.
Oblivion
Overall, it seems like the creators grabbed a list of tropes and cliches, and then started building the plot from it. Only this time they actually did their homework, so even while there're some glaring similarities with other shows, it doesn't feel like an outright uninspired clone, but stands on its own... sorta.
Special notice goes to the main heroine. I don't like to use the "strong female lead" slur to describe something in a positive light, but if we forget for a moment that feminists existed, then it fits her better than it does SAO's Asuna. Not having one-dimensional personality constructed from pure tropes also helps.
A bit disappointed with the action, though. The plot got really fast paced near the end, then it ended as abruptly as it started just one episode later.
Watched Darling in the FranXX.
A bit disappointed with the action, though. The plot got really fast paced near the end, then it ended as abruptly as it started just one episode later.
6/10
If I remember right, there were FIVE writers on DitF. A pretty bad case of "too many cooks spoil the broth" if I've ever seen one. They basically tried to do the second half of Gurren Lagann with four episodes remaining and all the episodes before that were basically "monster of the week" episodes with very sparse bits of worldbuilding scattered here and there. I knew this anime was fucked when they did the big lore-dump somewhere around episode 6, 7, or 8 because they knew they were running out of time.
A 6/10 is pretty generous. I gave it a 4/10 and have taken to calling it Disappointment in the Franxx. All the Eva, Gunbuster, and TTGL references in the world couldn't save it.
Can't say I really care for GL, I'm probably a decade or two too old for it. Then again, I'm watching Kill la Kill right now... And Eva must DIIIIEEEE
4/10 sounds about right, but I added one point for managing to make it watchable, if full of tropes and references, and another one for Zero Two, a better character than you generic waifu material.
I stopped watching when the little queen's parents were revealed to be some LGBTQ couple... IN A MEDIEVAL FANTASY. (There had been a lot of SJW BS littered and force-fed all over the show, but that was the point when I stopped watching.)
And this is coming from someone who NEVER vote Republican and consider himself a democratic socialist. Even I could not take this much social justice BS.
Wow, nobody responded to this, huh?
Hey, here's some fun real history for you: the Emperor Hadrian (of Hadrian's wall fame) built innumerable statues of his boyfriend Antinous all over the Roman Empire, and also had him deified in grief after his death. He also founded a city named after him, and held games in his honour. People were worshipping Hadrian's dead boyfriend long after Hadrian himself died, and he became a common symbol for homosexuality in literature (Oscar Wilde, pour l'example).
And while we're at it, Sulla the Dictator was schlepping an actor considerably his junior in age named Metrobius, something he made quite public upon his retirement (and recounted quite humorously in the pretty excellent Masters of Rome series by Colleen McCullough).
That's two well-attested random examples from a thousand years before the medieval era in real life (BTW, there were also quite a few known LGBTQ relationships in medieval times, to say nothing of the innumerable ones we don't know about). Your shock and disgust at the existence of an LGBTQ couple in "MEDIEVAL FANTASY" shows a pretty poor knowledge of real history, much less fantasy settings with dragons and elves.
It is actually series' that do not have LGBTQ people (and couples) in them that are engaging in social engineering, presenting a past or a fantasy that never existed in all of human history.
I'll decline to carry this further since it isn't what the thread is about (then again, the Dragon Prince isn't anime, either). On-topic, enh... the fact Thermae Romae is actually a thing is really something, huh?
Probably because it has nothing to do with anime Besides, it's a well known fact that American producers think political activists are a sufficient substitute for professional writers. Or they still think cartoons equal children, and don't care about adult audience that can notice the difference.
Either way, nothing of value has been lost, as far as I'm concerned. I googled what the Dragon Prince was and had to close the page immediately before my eyes bled out from the art style. Moral of the story - if you watch child's show, don't complain it's childish.
There are a lot of new anime this season I'm interested in. Dorohedoro is the first gory biopunk story we had in ages. It came as a nice surprise to see this 20 years old manga finally getting an anime adaption. And it is one of the few stories with a buff female lead. Not bad.
Somali to Mori no Kamisama on the other hand is a gem of the more serious fantasy kind. A setting where humans are pretty much extinct and sapient monster civilization thrives? Yes please.
Kuutei Dragons is one of the more bizarre steampunk manga adaptions, as it is basically a story about whalers on flying ships who hunt dragons for their meat. Guess that will either be a hit or miss for some.
@ktchong
You didn't realized it was a leftist show from the first season?
@Ardanis
I mean we can always have the argument of what is and isn't anime... Because I'm still trying to navigate the circle of how show shows done in the west in the anime style isn't anime because anime comes from Japan yet it's still called anime when it actually comes from Korea or China which last time I checked are not Japan.. WHILE WESTERN IP THAT GET CALLED ANIME UNLESS THEY ARE 80s shows which were animated by Japanese studios.
@ThacoBell
Problem with that is, for as long as I've been around and I was brought into anime at the very early days of it to around the boom. (Kinda hard to say because while yes I was apart of the toonami boon, it wasn't my first time seeing anime, just my first time recognizing it as not an American product.) People have constantly as if their life depended on it, tried with all their might to seperates anime from cartoons. Despite the the on a technical level they are the same thing.
Comments
Honestly, I wasn't expecting much out of tv adaptation of online card strategy game, and for the most part it did indeed look like a moe fest (not that it's a bad thing by itself) without much plot (oh yeah, another alien race fought by teen girls).
Well, I'll be damned if I was ever so wrong about anime series in my life. Sure, I knew the girls were based on real ships, but either moe was too strong in this show or I just forgot most of my history studies over the years, so it wasn't until much later that I recognized the events for what they really were. Once I did, the plot has taken an entirely new meaning, and considering it was specifically Japanese navy that fascinated me the most during my studies of naval warfare - not German, Russian, British or American (and that was years before I got into anime, go figure), - the finale turned out most excellent. So many shows get ruined by the weak ending, and even fewer get a really good one, that I can't even recall offhand another that I liked as much. Maybe Kanon.
The downside, of course, is that you gotta know history to really appreciate it.
Now waiting for the movie release, gaaah...
Watching Yuri!!! on Ice at the moment, "the anime to save all anime" according to tumblr. It's surprisingly good for a yaoibait series in that it doesn't fetishize rape or dubious consent and the homolust actually goes somewhere instead of just being the elephant in the living room. I still think tumblr exaggerates but that's almost a pleonasm.
I binge watched the first season and halfway into the second season... THE DRAGON PRINCE IS A STINKING PILE OF BRAINWASHING SOCIAL JUSTICE GARBAGE. It is more of a SJW brainwashing propaganda and social re-engineering agenda than a show.
The stinking pile of garbage was just one social justice trope after another, one political identity propaganda after another, one feminist BS after another. The show just slowly and gradually feed those SJW BS to its viewers for optimal brainwashing results, and even I could not take it halfway through the second season. I stopped watching when the little queen's parents were revealed to be some LGBTQ couple... IN A MEDIEVAL FANTASY. (There had been a lot of SJW BS littered and force-fed all over the show, but that was the point when I stopped watching.)
And this is coming from someone who NEVER vote Republican and consider himself a democratic socialist. Even I could not take this much social justice BS.
So sorry I recommended this garbage. Avoid this show.
Let's see, the new Dororo is super good, I'm slowly watching it with a friend. The animation is super smooth (barring a certain episode), the action is good and the characters are likeable as needed or hateable as needed.
Been keeping up with JoJo as well. My favoite anime by far, and is just super enjoyable in its insanity.
Overall, it seems like the creators grabbed a list of tropes and cliches, and then started building the plot from it. Only this time they actually did their homework, so even while there're some glaring similarities with other shows, it doesn't feel like an outright uninspired clone, but stands on its own... sorta.
Special notice goes to the main heroine. I don't like to use the "strong female lead" slur to describe something in a positive light, but if we forget for a moment that feminists existed, then it fits her better than it does SAO's Asuna. Not having one-dimensional personality constructed from pure tropes also helps.
A bit disappointed with the action, though. The plot got really fast paced near the end, then it ended as abruptly as it started just one episode later.
6/10
A 6/10 is pretty generous. I gave it a 4/10 and have taken to calling it Disappointment in the Franxx. All the Eva, Gunbuster, and TTGL references in the world couldn't save it.
4/10 sounds about right, but I added one point for managing to make it watchable, if full of tropes and references, and another one for Zero Two, a better character than you generic waifu material.
Wow, nobody responded to this, huh?
Hey, here's some fun real history for you: the Emperor Hadrian (of Hadrian's wall fame) built innumerable statues of his boyfriend Antinous all over the Roman Empire, and also had him deified in grief after his death. He also founded a city named after him, and held games in his honour. People were worshipping Hadrian's dead boyfriend long after Hadrian himself died, and he became a common symbol for homosexuality in literature (Oscar Wilde, pour l'example).
And while we're at it, Sulla the Dictator was schlepping an actor considerably his junior in age named Metrobius, something he made quite public upon his retirement (and recounted quite humorously in the pretty excellent Masters of Rome series by Colleen McCullough).
That's two well-attested random examples from a thousand years before the medieval era in real life (BTW, there were also quite a few known LGBTQ relationships in medieval times, to say nothing of the innumerable ones we don't know about). Your shock and disgust at the existence of an LGBTQ couple in "MEDIEVAL FANTASY" shows a pretty poor knowledge of real history, much less fantasy settings with dragons and elves.
It is actually series' that do not have LGBTQ people (and couples) in them that are engaging in social engineering, presenting a past or a fantasy that never existed in all of human history.
I'll decline to carry this further since it isn't what the thread is about (then again, the Dragon Prince isn't anime, either). On-topic, enh... the fact Thermae Romae is actually a thing is really something, huh?
Either way, nothing of value has been lost, as far as I'm concerned. I googled what the Dragon Prince was and had to close the page immediately before my eyes bled out from the art style. Moral of the story - if you watch child's show, don't complain it's childish.
Somali to Mori no Kamisama on the other hand is a gem of the more serious fantasy kind. A setting where humans are pretty much extinct and sapient monster civilization thrives? Yes please.
Kuutei Dragons is one of the more bizarre steampunk manga adaptions, as it is basically a story about whalers on flying ships who hunt dragons for their meat. Guess that will either be a hit or miss for some.
Also... Ishuzoku Reviewers.
You didn't realized it was a leftist show from the first season?
@Ardanis
I mean we can always have the argument of what is and isn't anime... Because I'm still trying to navigate the circle of how show shows done in the west in the anime style isn't anime because anime comes from Japan yet it's still called anime when it actually comes from Korea or China which last time I checked are not Japan.. WHILE WESTERN IP THAT GET CALLED ANIME UNLESS THEY ARE 80s shows which were animated by Japanese studios.
Problem with that is, for as long as I've been around and I was brought into anime at the very early days of it to around the boom. (Kinda hard to say because while yes I was apart of the toonami boon, it wasn't my first time seeing anime, just my first time recognizing it as not an American product.) People have constantly as if their life depended on it, tried with all their might to seperates anime from cartoons. Despite the the on a technical level they are the same thing.